5 More Ecommerce Case Studies that Will Inspire You to Start One

“Experience is the best teacher.”

We’ve repeatedly heard this phrase all throughout the years. In fact, we’ve heard it so much that we’re slowly conditioned to accept it as reality.

And while this statement does make sense, haven’t you ever thought of another way to be taught without experiencing the loss of your valuable time, effort and money?

You see, experience is the best teacher – but this doesn’t mean that you need to be present personally.

You can also learn by researching on the experience of successful Ecommerce merchants, talking about them, reflecting on what they did and strategically applying their methods to your own business.

This way, you get to have your cake and eat it too!

A few weeks ago, we talked about five Ecommerce case studies and the value of starting small but dreaming big for your Ecommerce company.

This week, let’s discover five more informative case studies that will inspire you to work on transitioning from an Ecommerce store dreamer to an Ecommerce store owner. If you already have your own online store, this article is helpful to motivate you to improve on its implementation.

Let’s get started:

1. On Developing a Successful Product: The Way of the Dodo — How to Sell 10,000 iPad Cases at $60 Each (and Other Lessons Learned)

Company studied: DODOcase

Challenge:

DODOcase is a San Francisco-based online store which offers stunning and elegantly designed iPad cases. Their tagline of combining tradition and technology is made possible with their philosophy of simplicity and focusing on local production.

Thinking strategically, DODOcase launched alongside the Apple iPad in April 2010 as the original bookbound iPad case. This was a smart move on their part, but like any other Ecommerce merchant, DODOcase was no exemption from the challenge of starting a business.

Their biggest challenge was fighting distractions and focusing on their main product offering.

Because DODOcase pursued iPhone 4 case design for a week, they invested a reasonable amount of time and money before deciding that having a cool product design isn’t enough: they needed a great design execution as well.

Solutions used:

DODOcase is admittedly a small company whose target market are highly sociable and adaptable individuals. This means that their resources were limited, so they needed to make every resource count in order to make the most impact. As such, they invested in these following solutions:

• Hiring street teams to communicate with the target market first-hand: Mr. Dalton of DODOcase outsourced his market research by hiring street teams via Craigslist to hang out, communicate and interact with “Apple fanboys” while they waited in line for several days (or hours!) to buy the first edition iPad.”
• Launching strategically: Because the company launched their complementary product (iPad cases) on the day of the launching of the main product (iPad), they were able to score in a huge amount of orders – and even unsolicited mentions from famous personalities, such as Evan Williams from Twitter.

• Formulating a good story for the company: DODOcase believed that for their sales to skyrocket, their customers needed to “want” to buy into the story first, and into the product second. The company wanted the customers to have the “feeling” of owning a hardback book while enjoying the benefits that only a digital device could bring. This brand they developed paid off really well, as it made them stand out immediately from the competition. They also made use of YouTube videos in order to show how a DODOcase is made.

Takeaway:

We can learn from DODOcase that it is possible for you to receive thousands of orders in volume even if your product is priced at premium as long as you can connect with your customers emotionally.

Most sales happen because of intense emotions – not because of logic – so make sure you craft a relatable company story that can touch the hearts of your target market. For you to do this, authenticity is a must.

2. On A/B Testing: Basekit’s Conversions Increased by 25% After Redesigning Thier Pricing Page

Company studied: Basekit.com

Challenge:

Basekit is an online website builder service which helps you to quickly, easily and conveniently create your own blog or online store. As a web service provider, Basekit wanted to find out if changing their pricing page can give them an increase in conversions.

Their biggest challenge was changing the content and design of their pricing page.

Their target testers were website visitors who visited their ‘Plans and Pricing‘ page and who were directed to their ‘Buy Now‘ page. Basekit wanted to increase the number of visitors who would convert to customers.

This was their original pricing page:

Solutions used:

Since Basekit focused on their revision of their pricing page, they implemented their testing by using paid traffic which was already targeted. Further into the testing phase, the company used these solutions:

• Using the redesigned pricing page: To use the company’s own words, the variation had “Bolder, brighter, clearer pricing, nicer design, testimonial, more obvious currency selection.” Here it is:

• Using A/B test to determine if any conversion was made: During the duration of the test, there was a consistent 25% increase in conversions. Basekit was able to figure out because they did A/B testing – one half of the traffic got exposed to the original pricing page while the other half were shown with the variation.

Takeaway:

When it comes to your pricing page, the content matters. But you also need to pay attention to the design.

Based on Basekit’s case study, you can learn that as an Ecommerce store owner, you are never stagnant. You need to innovate and find different ways to improve your service to your customers. But for you to actually figure out which method works and doesn’t, you need to do A/B testing to quantify your assumption.

Otherwise, you’re just leaving (undocumented and untracked) money on the table.

3. On Using Video Marketing: How Luxyhair.com Built a Seven-Figure Ecommerce Business With YouTube Marketing

Company studied: Luxy Hair

Challenge:

As an Ecommerce merchant selling hair extensions for women’s hair, Luxy Hair was founded by Alex Ikonn and his wife Mimi when they were looking for a high-quality hair extension to be used by Mimi in preparation of her wedding day.

Because the both of them were passionate about solving their own problem, they decided to make a business out of it to serve others who have the same dilemma. On their road to success, Luxy Hair experienced three challenges:

1. Finding a reliable supplier: Being a newbie in outsourcing proved to be overwhelming for Alex. He went on Alibaba to contact every hair extension supplier that he could find.

2. Promoting the business: The costs of starting their online business significantly impacted their finances, so the couple turned to YouTube to collect organic traffic. They needed to find a way to use YouTube without being too sales-y.

