História de sucesso
Debenhams has a heritage dating back to 1778 when it started life as a single store in London before growing to become one of the UK’s largest department store chains offering a range of products, including clothing, cosmetics, home goods, furniture and more. In 2021, the company’s brand and website were acquired by online fashion retailer Boohoo Group, who relaunched Debenhams as an online-only marketplace selling fashion and home brands.
After a successful proof of concept delivered a 3.29% conversion rate uplift and an ROI of 36.4X, Debenhams added machine learning to its social proof messaging offering from Taggstar, which drove a further 1.3% uplift in conversion rate and 23.5X ROI. Social proof messaging has since been introduced to other brands in the Boohoo Group and will be extended further at Debenhams shortly.
With the brand’s move to a new owner and a solely online presence, it was important for Debenhams to reconnect with customers and boost conversion rates and sales on the website, attracting both existing online customers, those that had previously just shopped in-store and new shoppers, and maximizing the interaction of all with the retail brand.
Debenhams ran an initial proof of concept trial of social proof messaging from Taggstar in the UK for ten days before it hit statistical significance, meaning that it had proved that social proof messaging had a positive impact on the business.
Debenhams then quickly moved to a machine learning-supported social proof messaging trial, which ran for 23 days. Taggstar’s machine learning solution uses an algorithm that selects social proof messages based on shoppers’ behaviors, continuously testing all message combinations and types for feedback to accommodate changes in message availability and conversion rate performance over time. This ensures the right message or combination of messages is delivered at the right time in the customer journey to optimize results.
Both the proof of concept and machine learning trials operated across Debenhams’ PDP and basket pages.
In the proof of concept, 12 message types were used, including ‘Trending Now! sold X times in the last X’’ and ‘Popular! X others are looking at this right now’.
In the machine learning experiment, this was extended to 13 message types, with the addition of a category bestsellers message ‘Number X best seller in {category}’.
“We saw the value of social proof messaging very quickly within Debenhams at proof-of-concept but were further impressed with the additional uplift we saw when we added machine learning to the mix and the powerful ROI both delivered.”
The results were impressive from the start. In the proof-of-concept evaluation, Debenhams achieved a 3.29% conversion rate uplift and an ROI of 36.4X.
With the addition of machine learning, a further 1.3% uplift in conversion rate was achieved, delivering a 23.5X ROI.
Following both successes, Debenhams is looking to test social proof messaging further, including review messaging, which will allow it to share social proof based on how other customers have rated products they are looking at. Social proof messaging will also be extended across the full funnel with its incorporation on the PLP in addition to the PDP and Basket pages.
Dan Finley, CEO at Debenhams, said: “We saw the value of social proof messaging very quickly within Debenhams at proof-of-concept but were further impressed with the additional uplift we saw when we added machine learning to the mix and the powerful ROI both delivered. We look forward to adding social proof incorporating review messaging, too, as well as the rollout to PLP. The results we have achieved at Debenhams have also meant that other brands within the wider Debenhams family of brands are also implementing Taggstar’s technology, including Oasis, Dorothy Perkins, Burtons and Coast.”
Peter Buckley, CRO at Taggstar, said: “As Debenhams and other brands now in the Debenhams family of brands have previously witnessed, Taggstar’s social proof messaging delivers strong results on its own. Add in the power of machine learning, however, and results are optimized even further. We were the first to market with social proof messaging backed by machine learning and have a decade of experience in the market. That equates to a wealth of data that helps our solution to deliver the most effective message at the most effective time and is why companies like Debenhams see strong results improved even further when they add machine learning to the mix.”
