Emails for E-commerce

The Kite Shop
www.kiteshop.co.uk

The Kite Shop is Europe 's longest-established Internet-based retailer of kites and air toys, and also runs two websites selling magic tricks and imaginative gifts for children.

Business Need

Wishing to communicate special offers to thousands of customers who had opted-in to receive regular product news, The Kite Shop needed a solution that would support graphical messages with simple customisation. A small team runs the Kite Shop's day-to-day operations, so the system also needed to be easy to use and enable messages to be broadcast at specific times of day.

Benefits

MailCasts supports grouping by recency, frequency or monetary metrics
The Kite Shop uses Moore-Wilson's MailCasts system to manage its subscribers' details, and segments customers into groups based on their order recency, frequency and monetary value (RFM). MailCasts enables administrators to set-up unlimited numbers of groups according to any relevant criteria.

Automated subscriber management
MailCasts imports new subscribers' details in bulk from Interchange - the e-commerce application on which The Kite Shop 's three retail sites run - on a regular basis. Un-subscribe requests are automatically handled by the system.

Visual page editing system enables affiliate codes to be added easily
Since most messages highlight the availability of new products or special offers, these need to be incorporated easily within the design of the emails. MailCasts' page editor enables The Kite Shop 's staff to preview offers as they are being composed, and to fully test the message before being scheduled for sending.

Broadcast at specific times of day in order to maximise response
As campaign response can vary according to the day of the week, time and prevailing weather conditions when messages are received, The Kite Shop uses MailCasts' built-in scheduling feature to send messages outside The Kite Shop 's normal operating hours; because the system is web-based, responses can be easily checked from offsite.

Affiliate tracking via the e-commerce system calculates campaign ROI
Tracking codes within the hyperlinks enable campaign reporting that can be monitored from within MailCasts and the e-commerce system. Results can be compared in real time, enabling The Kite Shop to target offers to specific groups of customers, and to experiment with product pricing.

Simple-to-use system focuses on productivity, encourages trial and optimisation
The instant feedback mechanism makes it possible to identify optimal product-price combinations that guarantee responses from different groups of customers - at a much earlier stage than would be possible with typical printed catalogues.

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