Professional Football Club CSKA: Personalization shopping experience and email marketing conducted by Retail Rocket resulted in 29,5% revenue increase on its online store

Football is the most popular sport in Russia, and the Retail Rocket team, of course, also loves it. Our Moscow office is only twenty minutes walking distance from two of the major stadiums, one of which is the new “VEB Arena” where the CSKA team plays home games. Employees of Retail Rocket, who regularly go there to watch the matches of their favorite club, were doubly lucky. They had the good fortune of working for the benefit of the official online store of the football club CSKA. A great chance to apply the expertise they have accumulated over the years of “training” in e-commerce to promote the heart of the red-blue T-shirts and scarves with stars.

 

 

The online market for official football and sports clubs has its own specifics. Behind each team are thousands of loyal fans. This is why the often-emerging doubt and the tendency to think “our customers will buy and they will do it without personalization” is especially relevant here.

It seems that devoted fans will buy their favorite club’s products regardless of whether or not they receive a mailing list or recommendation blocks are shown. The loyalty of such an audience is the envy for any online seller. Even so, is it possible to improve the online store’s metrics? Thanks to Retail Rocket technology’s implementation, the football club CSKA do now know the answer, this is yes, and once again the effectiveness of website personalization is proven. In the present article is described how to achieve it. 

CSKAshop.ru, their official online store, sells all the branded products with the CSKA football club colors and symbols: from sportswear to game consoles. The website has been operating since 2007, with deliveries throughout Russia.

 

 

CSKA Football Club has a network of retail stores in Moscow and pays special attention to its fan community.

CSKAshop.ru goals

What is the must-have requirement to increase the online shop orders, apart from the CSKA team’s victory in the national championship? Obviously, personalization in all communication channels is the answer to the question. This is why the company contacted Retail Rocket at first. 

With clear goals, the following tasks were set: 

• To provide each client with a unique and personalized user experience;
• To ensure the growth of key metrics, such as conversion, average order value and revenue, both on the website, and in the email channel;
• To create a seamless communication experience in various channels, taking into account the individual preferences of each client;
• To Increase Loyalty, Retention, and LTV (Lifetime Value). 

Retail Rocket Solution

The implementation of the Retail Rocket marketing automation platform helps to achieve these goals. It identifies the users’ needs and offers products based on their interests on the online store, in the email newsletters and in other communication channels. This real time personalization provides 10% to 50% revenue growth.

In order to achieve the goals, the following strategy was set:

• Automating marketing communications which will free the marketer from this routine and will have the opportunity to focus on solving strategic issues;
• Website personalization for each user by placing personal recommendations blocks on all key pages of the website;
• To implement automated trigger-based communication at all stages of the sales funnel;
• To use technologies of personalization and automation of mass mailings to build regular communication with customers.

The platform launch and integration lasted about three weeks. All this time, the Retail Rocket account manager was in touch with marketers and developers of the online store, coordinating the integration process, and helping in resolving issues that might arise at every step.  

A personal version of the store for each visitor

Retail Rocket increased such indicators as conversion and average order value by placing recommendation blocks based on the client’s behavior, their interests, and their purchase history on the website’s key pages. Our experts suggested adding the recommendations on the following pages:  

• Homepage;
• Product page; 
• Cart page;
• Category page;
• Search page
• The home pages of both the official club site and the children’s football school web.

Personalization of the homepage

The home page immediately makes it clear to the visitor whether or not they like the site. The length of time they will be on the web will largely depend on it. That is the reason for which to put product recommendations on this page is so important. The image below shows the blocks prominently displayed.

Product page personalization

The fact that a visitor reaches the product page of an online store is an important step to convert them into a customer. And if so, there is also the opportunity to help them add more products to the cart. Which blocks with recommendations will better fit here? According to Retail Rocket experts, the best options are: “Similar products” and “Related products” with products normally bought together. 

Recommendations on the cart page

It does not matter if the cart is empty or full of products: on this page, you can also place recommendation blocks with guaranteed metrics improvement. Adding blocks with similar products has been repeatedly verified to be an excellent option to generate additional revenue for the online store. They are made based on previous orders, on items in the basket, as well as on the user’s interests and behavior.

An individual approach to every single fan through email marketing

Email communication is one of the main tools to interact with customers and increase online store revenue. Newsletters can be triggered and mass-based. 

The first one includes personalized campaigns by sending emails to the subscriber as a result of specific actions taken by website visitors or on the occasion of some relevant date or event. From the classic “abandoned cart”, when the user did not complete the order, to more complex scenarios. For example, a user left the site without buying after looking at the product and seeing that it was not available. In this case, as soon as the product is available again the buyer will receive an email notification about it.

