Plantorama x Raptor

How Plantorama’s conversion rates grew by 40% with tailored Web Personalization

Plantorama

Industry: DIY

Partner: Novicell

Solutions:

%

increase in conversion rate by using warehouse data for recommendations

%

increase in visitors looking at product pages on Plantorama.dk

About

Every green-fingered Dane knows where to start when the spring sun emerges and a new garden project begins to sprout.  

Since 1987, the family owned Plantorama has opened 13 garden centers across the country. And each center is a destination in and of itself with a jungle of plants, live animals, cafés, and restaurants. It’s a mecca for spending family time and an inspirational haven for plant lovers everywhere. 

When Plantorama decided to digitalize their gardening universe, the mission was clear – to empower their customers to shop whenever, however, and wherever they wanted.  

This is where Plantorama ran into a unique challenge:  

When the shopping experience is based on shopping locally, how do you make sure you show customers products that are actually available for pick-up or delivery in their local garden center?  

Here, personalization in all channels became the solution to unite touchpoints. 

One size does not fit all

Personalization is a must-have for any ecommercer to blossom. But it’s not a “one size fits all”. And Plantorama’s personalization journey is a good example of this.  

In 2020, Plantorama decided to elevate their newly established webshop. They knew that omnichannel was the way to go to sow their crops in the world of ecommerce, but they needed to find a solution that fit Plantorama’s specific business model.

“How do we show our customers the plants that they can actually buy? The ones that are available in our garden centers? There was no doubt that personalization was a part of the solution, but it had to be tailor-made to Plantorama.

Aske Nielsen

Ecommerce Manager, Plantorama

While the webshop had mostly served as a virtual catalogue meant to drive traffic to the physical stores, they now wanted to offer a more seamless plant-shopping experience.  

The natural choice was to implement Raptor Services’ Web and Search Personalization  – and they also started offering “Click & Collect” or “Click & Get Delivered”, all depending on the availability of the closest garden center.

Where’s my hedge? 

As part of their personalization solution, Plantorama had implemented the module “Most popular products” – a popular personalization choice. This module features the products in high demand and available on the webshop. 

However, this solution created quite a problem in Plantorama’s case: While a popular product was available on the webshop, the product might only be available for pick-up or delivery in one or two garden centers – ironically due to its popularity.  

This meant that a customer looking to buy a hedge would be targeted with popular hedges, only to find that the hedge was only in stock in a garden center in the other end of the country. 

Needless to say, this was a frustrating and time-consuming issue. At worst, it might make the visitor give up on her gardening project for the day. 

“We saw the results of personalization almost overnight. From the date of implementation, we saw a jump in conversion rates at 40% – all from making sure visitors are shown products they can actually buy.”

Aske Nielsen

Ecommerce Manager, Plantorama

Targeting customers where they are 

This problem had to be solved.  

Since each of Plantorama’s customers shop locally, it was all-important to create a solution where each costumer is shown product recommendations that are personalized, popular, and, importantly, available in their local center. 

Raptor Services developed a special logic based on the warehouse data from each individual garden center. The logic was set to recommend products available in 9 or more centers on Plantorama.dk. This way, the website modules avoided promoting sold out products to customers. 

Plantorama’s omnichannel strategy is still grounded in the physical garden centers. That’s why they make sure to carefully nudge their visitors to enter their location. By using personalization to target customers based on geography, Plantorama are better equipped for reaching visitors with products they can actually buy.

Popular garden furniture right now

Results

%

increase in conversion rate by using warehouse data for recommendations

%

increase in visitors looking at product pages on Plantorama.dk

%

increase in conversion rate by moving recommendation module upwards

The results were instant. By showing personalized product recommendations available in 9+ stores, the conversion rate rose by 40%.  When the recommendation modules were moved further up on the product detail page, the conversion rate rose by 18%. And Plantorama’s inspirational guide pages saw a rise in conversion rates by 10% by implementing the special logic there as well.  

And the success story goes far beyond just conversion rates: 

“We have not only seen a lift in conversion rates. It has also lifted the number of users looking at products on Plantorama.dk by around 50%. 
Aske Nielsen

Ecommerce Manager, Plantorama

Plantorama’s personalization journey tells an important story: That personalization is a key step towards the best customer experiences, but only if it’s tailor-made to each business. And by finding the right tweak, the results can truly spike.  

So, what’s next?

Working continuously with customer data to elevate the shopping experience at Plantorama is a major part of their omnichannel strategy going forward.  

Here, being able to recognize each customer across platforms is high on the agenda: Where have they been? What have they looked at? And how do we target them with the right message at the right time? 

Plantorama know where their strenghts lie – in the unique experience and the expert knowledge they provide – and they want these strengths to be at the roots of every customer interaction.

“In 5 years, we want to have even more Plantorama centers across Denmark. We want to connect our online and offline touchpoints even better. We want to surprise with innovative ideas. And we always want to give our customers new, exciting experiences.”
Ditte Lunde Hardahl

Head of Omnichannel, Plantorama

Raptor Solutions

Search Personalization

Search Personalization allows you to tailor every search result specifically to the individual visitor’s interests, behavior and preferences.

Website Personalization

Product- & content recommendations for websites and -shops

Take-aways

If you water your webshop with personalization, the results will soon blossom. But only if the solution fits your exact business needs. By tailoring the personalization solutions to Plantorama’s specific challenges, they managed to:
  • Make sure that their customers quickly find what they’re looking for when navigating Plantorama’s site – and that the products are always available for purchase. 
  • Deliver more relevant recommendations based on the customers’ location, behavior, and preferences.  
  • Create a seamless transition between the new website and the well-known garden centers.  

Do you want to know more about this case?

A Raptor expert can share more about the product and answer any questions you have
Mads Thorsen

Mads Sieron Thorsen

Senior Consultant

Phone: +45 61 26 12 37
Mail: [email protected]

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