3. Shipping and fulfillment: As a newbie in the hair extension industry, Luxy Hair needed to ship their products conveniently while being conscious about the costs.

Solutions used:

As the company was determined to find and sell healthy, shiny and thick hair extensions, they decided that they needed to address their challenges blocking their business opportunity. Luxy Hair is now the stable and successful company it is because of implementing several effective solutions:

• Maintaining a solid professional relationship with their supplier: Luxy Hair dealt with 10 suppliers and asked them several questions on how to turn their vision into a reality. In the end, they chose the hair extension supplier with the best products and with the best interaction that they had. Because of their good relationship, they still order from the supplier until now.
• Optimizing their YouTube videos: Majority of the company’s funds were invested in the product line, so they needed to be resourceful in their marketing. They chose to promote their business via their YouTube tutorial videos. Their sincerity in giving the best value possible without pushing their products paved the way to hundreds of millions of video views – and to a lot of valuable referrals from word-of-mouth marketing.
• Using a third-party service provider for shipment: Luxy Hair swears by the convenience of using Shipwire to help them carefully package and ship their products, manage their logistics and track their inventory for them.

Takeaway:

The main lesson that we can learn from Luxy Hair’s case study if the value of being emotionally invested in your reason for starting your own company. If you have a personal “pain” that you think is also applicable to others, figure out the feasibility of developing a “cure” for it.

Additionally, creating content should not just be focused on pitching your products or directly soliciting sales. Most of the time, doing these can turn off your viewers. Focus on creating value and establishing a personal connection. Over time, the authority you build up and the credibility you develop will be worth the consistent sales you’ll get.

4. On Email Marketing : 750% Higher CTR and More Revenue for an E-commerce Site

Company studied: Doggy Loot

Challenge:

A flash sale website, Doggy Loot is in the online business of helping dog owners “spoil” their best friends – their cuddly and loyal dogs. In order to customize the emails that they send to the owners, though, they need to collect information not about the customer who has the money, but about the pet dog who the owner lovingly spoils.

The main challenge that Doggy Loot wanted to address is the lack of personalization to their email campaigns.

Because there are different dog breeds, Doggy Loot needed to offer products that would be suitable to the recipient of their campaigns.

After all, a customer who owns a Rottweiler has different needs than someone who owns a Poodle.

To be able to do this, their email campaigns need to be customized according to the “dog data” provided to them.

Solutions used:

Email personalization is a series of events, and this is exactly why Doggy Loot needed to employ not one – but at least three methods – to properly address their challenge. In order to to increase clickthrough rates and revenue, the email marketers gathered subscriber data and started with:

• Segmenting new and current email subscribers: When you go to their homepage, you can see that the company encourages new subscribers by asking basic questions about the owner’s dog. At the same time, current subscribers are encouraged to sign in as well. Both of these methods – signing in as new subscriber or logging in as existing subscriber – served as “gates” before the visitor can view products or offers.
• Customizing email content by “style”: Three email groups categorized according to dog size (small, medium and large) were used to segment product offers and personalize promotional email campaigns.
• Sending “happy birthday to your dog!” emails to the owners: Doggy Loot collects the dog’s birthday and inputs it into their system so they can send an automated “birthday special” email to be delivered two weeks before the D-day.

Takeaway:

We can learn from this case study that when it comes to email marketing, personalization is the key.

But before you personalize the content, you have to make sure that the data you collect is relevant to the market you’ll send the email to. This way, you can be confident that your promotional emails will not just fall into deaf ears.

Email personalization may be the key. But it’s accurate data gathering that will make it happen in the first place.

5. On Online & In-Store Integration: Nordstrom – Integrating Pinterest & the In-Store Experience

Company studied: Nordstrom

Challenge:

Highly acclaimed as the third most-followed brand in Pinterest, Nordstrom has a huge number of followers, pins, boards and consistent Pinterest promotions. It’s certainly no wonder why the company has more followers on Pinterest than their followers on both Facebook and Twitter.

Despite the online store’s massive success online, though, the company had a bit of a difficulty in bridging the gap between their online and in-store presence.

Nordstrom has a significantly large following – online – but the company also has an in-store platform that they wanted to optimize. As such, the brand wanted to find a potentially effective marketing tactic that will help them profit from their offline store by taking advantage of their online store’s authority in social media.

Solutions used:

To be able to succeed in social media, consistency is important. And consistent engagement was what Nordstrom exactly did with these several solutions they enforced:

• Consistent Pinterest promotion on various social media platforms: Nordstrom pin the ideal 20-30 pins a day every day. They don’t stop here, though – they also have a “share via Pinterest” button below every product image displayed on their online store.
• Engaging with their customer comments: The reason why their followers love commenting on their pins is because the company makes it a habit to respond to significant comments posted on their pins.
• Tagging their top pins in their offline store: After creating an in-store iPad app to match top online pins to their in-store inventory, Nordstrom also gave products in their offline stores with Pinterest-related tags such as “popular on Pinterest” to promote more sales and increase awareness about their solid presence online.

Takeaway:

What can you learn from this valuable case study? There will always be room for improvement.

Nordstrom knew that they were already a big deal in the online world. They had millions of followers, tons of comments on their pins and viral boards. But they felt that they could still achieve more and engage more with their followers. And so they took it to the next level by integrating their in-store customer experience with their online brand presence.

Bonus: On Inspiration: How An Ex-Con Turned His Life Around And Built an $80k per Month Ecommerce Business

Check out how an ex-convict who was admittedly “addicted to drugs, lost, and hopeless” turned his life around and launched a successful online business in this case study.

If an ex-convict can go from relying on Government Assistance to making $80,000 in sales from his Ecommerce store, then, what’s stopping you?

What did you learn with this 5 case studies? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.