Community, Content and eCommerce Conversions: How GoPro’s Bold Brand Experience Strategy Paid Off

GoPro has been democratizing the way people capture and share life moments since 2002. As social media continues to turn everyone and their mother into a content creator, the brand has been making professional quality photography available to everyone with a video story to tell.

GoPro has gotten its camera in skateparks and oceans, on trails and slopes the world over, and to a large extent, its brand-building activities have organically been taken over by its active and energetic community of fans.

This community of thrill-seekers and storytellers is responsible for the tight link between GoPro’s product and the action-packed content and raw footage that has become synonymous with the brand. A lot of this content lives on the GoPro platform and is a key part of the GoPro.com visitor experience.

GoPro, Its UX and Direct-to-Consumer Sales Goals

A lifestyle-dedicated supplier of action cameras since 2002, GoPro isn’t just selling a camera — it’s promoting the ability to create lasting visual memories of your life adventures. As such, the site is much more than just a showcase of the product — it has to communicate the possibilities of the brand.

This is not to say that consumers merely head to the GoPro site to immerse themselves in the brand universe; they also make purchases and purchase decisions that may see them converting on partner vendor sites. As such, eCommerce conversions are a must for the brand.

Aside from the additional selling opportunities other marketplaces offer, they also bring forth the additional challenge of engaging customers and influencing their purchase decisions to favor the brand above its competitors.

For GoPro, onsite sales represent larger margins, of course, but more importantly, they afford the brand greater control of the customer experience within the GoPro.com ecosystem, and a richer opportunity to connect with its community of users.

For this reason, the brand has been actively focused on increasing its direct-to-consumer sales, while at the same time providing a meaningful experience to consumers who may go on to convert elsewhere.

 

The GoPro Hero7 is the seller’s flagship item and the brand was hoping it can boost eCommerce conversions.


Laying Out an Impactful Content Plan

To achieve the broad objective of increasing direct-to-customer sales, the brand began by focusing on its most heavily trafficked page (and primary revenue stream): the Hero7 camera product detail page.

The previous iteration of the page had been fairly simple, and the team felt it lacked the visual wow factor the brand has come to be known for. The team was keen to try out a new, media-rich version of the page that would give prospective customers a first-person view of the camera’s capabilities.

The challenge was: how to go bold with the content while keeping the customer journey friction free? How to know what content was encouraging engagement and conversions? And more to the point… how much content is too much content?

Gaining Visible Insights into the Customer Journey & Page Elements

To understand the content ROI of the Hero7 camera product page, the brand first dived into a broader depiction of analytics, that of the customer journey, to see how the visitors were arriving at the page.

After analyzing user paths, the client looked at the in-page behavior of the product page using Contentsquare’s zone-based heatmaps. Through this feature, the brand studied individual page elements to determine what exactly gave rise to conversions, hesitations and bounces.

Looking at unique metrics such as engagement rate and attractiveness rate as well as click rate, the team was able to understand how visitors consumed the content, which elements triggered interactions and which were UX dead-ends.

UX Implementations & Their Outcomes

Based on the data that our sunburst and behavioral metrics provided, GoPro confidently redesigned the product page by way of bulking it up with more content. This spurred a more customer-centric experience for the site visitors in that it focused on their unique consumer journeys and their personal interactions with distinct site elements.

Since videos received a lot of clicks and views, there was clearly a hunger for this kind of content and the client decided to capitalize on that.  

The redesign provided a unique customer experience that allured and engaged a stronger community of customers. This resulted in a whopping 80% increase in conversions. The mission of upping direct-to-customer sales was decidedly accomplished.

Unique metrics from Contentsquare overlaid on GoPro’s page elements helped foster UX decision-making.

Casting Unique Experiences for Unique Brands

The GoPro case shows that behavioral analytics don’t only serve as evidential data to use for making basic UX decisions. While we highlight that data keeps you aware of the goings on of your website and helps streamline the path to conversions, it can hold even more power.