The second one, the mass mail, allows regular communication with customers. Through these messages they are informed about new products, bestsellers, discounted goods and other offers. At the same time, its effectiveness increases significantly if the content meets the tastes of a particular user. The result is conversion rate and the average order value increases through the email channel.

With trigger-based mailings we cover the entire customer journey 

Retail Rocket meets the online store’s communication needs throughout all stages of the purchasing process with automated triggered email campaigns. This real-time behavioral marketing service generates personalized newsletters for each user based on the sales funnel stage they have been placed in. These emails are successful because they are timely and highly relevant to the recipient. Thanks to this approach, initiating activation communication is quick and easy.

The launch of the CSKAshop.ru email marketing campaign took place in record time. We designed and launched the first newsletter within a single day, and the templates for each scenario within the next 24 hours. In this way, the store began to achieve benefits in just a few days with trigger marketing actions. 

 

 

Here below are some examples of newsletters 

The “Abandoned cart” Scenario

This is an essential scenario to take into account in trigger communication of any online store. If a customer selects a product and clicks to save it in the cart, then the purchase probability is especially high. Therefore, the Retail Rocket team carries out email actions to complete the started process when a cart is abandoned. In this way, the store achieves the conversion of many fans who finally complete the purchase process. 

The Abandoned viewed product scenario

Another situation when a process is initiated but incomplete is the abandoned viewed product scenario. Perhaps the buyer was distracted from the order process by a scored goal or an urgent call. To politely remind him of previously viewed products by email often means returning the user to the purchase process.

The post-purchase scenario 

In no case, we should forget the customers who previously made an online order. The goal of any eCommerce store is to convert them into regular and loyal customers. The “Post-purchase” scenario is for this purpose. Of course, you must first express the hope that the previous purchase met the customer’s expectations. And only then, depending on what the user has purchased, a personalized selection of products can be offered. 

Regular communication with customers through mass mailing

Building an effective customer service communication strategy is unthinkable without regular newsletters. Through mass mailing, CSKAshop.ru online store informs subscribers about new collections of clothes and accessories, sales, club news, etc. The buyer is offered a personal selection of products in each newsletter, and thanks to the Retail Rocket platform, they receive an individual and personalized version of the email.

The first online store email communication with the customer takes place with a welcome letter. And the first impression, as you know, is the most enduring memory. Can an online retailer offer the user something better than a promotional code for a gift and a recommendation block with a personalized product selection? Only the victory of their favorite team, but you will not send it by email.

The football club store uses various informational events for newsletters, for example, to participate in global sales, such as Black Friday or Cyber ​​Monday. But unlike many online stores that offer the same products to all customers in the hope of attracting them exclusively with discounts, CSKAshop.ru sends personalized collections of products with discounts. That makes sure that each customer receives the contents of their interest.

 

 

Retail Rocket automates regular mailing campaigns

Retailers regularly send out certain types of newsletters, such as new products or discounts. At Retail Rocket, we thought, why not automate this process? And so a unique development was carried out: automated mailing campaigns. By simply setting up the type of email once, it will be sent with the right frequency to the subscriber database or to a certain segment based on the interests of each user.

For example, the CSKAshop.ru online store will have different bestsellers depending on the month. So once you set up the corresponding campaign, subscribers will regularly receive emails with popular products that suit their personal needs. 

 

 

Results

The work done by Retail Rocket specialists is always measured in figures. Here are the results at the time of writing this case:

• 24% of CSKAshop.ru orders contain products from recommendation blocks, generating more than 15.5% of online store revenue.
• More than 10 times higher conversion by using recommendation blocks than the average on the site
• The average order value when using personal recommendations is about 5% higher on the web.
• Email marketing personal recommendations provide more than 13.5% of site orders and about 14% of revenue, and 3.7 times higher order conversion than the average for the site

CSKAshop.ru & Retail Rocket project reviews

 

“In business, as in sports, everything is decided based on figures. No matter how beautiful the service may look and neither how bright the game is, the most important thing is the result. We are satisfied with those indicators that show the effectiveness of website and email marketing personalization with the Retail Rocket technology implementation. Any tool can bring great metrics for your store if you constantly update and develop it. So in daily contact with colleagues from Retail Rocket, we analyze the statistics obtained, implement ideas, and test hypotheses. By personalization, we are striving for increasing the online shop revenue and key metrics. That is what we expect to achieve from this cooperation. 

Babintseva Natalya, Marketing Manager of CSKAshop.ru online store

 

 

 

“CSKA is one of the leaders of Russian football. And not only on the playing pitch but also as a service and attention to their fans. The club’s official online store has relied on the most advanced technologies in the field of personalization and email newsletters. Everyone will benefit from this: both users and owners of the online store. ”

 

Mikhail, Retail Rocket Manager