Increasing Revenue and Reducing Costs Through a Shopify Plus Migration

Due to the highly customized nature of Relax the Back’s products, catalog migration proved to be a complex task as the standard import tools did not suffice. Instead, Guidance leveraged custom tools to break products apart, add metafields, maintain numerous swatches and support the various options and add-ons not currently supported by Shopify Plus. Furthermore, Relax the Back has an extensive library of resources, videos and instructional content that required migration to the new platform.

Relax the Back prides itself on developing long standing relationships with its customers. Their wellness solutions are costly but they are backed by guarantees and warranties. Part of the migration from their legacy platform to Shopify Plus included importing large sets of their customer accounts and order history. It was important that all history, including customer support and user profiles, be maintained during the account migration as it would be frustrating to the customer if profiles had to be resubmitted.

Many of the brands sold on Relax the Back’s website will have promotional offers at various times of the year for their online products. These promotions require sophisticated cart and checkout logic which had to be migrated to Shopify’s Script Editor. Guidance provides custom ruby programming for these pricing, promotions and bundling specials on an ongoing basis. In many cases, these promotions are highly lucrative (buy one, get one X% off), important in their marketing efforts (BOGO - Buy One Get One) and customer service (free shipping).

The migration to Shopify Plus has enabled a much simpler experience for managing the site content and making quick pivots as various franchise stores change their pricing. The homepage can now be easily rearranged and customized by Relax the Back without the need for hours of development work. The effort to replatform was valuable: within the first week of launching the new website, Shopify Plus recognized Relax the Back for being in the top 2% of site launches with the most traffic.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Strategies

Guidance worked with Relax the Back to narrow down the most effective conversion rate optimization strategies to experiment with through HiConversion’s testing platform. HiConversion is an adaptive testing solution that can dramatically increase conversion rates while minimizing the risk of testing with predictive, real-time parallel experimentation backed by AI learning. Equipped with the HiConversion solution and years of expert knowledge and best practices, Guidance suggested experiments and implemented them across Relax the Back’s webstore. The results were very promising and showed an increase in Revenue per Visitor (RPV) of over 20%.

Salesfloor: New Levels of Customer Service

Relax the Back is truly an omnichannel brand. It owns and operates over 90 franchised retail store locations in the US and in Canada. To successfully operate both online and in-store, the brand required a solution that could combine customer service, virtual selling and mobile point of sale tools. Relax the Back selected Salesfloor to deliver personalized experiences for customers on any channel through live chat, email, SMS and more. With Salesfloor, Relax the Back has been empowered to enhance the customer experience and develop one-to-one relationships with their customers. The mobile and in-store assisted selling platform gives employees the ability to provide personalized service both in-store and online to all Relax the Back shoppers.

By synching with the CRM and ERP, Salesfloor gives Relax the Back employees a comprehensive view of their customers’ profile, preferences, transaction history and shopping activity. Customer data and purchase history is integrated into the platform which generates automated tasks and reminders for the employees to prompt interactions with the customers in a timely manner. They can anticipate what their customers need allowing them to provide personalized advice and craft relevant responses. Most importantly for an omnichannel brand, Salesfloor has allowed them to bridge the gap between online and offline service and deliver personalized customer experiences across all channels.

Relax the Back leverages the Salesfloor solution for multiple parts of their business. Salesfloor Connect allows Relax the Back customers to interact online in real-time with local store associates, directly from their webstore. Website visitors can shop online with a local associate and communicate with them via live chat, email, sms or appointment requests (both in-store or virtual). The all-in-one appointment management system helps deliver personalized service at the customer’s convenience by scheduling appointments in-store, by phone or through live chat. The associate storefront allows Relax the Back customers to shop online with a local store associate for top recommended items and access interactive shopping tools. As many of the products sold are highly custom and may require a high level of customer support, this service is invaluable to the customer experience.

Double-Digit Growth with Klarna

An incredible transformation occurred during the 2020 pandemic. Relax the Back’s products often require a “try before you buy” approach as many need to be sat on to feel the full effects of their body support. However, even as retail stores closed their doors during the pandemic, millions of Americans started working exclusively from home. Many households were not equipped with the proper home office equipment and their backs felt the strain. Sales for home office equipment suddenly surged and Relax the Back wasn’t an exception despite their high price point. However, to give customers even more payment options, Klarna’s Buy Now, Pay Later solution was introduced to alleviate the initial high cost of purchase.

Klarna’s payment solution is proven to deliver double-digit improvements in sales conversions and in this case, Relax the Back saw a lift of almost 150%! It has given customers the financial freedom of letting them choose how and when they pay for their purchase over 4 easy, interest-free installments. Shoppers are reminded at several points along the buying journey that Klarna is a payment option: on the product description page (PDP), on their cart and during the checkout process. Klarna has given Relax the Back the flexibility to offer installment payment solutions without having to worry about collecting the funds. Giving customers the ability to split their payments over time increases the average order value and ultimately, customer satisfaction—especially so during a financially trying year.

YOTPO: Driving Increased Revenue with UGC

Ratings and reviews have been proven to increase customer confidence and ultimately boost conversion rates. This is especially true for higher priced, longer commitment products like those sold by Relax the Back. Many of their products are priced in the thousand-plus range and purchases require careful consideration, in-store testing and ratings from other customers. These ratings and reviews have become even more impactful as in-store visits have slowed during the pandemic. Customers want to know what other customers truly felt about the product post-purchase and relevant content along with in-home product images is invaluable to the buying journey.

As more customers turn to online purchasing where the product “try before you buy” isn’t available, customer reviews and user generated content (UGC) becomes ever more valuable during the purchase cycle. Guidance helped Relax the Back integrate Yotpo to drive increased consideration, awareness and conversion among shoppers in the digital aisles. Yotpo empowers shoppers to buy confidently by collecting authentic, “voice of the customer” content and displaying it during the customer buying journey. Yotpo gives customers the ability to generate their own reviews and upload real images of the product being used in their home. Customers feel confident in reading the reviews as authentic reviews are given a “Verified Buyer” badge and customers can easily find reviews through advanced sorting, product tags and filtering options.

Searchspring Helps Customers Find The Perfect Product

Searchspring was selected for its search, product filtering and merchandising features capable of transforming the ecommerce shopping experience. The onsite search and autocomplete uses machine learning to improve the customer experience and product discovery journey. Relax the Back now uses search customizations such as synonyms to ensure shoppers find relevant results, even if their search term differs from the precise product name. By leveraging Searchspring’s reporting and insights, the team can identify opportunities to improve the search experience and prevent shoppers from landing on a “No Results Found” page. Category merchandising campaigns also allow Relax the Back to control and optimize product display which means getting the right product in front of the right shopper at the right time. Ultimately, Searchspring helps Relax the Back to convert more browsers into buyers, without the need for time-consuming manual intervention from their team.