As the GoPro case has proved, content holds a major position in the customer decision journey and in the UX space at large. It can act as the deciding factor behind a user’s ultimate hesitation — that of leaving, or that of converting.

For GoPro, content is paramount, as the content is intertwined with the product itself, and is a vehicle for articulating the brand’s uniqueness.

Whether or not your end goal and overall branding is content-heavy, you should always consult with behavioral data to see how your website is accessed and used. Data adds a safety net to your innovation strategy, and helps you better align your creative content with the needs and preferences of your customers and brand ambassadors.

Travel Platform VeryChic Sees Huge Mobile Conversion Gains

When members-only travel platform VeryChic noticed high exit rates on its site, it looked to next-gen behavior analytics to boost retention and conversion rates, and deliver a better digital experience to its 7 million users. And with nearly half of all bookings attributed to mobile sources, the company was particularly keen to address these challenges with a user-centered, mobile-first approach.

Data showed that 52% of users who entered the VeryChic site through a hotel page accessed via an email campaign ended their journey on that page. Similarly, 47% of users who landed on a product page bounced. The immediate challenge for VeryChic – which partners with over 3,700 luxury properties worldwide – was to make sure prospects who arrived on the site via these pages continued their journey by viewing more hotels and exclusive deals.

By using ContentSquare to gain insights into which elements of the site were causing users to hesitate or abandon their journey, digital teams at VeryChic discovered that a lack of incentives and options at the start of some journeys were stalling user flow.

These findings in turn enabled focused, data-backed optimization of problem elements within the page, including:

These fixes translated into tangible results for the company, and improved metrics were observed across several KPIs. Desktop and tablet traffic, for example, increased by 6.31% following improvements. Sessions on those devices lasted an average 16.53% longer, and the bounce rate went down by almost 12%. In other words – more people came to the site, stayed longer, and bounced less.

CONVERSION RATES WERE BOOSTED ACROSS EVERY PLATFORM,BUT THE LARGEST LEAPS WERE SEEN ON APPLE IOS (42.11% CVR INCREASE) AND ON THE ANDROID APP (81.25% CVR INCREASE).

Two days after implementing changes, VeryChic also noticed an overall click-rate increase of 3.7%, and a conversion rate per click increase of 2.3%. Meanwhile, revenue increased by 19.3 Euro per click over the same period, which translated into a 25,000 euro boost in revenue.

With over half of all travel reservations made online, hotel and travel booking sites have understood the importance of investing in consistent omnichannel experiences for their ever-growing digital audience.

ContentSquare’s AI-powered technology allows businesses to dig deep into site navigation patterns, and understand how and why users interact with their digital platforms. By capturing 100% of user behavior and measuring the performance of each individual site element, our solution gives teams everything they need to make their digital properties profitable across devices.

Gazprom Energy: How One Company Plans to Tackle the Digital Revolution, Armed With Data

Buying energy online is still a relatively new concept for many, even as other services — including phone, banking, etc — have made the transition to digital. But in this bright new future where everything is just a click away, the energy sector is next in line for a digital revolution.

That’s why global energy company Gazprom — the world’s largest producer of natural gas — has been preparing to meet the challenges of a digital future head on. Gazprom Energy, which is based in France, specializes in selling natural gas to business professionals. Anne-Laure Daniel, marketing manager for Gazprom Energy, says the B2B energy market is on its way to making the transition.

Of the company’s 1,200 employees, 350 are dedicated to retail, says Édouard Ibled, sales and marketing director for France. And with more and more business happening online, the challenges faced by retail teams are greater than ever.

“We decided to work with ContentSquare for their expertise in the B2C market, but also for their user-based approach, and the very high quality of the feedback and the proposals,” says Julien Tamssom, head of retail at Gazprom Energy.

Thanks to its innovative digital experience insight technology, ContentSquare allows businesses to visualize their clients’ journeys through digital platforms — identifying each page’s strengths, but also flagging any friction points that may cause a prospect to drop off.

