About Hanna Andersson
Adored by parents around the world, Hanna Andersson offers a wide range of children’s clothing and matching pajamas for the entire family. Founded in Portland, OR by Gun Denhart in 1983 as a purely catalogue company, the brand has since successfully made the transition to online sales.
Increasing Customer Lifetime Value
“One of our challenges is marketing our toddler collection,” explains Morganne Hatfield, Marketing Analyst at Hanna Andersson. “We recently combined the kids line and the toddler line into one collection. But toddler is a key demographic – if we can get moms to discover and fall in love with Hanna Andersson clothing for their young children, chances are they’ll stay loyal customers as their kids grow, increasing their overall customer lifetime value (CLV).”
Creating an e-commerce growth engine
Expanding a product line is a far-reaching goal that affects all aspects of a business. Morganne’s challenge was to figure out how to use Hanna Andersson’s website to increase awareness and sales. But where to start! The team could rewrite product descriptions, increase or decrease product image sizes, add customer reviews or implement a cross-sell bar…
The possibilities were endless: what was the best tactic to increase growth?
Experiment to increase uplift
Enter experimentation. Hanna Andersson’s SVP of Digital was a firm believer in the merits of testing and using data-driven rationales for optimization. Through a prioritized experimentation roadmap, the team could systematically test their optimization ideas, learn from the results, and implement winning variations. No more guesswork or time lost in internal debates.
Is a picture worth a thousand conversions?
One idea Morganne was eager to test involved the default image shown on the product listing pages (PLPs) and product description pages (PDPs) of the toddler section.
When someone went browsing through the toddler collection, the first image on the page showed the clothing item sized for an older child – not a 1 to 3 year old. Though the product itself was identical, it certainly didn’t look the same when sized for a lanky seven year old versus a toddler still round with baby fat. Her idea was to test whether it was worth the effort to photograph the smaller sizes and use them for the toddler product page images. Would they convert better?
Morganne decided to test swapping out the default image with one where the item was sized for a toddler, but only if the user was navigating from the toddler section of the site. “I wanted to test if buyers would react more positively to the age-appropriate clothing, whether this would increase basket rate and overall conversion rate.”
Significant revenue impact
After a quick set up, the test was live and results rolled in: the experiment was an absolute success. “I was honestly surprised by just how well it worked – clicks on PLPs increased by about 8%, and purchase rate on those items by 22%, which is huge. At the time of this test we only had a handful of toddler-sized items online. But we’ll soon be offering 100% of our line in these sizes, so if you multiply these results by hundreds of products, the revenue impact is significant.”
“Our merchandising team was thrilled”
Not only did the test have a positive impact on immediate business metrics, it was also another step in solidifying the marketing for the toddler clothing line.
“When I shared these results in our quarterly review, our merchandising team was thrilled,” explained Morganne. “Having this kind of data-driven evidence helps us confidently make strategic investments – this knowledge is really helpful,” concludes Morganne.
AB Tasty enables agility
AB Tasty’s ease of use was instrumental in the success of this experiment. Without the marketing-friendly interface and widget library, it wouldn’t have been possible to get this test up and running in under a week.
“It’s great to be able to use AB Tasty to launch these kinds of campaigns independently, without having to bother our dev team,” says Morganne. “We’re really pleased with the results we’ve had, and how agile the AB Tasty Customer Success team has been. The widget library especially – the countdown banners, NPS surveys – have been key in enabling us to be autonomous and launch campaigns fast. ”
Looking forward
This test on the toddler line was undoubtedly a success. But that doesn’t mean the testing ends. Continuous optimization is key to fully reaping the benefits of experimentation and personalization, and Morganne intends to continue perfecting the customer journey. “We dug into the data and realized that, although 70% of our traffic comes from mobile devices, there’s still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to converting that traffic,” explains Morganne. “We’re excited to see what more we can achieve with AB Tasty!”
