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.

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.