204%
lift in revenue per visitor
For those who interacted with reviews.
Jeanswest has been in the denim business since 1972, when the first store opened in Perth, Australia. Since then, the company has expanded to New Zealand and maintains 110+ stores. It has also grown its product range with men’s, women’s, and maternity wear.
While in-store shopping brings in the bulk of Jeanswest’s customers, a changing economy and a pandemic-influenced move to e-commerce have made consumers crave more digital connections.
“Our business is very heavily tilted towards our retail stores. We generate around 80% of our total sales through our retail stores, so for us, the link between online and offline is critical. The fact that we’re able to capture both online and offline transactions through Bazaarvoice means that we’re not isolating ourselves from a large portion of our customer base,” explained Darren Cain, Head of e-Commerce at Jeanswest.
To connect in-store and online shopping experiences, as well as amplify its customers’ voices, Jeanswest leveraged Bazaarvoice’s Ratings & Reviews, and Insights and Reports.
Review request emails scale review volume
Online shoppers heavily rely on other customers’ opinions to make confident buying decisions. In search of valuable feedback that would cater to this audience segment, Jeanswest implemented review request emails, resulting in a 186% growth in review volume. Review request emails (formerly post-interaction email or PIE) are generally sent out to customers after they’ve completed a purchase through any sales channel. Review request emails are a valuable tool for gathering deep insights from your customer base, but it’s not as simple as sending out an automated message.
“We’ve done quite a bit of testing and tweaking things, like finding the right time frame and when the follow-up email should be sent, and we feel like now we’ve hit a bit of a sweet spot,” explained Cain.
Jeanswest experimented with different factors because getting it right means the difference between an insightful review and an instant delete. For example, if review request emails are sent out the second a customer makes a purchase, they’re less likely to submit a review because they haven’t had a chance to use the product. Similarly, if online shoppers receive a review request email before their purchase arrives, it makes the whole process ineffective.
“When we deliver the content is just as important as the content you deliver because if somebody hasn’t had the opportunity to utilize the product they’ve bought, they’re not going to submit a review,” confirmed Cain.
Now, with a 186% growth in volume, 89% of the products sold on the Jeanswest site have reviews. A robust review section is critical for the success of an apparel e-commerce company because sizing and fit are often hard to gauge from generic measurements, and that’s where the customers’ voices come in.
“This program has really provided a huge benefit for us in our denim category. That’s what we built our business on, but denim is a really complex category to convey digitally because it’s all about fit. What we needed to do was find a way to differentiate ourselves, and the best way that we could do that was to use our best brand advocates, which are our customers,” said Cain.
Ratings & Reviews inform product and customer experience decisions
Jeanswest aligns its marketing and merchandising strategies with its customers’ needs, making Ratings & Reviews the perfect tool to gather feedback, boost engagement, and drive revenue.
“Our team was very aware of the impact that customer reviews and voice have on the market. It really opened their eyes to the possibilities of elevating the product and also elevating the customer to feel like they’re part of us. We wanted to find a way to really capitalize on the intimate knowledge that our customers have of our products and the experiences that they have in order to do things better internally,” said Cain.
Cain explained that the apparel industry has begun to shift to a ROBO economy (research online, buy offline). This disconnect between in-store and digital shopping experiences offered Jeanswest an opportunity to create a link with ratings and reviews gathered through review request emails. By building up review volume, the company was able to offer online shoppers some of the same services as in-store: recommendations on fit and sizing, as well as in-depth descriptions of fabric and product quality.
The strategy paid off, with a 218% conversion rate increase coming from product pages that had reviews versus pages without any reviews.
“We saw it as a real opportunity to understand not only our own product and our customers better but also to really empower our customers to have a voice about our product and what they did or didn’t like. That really helped to inform future product decisions and customer experience decisions,” explained Cain.
Insights and Reports drive powerful customer engagement
One key challenge that many large retail chains face is an overflow of information, especially when they’re heavily invested in customer communication, which is why Jeanswest sought out Insights and Reports.
“We utilize Bazaarvoice reports quite often. It would be absolutely impossible for us to sit there and sift through thousands of reviews every week. So to be able to pull out highlights, and also low lights, that helps us work out what the trending products are, what’s working, and what our customers are really engaging with right now. It helps our merchandising and marketing decisions,” said Cain.
Besides gaining a seamless review organization tool, Jeanswest also used Insights and Reports to track industry trends and marketing metrics, like click-through rates. Based on these observations, the company adjusted its marketing, production, and merchandising processes to suit its customers’ needs and wants.
“Now we’re in a position where we feel that we’re most engaging with our customers. We’ve done the diligence to understand what’s working best for our customer,” said Cain.
Jeanswest’s key to success: Customer empowerment
Along with boosting conversion rates and review volume, Jeanswest’s driving force is its base of 3 million customers. Celebrating customer empowerment while increasing conversions is what a consumer-first approach is all about.
“We want to celebrate this as a business, and it’s not a commercial celebration. It’s not ‘hey, we’ve made millions and millions of dollars.’ This is about customer empowerment, and that’s the real story we want to tell — that we’ve given our customers a voice,” said Cain.
Empower customers and boost your revenue per visitor with Bazaarvoice. Request a demo here.
Products featured:
204%
lift in revenue per visitor
For those who interacted with reviews.
About the company
Jeanswest is an Australian apparel chain store. It operates in the market of casual wear and lifestyle, with denim playing an integral part in the product range.
“We want to celebrate this as a business, and it’s not a commercial celebration. It’s not ‘hey, we’ve made millions and millions of dollars.’ This is about customer empowerment, and that’s the real story we want to tell — that we’ve given our customers a voice,”
Darren Cain
Head of e-Commerce, Jeanswest