About NetFlorist
NetFlorist is South Africa’s largest floral and gifting service and is considered a household e-commerce brand. Over the years, it’s consolidated its services (NetGifts, NetJewel, and NetPerfume) under one brand. Consumers love this brand because of the distinct service features like tracking orders, sending reminders and promotional offers, and a variety of payment methods.
NetFlorist prides itself on being the go-to brand for sending a wide range of bouquets, gifts, perfumes and jewellery, both locally and internationally.
The Challenge
NetFlorist uses email marketing tools to communicate promotional email campaigns to its many subscribers, leveraging annual special occasions like Valentine’s Day and Mothers’ Day. Leading up to and during these special occasions, NetFlorist receives up to 18,000 transactions on their website in the form of orders. Their email sending frequency is one mailer a week for standard promotions and twice a week for days leading up to an event. Their campaigns are heavily time-based. After 12pm, no more mailers are sent so as to accommodate same day delivery.
When considering a new software provider to power their digital communications, NetFlorist needed to decide between using an internal system (self-built) or Everlytic. The factors to consider included:
- Which system generated the most revenue
- The sending speed for time-based campaigns
- Reporting features available
The Solution
To determine which solution would work best, NetFlorist conducted a test, sending to half of their database with Everlytic and the other half with their internal system. Each campaign was sent simultaneously to a randomly selected base of subscribers.
The campaign tested a number of outcomes including sending speed, deliverability, reporting, and revenue generated by both systems. Google Analytics was used for a real-time overview of transactions on the e-commerce website to measure conversion rates and revenue generated by the email campaigns.
The Results
Overall, Everlytic delivered better results than NetFlorist’s internal system and it helped generate 7.7% more revenue for NetFlorist across all four campaign tests. Everlytic also delivered better campaign reporting in the form of delivery, bounce rate, and unsubscribe reporting; none of which NetFlorist previously had access to when sending from the internal system. (NetFlorist’s internal system is still used for order tracking)
| Designation | Total Opens | Total Google Visits | Total Revenue | Total Transactions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NetFlorist Internal | 77 360 | 9 558 | R 197 537.50 | 629 |
| Everlytic | 105 307 | 9 772 | R 212 821.17 | 690 |
| Difference | 27 947 | 214 | R 15 283.67 | 61 |
| Percentage | 36% | 2.2% | 7.7% | 9.7% |
Netflorist Internal Results
| Total Opens | Google Visits | Total Revenue | Transactions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 77 360 | 9 558 | R 197 537.50 | 629 |
Everlytic Results
| Total Opens | Google Visits | Total Revenue | Transactions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 105 307 | 9 772 | R 212 821.17 | 690 |
Overall Improvement
| Total Opens | Google Visits | Total Revenue | Transactions |
|---|---|---|---|
| +27 947 (36%) | +214 (2.2%) | +R 15 283.67 (7.7%) | +61 (9.7%) |
NetFlorist Benefits
Everlytic’s reporting suite enabled NetFlorist to better track, analyse, and understand campaign results, providing insight into how best to optimise their newsletters. It did this in the following ways:
- Everlytic’s heat map functionality opened up new business opportunities as NetFlorist could prove that subscribers were clicking well below the fold all the way down to the email footer. So, they approached advertisers to use the additional advertising space.
- Everlytic’s automated bounce reporting was used by NetFlorist to cross reference results and update subscriber information in their CRM (Client Relationship Management system).
- Sending speed was a huge convenience factor. The NetFlorist team only had to concern themselves with clicking send. Everlytic’s servers would ensure perfectly timed campaign deliveries.
“Platform reporting showed us what our subscribers use to access their emails and because we could see how many users access their mailers via mobile devices, Everlytic’s reporting particularly impacted the launch of the NetFlorist e-commerce mobi site’’
– Thalissa Theeruth, NetFlorist’s Marketing Manager
Since commissioning the tests and switching over to Everlytic, NetFlorist finds added value in being able to track the base growth of subscribers and use Everlytic’s link-click reports to see which calls-to-action are most effective. NetFlorist adds links throughout the email body and in the footer to establish whether people are scanning the entire email or only looking above the fold.
NetFlorist also uses Everlytic’s geographic segmentation to serve international clientele with emails at a time they are most likely to open it.
“The impact of email campaigns are often felt by NetFlorist’s call centre. Calls-to-action in email campaigns are used to stimulate orders and call centre volumes definitely increase’’
– Thalissa Theeruth, NetFlorist’s Marketing Manager
Whats next for NetFlorist?
NetFlorist is looking to get involved with CRM-based integration and Everlytic’s API (Application Program Interface) to automatically update subscriber information in their CRM. This will allow NetFlorist to have automatic updates to subscriber information in their CRM and allow for easy integrations.
