Better Rhodes is a one-stop shop for alcohol-free beverages online. They envision themselves as more than just a marketplace and are working to build a community that makes alcohol-free drinks fun, accessible and trendy, with products that are truly premium and unique.
Better Rhodes tasked us with developing an eCommerce strategy that would empower them to become a market leader. They knew their website and marketing could improve. It was our job to determine “why.”
Better Rhodes wanted to map out their brand identity and unique selling points to empower their marketing strategy over the long-term. We developed a comprehensive marketing roadmap, then held a workshop with Better Rhodes to help them define their mission, goals, unique selling points, and brand.
Better Rhodes quickly learned they needed to improve their low conversion rate on mobile. Our work on the Better Rhodes website was one of the most extensive undertakings in the partnership, consisting of improvements to both the desktop and mobile checkout process, UI/UX, backend, checkout process, order flow, messaging, and customer service. We leveraged the Shopify Store 2.0 framework to build a dedicated Canadian website and prototype US website, opting for a phased launch.
With first-time buyers representing roughly 75% of all customers, Better Rhodes needed to find a way to turn first-time buyers into long-term customers. We also discovered that the top 50-100 of the company's SKUs drove over 75% of the business. Rather than trying to generate individual sales, we proposed a strategy that leverages an enhanced social media presence and focused on subscription benefits such as curated boxes of beverages. Loyalty and referral programs alongside improved email segmentation would further assist the brand in engaging and recapturing VIPs.
Better Rhodes was suffering from success. Their business grew faster than they'd expected, and they struggled to keep pace. We set out to redesign their website and devise an accompanying strategy to support both present and future growth by shifting the focus to their most important audience: mobile users.
Our partnership with Better Rhodes started with a comprehensive assessment of their customer experience both on-site and off.
Externally, we completed several extensive interviews with Better Rhodes' customers, determining their likes, dislikes, demographic details, and expectations for the brand. We also reviewed the company's social feeds for possible insights on brand voice. Internally, we examined the analytics of the Better Rhodes website, including SEO metrics, Shopify Funnel data, and key performance indicators.
This allowed us to identify several key areas of focus, the bottlenecks holding Better Rhodes back, and what could be done to address them.
If a business's website offers a poor user experience, little else matters— neither the quality of products nor the price. On the other hand, if a brand offers a memorable and engaging experience? That keeps people coming back.
That's why one of our first steps in our partnership with Better Rhodes was a complete redesign of their website consisting of the following:
The right technology can make all the difference in the world for a brand. That's why, while we were building a store based on the Shopify Store 2.0 Framework, we also recommended that Better Rhodes leverage the following solutions:
We wrapped all of the above into a phased launch strategy. Our first step would be the development of a dedicated Canadian website, with plans to launch in November 2021. We simultaneously built a prototype US website, which launched in December.
Invest in your customers, and they'll invest in your brand in response. Beyond the rework, much of our approach focused on acquiring, cultivating, and retaining customers. Alongside optimization of Better Rhodes' social and email marketing strategies, we created subscription pages for Wine, Beer, and Cocktail Clubs.
The new website was immediately a hit with better Rhodes' customers — who reported finding and recommending products was 90% easier. Even better, average order value increased by 40% and Better Rhodes saw a 31% increase in overall conversion rates. They also benefited from a considerable drop in both checkout and cart abandonment.
The changes we made appear to have had a particularly pronounced impact on Better Rhodes' mobile audience, as well. Mobile bounce rate dropped by 27.6%, leading to a 40% increase in mobile transactions.
When Better Rhodes first contacted us, they had a simple website and a big idea. Now, they have both the technical foundation for a strong digital presence and the knowledge and experience necessary to fully leverage it. The market for premium non-alcoholic beverages is still relatively new, but with Parkfield’s data-driven approach, Better Rhodes is now positioned to carry that market to new heights.
And if you ask us, that's worth raising a glass to.
Let's create remarkable results together