Five eCommerce lessons to learn from Bloom & Wild

2020 is predicted to be the first truly digital Christmas. It is anticipated that more gifts will be bought online than offline in this Christmas, seeing us switch from the High Street to our laptops. 

Never before has it been so important to think about how we are selling our products online. And this online shopping trend is likely to continue into 2021 and beyond. 

In episode 2 of our new series of Inside The Studio, we took a look at Bloom & Wild; an online flower delivery service, to unpack five key lessons eCommerce site owners can learn from their online experience. If you haven’t seen the video yet, you can watch along here. 

In this post, we’re unpacking those five key lessons a little further to give you actionable insights into how you can improve your online experience for customers and increase your conversion rate.

Build trust

People want to know that they are buying from a reputable seller. They are trusting you with their time and money so they want to know that you are good. Bloom & Wild not only show Trustpilot scores on the homepage of their website, but they also show reviews (being within a recent time period helps). 

Customer feedback is a great way to build rapport with your consumer. Why not include customer reviews or product ratings throughout your website, not just on individual product pages? Showcasing photos of your products that have been shared on social media is a great way to show what your product looks like in the hands of real-life customers. 

Another way to build trust is through your website content. Tell your company story, show where your products come from, talk about sustainability and, importantly, give them clear signposting of how to get in touch if they have a question (which could be a barrier to purchase). 

Transparency about your company, your product, and your service is key.

Create a seamless checkout experience

Checkout should be quick, easy and well signposted.

It’s also an opportunity to upsell. 

Bloom & Wild make it quick and easy to add complementary products to your order. Their checkout flow is clean, clear and crisp, leading you through the sales journey to ensure that the sale is made. 

The 1-2-3-4 stepped approach to purchase makes it clear where you are in the checkout flow and how many steps are left to complete. They only take the required details and offer the opportunity to make an account if you’re likely to be a repeat shopper.

If your checkout experience is too busy, too confusing, or is asking for your customer’s life story through too many fields, you might be leaking sales at this step. Keep it simple for success. 

Use great photography

Let the product sell itself through beautiful imagery. 

A picture really does say 1,000 words and you want those words to be positive. People want to see what they are buying, but why not go the extra mile and help them to imagine how the product will fit in with their lifestyle through destination imagery. 

Showcase your product in a range of settings; in a studio, in a home, in someone’s hands. Photography offers you the opportunity to bring through some of your brand personality. It helps people to buy into not just your product, but the lifestyle that comes with it. 

Go beyond stock photography. Spend some time with a decent smartphone camera, a basic DSLR and editing software, or a professional photographer (if you have the budget), because fresh imagery is worth investing in.

Photography also opens up the door to community. As mentioned previously, sharing customers’ social snaps is great because it builds trust and requires no budget – the customer is doing the work for you!

Tell a story

Whether you work for a large shop or solo business owner, your company has a story to tell. Perhaps you created your product to fill a hole in the market, to solve a problem or to design something new. People love a good story and it’s so true that ‘People buy from people’. 

Bloom & Wild love to sew their story through their website, providing glimpses into the people behind the business and why they do what they do. The truth is, you can buy flowers from anywhere, so Bloom & Wild feed the customer supporting evidence as to why they should buy from them – their experience, their reputation, their work in the community, their responsiveness to questions, and their attitude towards sustainability. What stories and evidence could you share? 

Alongside your company story, there’s also a story your product has the opportunity to write. Right on the homepage Bloom & Wild sew the seed of an idea into your mind ‘The friend who moonlights as your unpaid life coach. The sister, who’s really more like a mum. Show the people who care wildly for you, that you care wildly for them’. They are selling the feel-good story that unfolds if you purchase flowers for a loved one and make their day.

Copy is an opportunity to sell not just your product, but the whole product experience, and even the impact it can have on someone’s life.

Your story should flow through every piece of marketing you do. Spend time making sure your tone of voice and writing style is consistent across your website, social channels and email communications. And remember that people buy from people, so be authentic to who you are as a brand.

Maximise the power of your email marketing

Go beyond your standard email template and really consider who your customers are and what they might need. 

Here are a few email ideas to consider:

• Work on your abandoned cart emails to remind people of the things they put in their basket but haven’t got around to checking out yet. 

• Set up reminder emails when the occasion someone bought for last year is coming around again. 

• Send a thoughtful email to customers around the time of their birthday (perhaps with a special promo code). 

• Use email as an opportunity to share value with your customers. Give them something they weren’t expecting such as a flower arranging tutorial.

• Keep the excitement. Send tracking codes, future discounts and reminders that you are still there.

With all of these ideas, think personality. Don’t just use the standard Shopify or WooCommerce email templates. Bring through your branding and your own copy. Sell a story. Show aspirational living. And, above all, show that you care. 

Bloom & Wild pride themselves on their thoughtful marketing. They know that occasions such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be difficult days for consumers, so in March 2019, started allowing customers to opt-out of these emails. This is an example of marketing that got a lot of press attention because the brand went above and beyond to show that they care. And you can join the thoughtful marketing movement now. 

Email marketing has the potential to bring people to your site time and time again. It has the ability to keep brand awareness ticking in the back of someone’s mind – particularly if they have already had a good experience with you. It also has the ability to annoy people and leave them reaching to hit ‘unsubscribe’.

Use it wisely.

So what next?

Bloom & Wild no doubt have a team of designers, developers, copywriters, strategists and more working day in day out to sustain their eCommerce website of dreams.

But, with some time, effort and a bit of thought, these five tips and tricks can be integrated into your website, which could prove invaluable for sales. 

Need a helping hand?

Having worked on a range of eCommerce projects, Steadfast Collective can partner with you to optimise, improve or re-develop your online storefront.

Get in touch today.