The challenge
Lyreco in Denmark, the country’s biggest B2B supplier of office products, wanted to start sending special offers to its customer by e-mail. Their competitors were already up and running, and Lyreco needed a good tool that was easy to understand and use for employees at the company. But there was also a preference for the system to be flexible and extendible, with more functions in due course.
It also had to be possible for e-mails sent to be linked directly to the web shop. This proved a challenge in itself, as the individual product pages did not have their own shortcuts. Also needed were an existing account and the entry of a user name and password, a process that was extremely cumbersome for the customer.
Lyreco in Denmark is part of a large group of companies that will eventually have a totally new website, including an update of the web shop. For the time being, the problem of the direct links had to be resolved in another way.
The solution
From a handful of companies, Lyreco in Denmark ultimately chose Stralfors. In addition to a simple yet flexible solution, with a special template for Lyreco through Send Direct, Stralfors also developed a special web shop for campaign offers.
“It was a long, but exciting process. Both Lyreco and Stralfors had to be absolutely clear about what kind of solution we needed, and then we had to decide on the best way to implement it,” says Thorbjørn Lauritsen, Market Development Manager for Lyreco in Scandinavia.
E-mails are now being sent out once a week to customers who have registered an interest, in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. A click on an interesting product takes the customer straight to the web shop, and a few more clicks are all it takes to make a purchase. The customer number is attached to the campaign e-mail.
“Instead of linking the e-mail system to the existing web shop, a new, simpler option was created – a special landing page where all current special offers are uploaded. The order ends up in the regular order system, and the cost is added, via Customer Service, to the customer’s regular invoice,” says Thorbjørn Lauritsen.
The outcome
Since the turn of the year 2011/2012, Lyreco’s Scandinavian customers have been able to receive relevant special offers every week, delivered straight to their inbox. With an average opening rate of 30 per cent, Thorbjørn Lauritsen is really satisfied.
Many of the purchases are relatively small, and if Lyreco had sent out a salesperson to the company in question the order wouldn’t have been worth it. At the same time, Lyreco is often selling up to 2,000 per cent more units of the products in the e-mails during the campaign period.
“The solution was well thought out and works exactly as we wanted it to.”
Decisions are made at head office in Roskilde, in close collaboration with suppliers, on which products are to be offered at campaign prices. Graphic designers then create a picture with all of the products and prices depicted, and after a simple upload and link to the campaign web shop, the e-mails are ready to be sent out to customers in the three countries.
The future
Lyreco’s aim is to develop these e-mailings. Their own sales statistics provide an indication, but there are also various measuring functions integrated into Send Direct.
“We want to use many of the functions in the system. Among other things, we’re also going to conduct so-called split tests to see what works well and less well. And we’re going to start segmenting and personalising the e-mailings,” says Thorbjørn Lauritsen.