> 33% increase in site conversions

CASE STUDY
jellybelly.com
Business Problem
Searches performed poorly and
unreliably; needed better understanding
of customer preferences
Solution
SLI Systems’ suite of site search,
SEO and A/B testing products
improved site search relevance
and the overall user experience
> 33% increase in site conversions
> 10% increase in average order value
> 85% better open rate for email alerts
“We’ve used the system to learn how to organize our content and
better present it to customers. Where we’ve really seen this show
up is in a lift in our average order value – this tells us that we are
putting in front of the customers what they want to see.”
Products
Learning Search
Site Champion
Conversion Optimizer
Cool Features
Customized landing pages
Rich Auto Complete
Brandon Finch
director of e-business at Jelly Belly
Site Search prompts 33% increase in conversions,
10% increase in average order size
Jelly Belly selected Learning Search, Site Champion and Conversion
Optimizer from SLI Systems, a provider of intelligent, on-demand search
services for e-commerce sites. Since implementing SLI’s site search,
conversions have grown nearly one-third, average orders have increased
10 percent, and Jelly Belly has boosted its visibility on major search engines
– a combination that helps the candy retailer’s bottom line.
Jelly Belly
Jelly Belly Candy Company has been delighting candy lovers with
its gourmet jelly beans and candies for more than 140 years. Since
2008, Jelly Belly’s website has been an important sales channel for the
company, which makes over 75 flavors of jelly beans and over 100 other
candies such as gummies, licorice, chocolates and holiday sweets. Jelly
Belly’s previous e-commerce platform lacked the search relevance and
personalization the company needed for its site to grow. Adding advanced
site search in 2008 was one of the first improvements the company made.
sli-systems.com
A/B Testing Illuminates Best eCommerce Practices
Since then, they’ve seen consistent growth in conversion rates and web search
visibility. In continuing to adapt and better serve their customers, they refocused
on improving site features and overall usability of their site, said Brandon Finch,
director of e-business for Jelly Belly.
Conversion Optimizer, SLI Systems’ A/B and multivariate testing tool, was used
to conduct a series of experiments to determine which layouts and features
provided the best conversions or minimized bounce rates. “SLI’s Conversion
Optimizer is an amazing tool that allows us to quickly set up A/B tests, let them
run and then implement a winning strategy with a high level of confidence,”
said Finch.
The results were surprising. While they hypothesized that having a merchandising
banner at the top of every page would urge customers to buy, the opposite was
actually true – having no banner on a page actually resulted in an 18% better
conversion rate. “Without it we would have rolled out what we thought was a
cool feature – but found out it didn’t resonate with customers,” he said.
SLI features enable new marketing opportunities
Jelly Belly has used data from Learning Search to make product decisions based
on search requests from site visitors. They previously offered only a 10-pound
bulk case of Champagne Bubbles candy. But using information from Learning
Search, they discovered that Champagne Bubbles candy had become the third
most-requested search. They decided to offer a one pound container - and it’s
now one of the biggest sellers with wedding planners.
Reports such as “Top Keywords” are also used to aid their SEO efforts across
marketing and public relations campaigns. The appropriate top-searched
keywords are incorporated in press releases, advertising and marketing materials.
Jelly Belly also uses SLI’s merchandising console to tune results to create landing
pages for customized product groupings. For a Cinco de Mayo promotion, Jelly
Belly grouped various beans together to create “recipes” for tres leches cake
and Mexican hot chocolate. The URLs of those dedicated landing pages are
used for display advertising, retargeting and email campaigns. “It has been very
successful,” Finch said. “We’re also able to drop a banner tool onto that page –
we can tie in the promotional assets from the email or banner ad to the landing
page so it all makes sense.”
Customer Service
Underpinning all of SLI’s product offerings is excellent, full-service customer
support, which Finch said was crucial to their ability to test and adopt new
strategies for the business. “SLI’s personalized service is extremely valuable – I
have a number of people I can reach anytime I have a question or problem, and
the ability to bounce strategies and ideas off a capable team is very helpful,” he
said. “Having a responsive partner is what you want and what you need, and that
is a strength of SLI.”
About SLI SYSTEMS
SLI Systems’ learning platform provides customized site search, navigation, merchandising, SEO and analytics solutions that improve
usability and conversions on your eCommerce site.To learn more visit sli-systems.com or email [email protected]
© 2013 SLI SYSTEMS