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A leading online retailer of wholesale office supplies, wholesale cleaning products, wholesale kitchen supplies, restaurant supplies and technology, the company employed a site overhaul including improved search, guided navigation, guest checkout and marketing promotions that led to a revenue lift of 41%
Hollywood, FL (PRWEB) January 12, 2010 – ReStockIt.com, one of the leading online retailers of wholesale cleaning products, wholesale kitchen supplies, restaurant supplies, office supplies and technology serving consumers and small and medium-sized businesses, reported record numbers for 2009. The company credits 10 tactics for year over year increases from 2008 as compared to 2009. Key metrics for the increase are as follows:
- Revenue was up more than 41% compared to last year - $20.4 Million compared to $14.5 Million from last year
- Conversation Rates increased 48%
- Customer spend per order increased by approximately 12%
ReStockIt.com has spent the past year implementing new ecommerce and user experience tactics that have significantly increased conversion, sales and gross profit. The company credits these 10 tactics for the record numbers.
1. New Site Structure
With more than 150,000 new items added to a site in just one year, there were multiple taxonomy issues and the company decided it was time to take a step back and analyze its customer demographics and website behavior. Based on the data, customer surveys and the most frequent customer complaints, the company developed a six-month plan to improve the site structure, including a new taxonomy, new search, guided navigation and streamlined checkout to help the customers find the wholesale cleaning products, wholesale kitchen supplies, restaurant supplies and other products what they want faster and purchase their items more efficiently.
Improved Search
The company added Endeca guided search in November 2008. The new search allowed the company to analyze conversions per search term and use the Endeca tools to better merchandise the search results. This helped lead to a 50% increase on search conversions.
Guided Navigation
The analysis of customer search patterns prompted the company to implement Endeca-guided navigation in January 2009. This allowed the company to funnel its customers to the products they were looking for, resulting in an increase in sales and average order size. As a result, average order size is up and overall conversions have increased by 48%.
Guest Checkout
ReStockIt.com realized that sometimes users just want to buy a product without creating an account. By adding Guest Checkout at the end of June 2009, checkout abandonment decreased by more than 80% and customers were better able to find wholesale cleaning products, wholesale kitchen supplies, restaurant supplies and other products.
Taxonomy
To help customers find the products they wanted, ReStockIt.com started from scratch and, in August 2009, developed new category names and a new navigation structure based on competitor and customer search analysis. The company estimates orders have increased by more than 7% as a direct result of the taxonomy changes.
2. Customer Involvement
ReStockIt.com also realized that in today’s busy world, they could not wait for customers to come to them to find the latest promotions and products, but they had to push their offers out to customers. The company also made a major focus to get customers involved in the site by implemented incentives for customers to write product reviews as well as rewarding top customers with a VIP program. Taking a less passive role in marketing led to a customer spend increase of more than 12%
3. Free Shipping and Revised Shipping Charges
ReStockIt.com changed it entire Free Shipping model to offer tens of thousands of products, from wholesale cleaning products to wholesale kitchen supplies and restaurant supplies, with free shipping. Its customers, both new and returning, wanted free shipping. Since the company sells many heavy, bulky items like furniture and 24-roll case packs of paper towels, the company revised its shipping policy to give them the best shipping deals – better rates or free shipping- on more than 100,000 items.
4. Social Media
ReStockIt.com added a Facebook and Twitter presence this year and now has more than 2,000 Twitter followers and more than 800 Facebook fans. Promotions offered exclusively to fans and followers, as well as contest entries via re-tweets and fanning led to a significant traffic numbers from these sources.
5. Pricing
Pricing played a major role in the ecommerce overhaul. ReStockIt.com’s value to its customers is to be competitive in pricing. So, the company changed its focus from margin percentage to margin dollars. Focusing on the dollar amount rather than the percentage contributed to the overall margin increase.
6. Focus on Top Sellers
Improved product descriptions, product details and images on the top 500 products led to an increase in orders and conversion. ReStockIt.com found their customers wanted stronger descriptions and images so they are fully informed on the products they’re purchasing. By making the changes the customers wanted, the company has seen order and conversion increase.
7. Societal Trends
Fears from the H1N1 pandemic as well as seasonal events such as hurricane season led to increased revenue from cleaning supplies, hand sanitizers and disaster supplies. Bulk Purell sales topped the list with significant total sale increases over last year.
8. New Tools
One of the major customer complaints was inability to easily find the correct ink and toner cartridges for their printers. ReStockIt.com responded to this complaint by developing an easy-to-use ink and toner finder tool. Since adding this new tool, sales of ink and toner have increased considerably.
9. Promotions
The company tested several new promotions to new and repeat customers and developed successful promotions to satisfy its customer repeat purchase habits. These promotions have helped to increase conversion rates by 5% to 7% along with increasing AOS by 15%.
ReStockIt.com also overhauled its daily emails, targeting offers and products based on different customer segments. Open rates, click through rates and gross profits on email have increased by 20%, 30% and 10% respectively. The company researched what its customers wanted, the frequency of those items like paper towels and toilet paper, and targeted customers to get those emails at the right time.
10. New Content
Based on customer demand, in April, ReStockIt.com launched a new Green product category so customers can easily find and purchase green products, such as eco-friendly laptops, energy efficient electronics, and green items from categories like cleaning supplies, office supplies, restaurant supplies, tools, and storage. Eco-friendly products are also indicated throughout the site with a “green product” icon.
The company also developed specific content from topics from preventing the spread of the flu to finding the best VOIP phone. These new content channels led to the overall conversion rate increase. The company also added more brands and better descriptions to its core categories - wholesale cleaning products, wholesale kitchen supplies, restaurant supplies and office supplies.
New hires in IT, Marketing, Merchandising, Analytics, Web Development, Accounting and Customer Service also supported the sales and profit growth.
About ReStockIt.com
ReStockIt.com founded in 2004 by entrepreneurs David Redlich and Matt Kuttler, has fast become one of the leading online retailers of name brand wholesale cleaning products, wholesale kitchen supplies, restaurant supplies, office supplies, technology, electronics and tools serving the small business and consumer markets. Through its website, ReStockIt.com, the company offers more than 200,000 products from manufacturers such as Rubbermaid, Avery, Energizer, Hewlett Packard, and Purell-Gojo. ReStockIt.com has been honored with many prestigious awards including South Florida Business Journal Business of the Year, Finalists for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and one of the 500 fastest growing companies by industry leading Internet Retailer Magazine.
Visit us online at http://www.ReStockIt.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ReStockit or follow us on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/ReStockIt
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