WITH CONTENTSQUARE INSIGHTS, OUR DIGITAL TEAMS WERE ABLE TO COME UP WITH A SIMPLIFIED, CLEARER FORM, INCREASING 48% ON THE SITE’S CONVERSION RATE.

An evidence-based interpretation of user flow enables teams to better understand their customers’ needs and expectations. And in this era of digital convenience, meeting those needs and expectations is central to a successful user experience — and by extension, to a healthy conversion rate.

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One of the issues highlighted by ContentSquare was the amount of time it took potential Gazprom Energy customers to fill in the inquiry form. With data-backed evidence of this challenge, digital teams were able to confidently address the issue, and come up with a simplified, clearer form. Marketing Manager Anne-Laure Daniel credits this makeover with a whopping 48% increase to the site’s conversion rate.

For Daniel, the implementation of the ContentSquare solution marks a shift “from instinct to data.” This shift has also had a tremendous impact on the company’s large retail team. Indeed, working from the same behavioral data makes for a more cohesive approach to optimization.

To watch the video of Gazprom’s digital transformation, follow this link.

Europe’s #1 Rail Travel Retailer Hops On the UX Train – es

Planning and booking a trip online has never been so easy. But in the fast-evolving landscape of digital retail, what was good enough yesterday might not meet the expectations of tomorrow’s customer.

With over 80 million train ticket sales per year, Voyages-sncf.com is Europe’s #1 train ticket retailer. The official distribution outlet of French rail operator SNCF, the site allows customers to map out their journeys through Europe, searching fares and schedules for hundreds of destinations.

But keeping the #1 spot means staying ahead of the curve — a hefty challenge in this new age of instant gratification and convenience where Generation Z dictates what’s next in terms of digital experiences.

Digital teams at Voyages-sncf.com know that understanding the needs of an increasingly tech-savvy community of travelers is key to improving the site’s conversion rate, and building up brand loyalty. And since one-third of all transactions processed by the site are made on mobile devices (two-thirds of their traffic distribution), it would seem that today’s travelers want to book their journeys while they are already on the go — an imperative that comes with its own set of challenges.

Here, the challenge is also an opportunity for growth. For Pascal Lannoo, head of digital customer experience at Voyages-sncf.com, harnessing the shift to mobile is central to the brand’s success. “How to leverage an awesome customer experience into a real business opportunity is really our daily focus at voyages-sncf.com,” says Lannoo.

WITH OVER 80 MILLION TRAIN TICKET SALES PER YEAR, VOYAGES-SNCF.COM IS EUROPE’S #1 TRAIN TICKET RETAILER.

Optimizing a platform to increase sales is easier said than done. And successfully adapting a site so it reflects the active lifestyle of today’s rail travel customers implies a pretty sophisticated understanding of said customers. What they want, how fast they want it, which hoops they will jump through, and which ones they won’t.

“Customer behavior is not something that you guess,” says Lannoo. “You really have to measure it and to observe it.” 

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In order to build up a precise picture of how their customers were using the portal, Voyages-sncf.com used the ContentSquare digital experience insights platform — a tool that allows companies to visualize user navigation patterns and optimize to offer a seamless digital experience.

This level of in-depth, data-driven analysis helped teams identify friction points and flag areas that needed to be improved. Today, ContentSquare is a go-to tool for business and customer experience teams at Voyages-sncf.com, and more than 70 people across the company rely on the solution.

To watch the full interview of Pascal Lannoo, head of digital customer experience at Voyages-sncf.com, click here.

Couture Heavyweight Kenzo Sees 150% Increase In Online Conversion Rate

For many brands today, keeping up with the fast-moving trajectory of digital retail comes with its fair share of trials and tribulations. Consumers are increasingly aware of what they want, and what they are prepared to put up with to acquire it. And while the ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ maxim holds truer than ever, some risks can also lead to losses. 

French luxury fashion house Kenzo experienced this firsthand when it recently launched a new checkout page for its online store. The brand, which is the brainchild of Japanese designer Kenzo Takada, came onto the scene in 1970. Over the past five decades, it has asserted itself as a visionary leader in the world of couture, and has earned its place in the canon of fashion history.

