Teleflora’s Got a Mobile Strategy Coming into Bloom

Mobile. It’s become a big deal for shoppers. Figures, released in September in Google’s “Mobile Has Now Changed How People Get Things Done: New Consumer Behavior Data” report, reveal just how big the deal is.

Google partnered with research firm Purchased to poll 1,000 smartphone owners to find out how they used their devices throughout the day – a study which resulted in more than 14,000 responses. It revealed that consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to take care of any need they have – including shopping.

A whopping 92% of respondents who search for goods and services on their smartphones make an online or offline purchase related to that search within a day. 76% of consumers who search on their smartphones with the term “near me” in the query visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase, according to the study.

And these local “near me” searches are something that Teleflora – a floral wire service company that brokers orders to local florists for delivery – wanted to tap into in order to increase mobile traffic and sales.

Better Late than Never

By Teleflora’s VP of ecommerce Beth Monda’s own admission, the company was “a little late to the party” when it came to embracing the mobile shopping revolution. “We fooled ourselves into thinking that the shift to mobile wasn't relevant or as urgent for us,” she writes in DMN News. “After all, we're a gift item with a multi-step checkout process (the delivery address is often different than the billing address, sometimes customers need to write a gift note, etc.), and it can be challenging and time-intensive for customers to complete their order on a smartphone.”

But, over the course of just 12 months after finally taking the decision to implement an aggressive mobile strategy, Teleflora managed to increase mobile traffic 10% year-over-year, with mobile revenue hiking an impressive 50% in the same timeframe.

One particular tactic that proved highly lucrative for Teleflora during this time was its partnership with search engine marketing vendor NetElixir, which helped Teleflora bolster its mobile paid search strategy.

Roughly 45% of the site’s traffic comes from mobile devices – a percentage that rises around certain holidays, such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas. NetElixir ran a string of split tests in order to determine whether adding things like “click-to-call” buttons on search ads would cause a rise in orders (it didn’t), or if optimizing “near me” campaigns for shoppers using the term in search queries would result in a sales boost – and it did.

By adopting this “test-and-learn” culture, Teleflora managed to hit on a mobile local search strategy that bloomed – big time. As Monda explains:

“In partnership with Google and our search agency, we identified prime hours (by time zone) on prime days to bid more and less aggressively. Next, we moved into finely-tuned bid modifiers by state, then by city/metro. In doing so, we've seen our location-specific mobile orders grow by more than 350% year-over-year.

“‘Near me’ searches are all about being in front of the consumer when she’s ready to transact,” Monda added. “If we can provide what they need, when they need, they’re not concerned about stopping into a store.”

Growing Revenue through Customer Experience

Acknowledging that the company was late to the mobile party also meant acknowledging that Teleflora’s customer experience (CX) strategy had somewhat wilted over time. And this is something that led to another partnership being formed in September last year, this time with CX firm ForeSee.

The CX testing program involved utilizing ForeSee’s digital tools – namely a web customer experience survey, and ForeSee Replay – a visualization tool that helps accurately pinpoint where visitors are struggling and efficiently resolve issues that are negatively impacting the customer experience.

Each day, Teleflora runs multiple tests to better understand how to best serve the mobile customer. They found that by taking seemingly small actions such as adjusting the placement of CTAs (calls-to-action) in shopping carts resulted in a 3% uplift in checkout funnel progression. In addition, Teleflora will soon be launching a redesigned product description page, which saw a 13% reduction in cart fallout in testing.

These small improvements all mount up. And by continuously testing mobile ad copy, increasing hit rates on “near me” searches, and improving the connections formed with mobile shoppers, Teleflora’s mobile roadmap is steadily beginning to blossom. The last word goes to Beth Monda.

“Creating a dialogue with our consumers, and adopting new solutions to help us personalize the customer experience for price-conscious shoppers, continues to be a top priority for us in today’s competitive marketplace. Teleflora’s collaboration with ForeSee has allowed us to refine these customer touchpoints to keep customers happy, while also increasing engagement and conversion that results in tangible growth.”