Tea Collection shares stories from unique parts of the world. Whether customers live in a small town in the Midwest, or New York or Los Angeles, the global experience is ingrained in the retailer’s clothes and company culture. Run your business with unprecedented agility with help from the Monetate Success Team. View more website optimization resources at http://www.monetate.com/resources

1. teacollection.com
customer story:
Brewing Up Unique
Email & Social Campaigns
a publication from

2. Brewing Up Unique Email & Social Campaigns
About tea collection
Twice a year, designers from the the globally-inspired children’s and
women’s clothing company Tea Collection head to a different part
of the world, immersing themselves in the culture of the destination.
The company now offers clothing lines based on local fashion through
its website, 300 high-end children’s boutiques, and retailers like
Nordstrom.
“Tea Collection shares stories from unique parts of the world,” says
Michael Stearns, the company’s E-Commerce Manager. “Whether you
live in a small town in the Midwest, or New York or Los Angeles, we
want to bring you a global experience, and that’s ingrained in our
clothes and company culture.”
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3. Brewing Up Unique Email & Social Campaigns
Tea Collection wanted to enhance and improve its website. But the
company didn’t want to lose focus on its core competency. “We try to be
a leader with technology and analytics, because we are very analytics-
focused,” says Stearns. “At the same time, we’re not a technology
company. We’re a fashion company.”
Last year, while Tea Collection was replatforming its website, the
company wanted to provide an even better online experience to
visitors.
“Replatforming is challenging,” says Stearns, “So we really started
looking for tools that would allow us to test and personalize features
on the website, as well as make sure any changes we made were done
for the right reason.”
It’s pretty cool to see what our visitors really want
to do, and understand how they are behaving.
- Michael Stearns, E-Commerce Manager, Tea Collection
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4. Brewing Up Unique Email & Social Campaigns
The Challenge of Growing, Growing, Growing
Tea Collection never had a formal approach to testing. In fact, the when we develop a holiday campaign, for example, we ask ourselves
company would frequently conduct some minor user testing on a how Monetate can help us make those plans even better before we run
feature, and then implement it if the results seemed positive. “We the campaign.”
didn’t have a true A/B testing platform, so we couldn’t see what was
And that mindset really helped the company when it launched a new
working and what wasn’t,” Stearns says. “It was more of us talking ideas
email acquisition campaign.
out among ourselves instead of turning to our customers.”
With great growth comes challenges, and as Tea Collection generated
more customers and clicks, it became harder to figure out what visitors
wanted during their website experience.
“When you start reaching into new markets and new customers, it’s
harder to know exactly who you are talking to,” Stearns says. “We
needed a solution to help us simply and quickly implement these
testing efforts, so that’s why we chose Monetate.”
Tea Collection works with Monetate to execute marketing campaigns
quickly and easily, as well as see results from those efforts. “As we’re
planning for our campaigns, or just general strategic growth, we think
of Monetate as more of a partner than just a tool,” Stearns says. “Now,
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5. Brewing Up Unique Email & Social Campaigns
A Unique Effort Combining Email and Social
When Tea Collection wanted to ramp up its email acquisition efforts,
the retailer decided to test lightboxes on its home page. And there
was another twist. Tea Collection has a robust Facebook community of
more than 60,000 fans who post pictures of their children outfitted in
the company’s unique clothes.
“We were originally just going to do a basic lightbox that asked visitors
to sign up for our email,” Stearns says. “But over time, that idea evolved
with different messaging. For us, getting a user on our email list or
getting someone to like us on Facebook is very valuable. It doesn’t have
to be one or the other.”
The company didn’t want to let its engaged social network presence
fall to the wayside, since there might be an opportunity to grow
that, too. Tea Collection conducted a three-way split test of different
lightbox creative. During the test, one group of visitors saw no lightbox
at all when they visited the website. The second group of visitors saw
a lightbox asking for their email address, and the third group saw a
lightbox asking for their email and suggesting they “Like” Tea Collection
on Facebook. And the results were surprising.
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6. Brewing Up Unique Email & Social Campaigns
Tea Collection saw an 8% lift in conversions for visitors who saw the
lightbox versus those who saw no lightbox at all, and a 4% higher
conversion rate for visitors who saw the email lightbox that also
promoted the company’s Facebook page.
“We really wanted to find out whether promoting our social presence
was going to help or hurt our email capture efforts,” Stearns says.
“Distracting a visitor is always a concern when you’re trying to get
a user’s attention, or telling them to leave your website and go
somewhere else, so we wanted to be sure it made sense. And it did.”
Tea Collection is now capturing more email addresses, boosting the
number of likes within its Facebook community, and discovering new
ways to reach prospects and loyal customers.
“It’s pretty cool to see what our visitors really want to do and understand
how they are behaving,” Stearns says. “Also, it allows us to customize
our messages to these different groups and people. In the future, I’m
sure we’ll start doing more targeted offers specifically for our email list
and our Facebook fans.”
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7. Brewing Up Unique Email & Social Campaigns
Continued Growth, Effective Promotions
Beyond the success of the email lightbox campaign, Tea Collection is As the company continues to grow, it hopes to better understand
moving full-speed ahead with new website optimization campaigns to its loyal customers and new prospects. And now, testing is now at
further other marketing efforts. the forefront of the company’s marketing mission, helping make Tea
Collection’s website as unique as its customers.
“The next step for us is a little more personalization and geotargeting,”
Stearns says. “We’re able to understand our customers better now and “Without a tool like Monetate, we wouldn’t have the resources to test
target certain messages or products to them, so the next phase will be and learn on our website,” Stearns says. “It’s so easy to use and the
using that to serve the most relevant content we can.” impact is huge. Monetate allows us to make our promotions effective.”
We needed a solution to help us simply
and quickly implement these testing
efforts. That’s why we chose Monetate.
- Michael Stearns, E-Commerce Manager, Tea Collection
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