How Personalization Helped Alex and Ani Boost Conversions 65%

Jewelry maker Alex and Ani is no stranger to adopting new technology to connect with customers. But a serendipitous meeting between two executives recently took this practice to another level. Kate Robinson, evp of strategy for the brand, met Shachar Orren, co-founder and CMO of Disney-backed content platform Ex.co, at a networking event for women executives. That meeting led to a partnership, which spawned an online holiday campaign using Ex.co to create personalized communications, such as gift guides, for website visitors. This resulted in a 27% increase in average order value (AOV), a 65% lift in conversions, a 65% completion rate and a 33% clickthrough rate. In addition, revenue more than doubled. Those figures reflect customers who engaged with the new chatbot functionality versus the average user who did not. “Our platform enables [clients] to personalize communication with their audiences on their websites by creating a layer of engaging experiences that can very easily be updated without that heavy lift of design and development that you need to change your actual site,” Orren told Adweek, noting the brand wanted to create an online experience reminiscent of its physical stores. This aspect was important because personalization is part of the brand experience, which allows customers to choose charms to personalize their jewelry, Orren added. Ex.co, which also works with media companies like Vice, Refinery29 and Hearst, claims the platform’s capabilities allow clients to update content with a frequency that agency involvement often hinders. “By the time [agencies] get it on the site, it’s already irrelevant because it took three months to do. It doesn’t match the reality of today,” Orren added. For Alex and Ani’s Robinson, the timing of the partnership was a welcome solution at a challenging time for retailers. “Alex and Ani has been focused on digital transformation over the past couple of years, beginning with a migration to the Shopify Plus platform in 2020,” she said. “The pandemic accelerated our investment in ecommerce and fast tracked many of our initiatives around customer journey and experience. Prior to the pandemic, less than 40% of our total business was done online.” Now, ecommerce is “upwards of 50% of total company sales within a given period,” she added. In addition, Robinson said the brand used learnings from holiday 2021 to optimize for Valentine’s Day 2022. “We were thrilled to see revenue improve 3x for customers engaging in the [chatbot] journey,” she said. Additionally, Robinson sees potential in the technology for the in-store guest experience going forward. “You can imagine the effectiveness of a tool like this in-store during peak hours, where sales associates are stretched thin,” she added. “It’s not just about helping customers find the perfect product. It’s about making them feel appreciated and unique, no easy task in the transactional world of ecommerce.” Brands See Increased Sales After Arming Creators on Social With Affiliate Links