Unfortunately, the recent revamp of the site’s checkout page did not translate into improved sales, and in fact, digital teams observed a decrease in the site’s conversion rate. What was it about the new design that was putting customers off? And if the remodel had failed, then what exactly needed to be done to optimize the checkout page?

WITHIN SEVEN DAYS, KENZO SAW A 150% INCREASE TO ITS ONLINE CONVERSION RATE – A FULL 25% UP FROM THE PREVIOUS YEAR.

Understanding customer intent, and tailoring content accordingly is central to providing a satisfactory online user experience. But classic analytics often give only partial insights into user behavior, leaving an awful lot up to guesswork.

Following the drop in online sales, Kenzo was left facing two choices: either return to the original checkout page design, or identify what elements of the new interface were hindering navigation.

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The brand decided to adopt the ContentSquare digital experience insights solution to review the purchase funnel, and effectively identify any friction points in the navigation path. The zoning analysis (that shows attribution for every asset on the page) flagged several areas of weakness, including misplaced delivery fields, a convoluted login process, and unclear calls to action — obstacles that were leaving users frustrated, and causing them to drop off.

Thanks to a data-driven assessment of the interface, ecommerce teams were able to focus on fixing proven design flaws with confidence. And this time, the effort paid off. Within seven days, Kenzo saw a 150% increase to its online conversion rate — a full 25% up from the previous year. 

To read the full Kenzo case study, click here.

Brewing Success: T.O by Lipton Boosts Tea Sales by Optimizing its Website

Launching an innovative new product that relies on a direct-to-consumer sales strategy is an exciting business proposition in the age of digital retail. But depending on a single sales channel also presents tremendous challenges for brands — if there’s only one place for your customer to restock, then you better make sure it’s inviting.

In 2015, T.O by Lipton — a startup within the Unilever group — revolutionized tea-making with the launch of its single-serve tea machine. Designed by consumer appliance giant Krups and available in five different colors, the Lipton tea-maker uses premium tea and herbal tea capsules that are sold exclusively through the company’s online shop.

Appealing to tea lovers with high expectations when it comes to the perfect cup, the brand offers classic and innovative tea blends, which the machine brews using filtered water and at the ideal temperature. In fact, it’s a “smart” tea-maker — it can read the capsule, and program the brewing settings according to the type of tea you want to make.

Since the online store is the only distribution point for the tea capsules, developing customer loyalty and increasing conversion rates on the platform is vital to the brand’s commercial success. The first challenge by T. O by Lipton was understanding what was causing consumer drop-offs — why some customers clicked the purchase button, while others exited the site before even reaching the checkout.

DIGITAL TEAMS WERE ABLE TO REDUCE THE BOUNCE RATE BY 10%, INCREASE THE NUMBER OF REPEAT VISITORS BY 75%, AND DOUBLE THE SITE’S ADD-TO-CART RATE.

But differing interpretations of consumer behaviors within the brand’s digital teams were confusing efforts to improve the platform, and providing conflicting insights into how best to maximize user experience.

By using ContentSquare’s digital experience insights platform, e-commerce teams at T.O by Lipton were able to visualize and interpret their customers’ journeys through the site — and more importantly, to identify problem areas. 

Data-backed identification of the platform’s weak points allowed digital teams to focus their efforts, and prioritize certain elements of the redesign. Realizing that a lengthy, convoluted purchase funnel was putting some customers off, T.O by Lipton set out to streamline the buyer’s journey by removing unnecessary steps — an effort that has more than doubled the company’s conversion rate.

In fact, in only 7 days of using the solution, digital teams were able to reduce the bounce rate by 10%, increase the number of repeat visitors by 75%, and double the site’s add-to-cart rate.

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To read the full T.O by Lipton case study, click here.

To watch a video interview of Mathieu Bernard, head of e-commerce for T.O by Lipton, click here.