Wendell August Forge is doubling down on their web customer experience - and seeing amazing returns
3X
Higher conversion rate on LimeSpot-driven orders
With nearly 100 years of history behind them, Wendell August Forge is no stranger to constant evolution. With roots in metalworking, the company slowly evolved its product line to decor and gift items around the 1950s before landing on the perfect application for their attention to detail and handmade craftsmanship: Ornaments. Since the debut of their signature ornament line in the 1980s, America’s oldest and largest forge has been helping millions of customers make memories for generations with locally and lovingly produced gifts.
While Wendell August Forge’s line of ornaments and giftware has been available online for awhile, the company still has a largely local customer base in the Pennsylvania and Ohio regions surrounding their factory. However, the business has recognized a growing opportunity by expanding their reach through online sales, and aimed to double down on their ecommerce business, starting by launching a new website on BigCommerce in 2018.
One of the primary challenges Wendell August Forge found with BigCommerce was their native functionality for rearranging products was very time-consuming - a challenge for any company that needs to merchandise their site on a frequent basis for occasions throughout the year ranging from Valentine’s Day to Christmas. They were looking for a solution that would optimize their merchandising strategy on autopilot but still give them the flexibility to override things with manual suggestions and promotions.
When Wendell August Forge discovered LimeSpot’s AI-driven product recommendations, they quickly realized the time savings. They started by placing recommendations on collection pages and home page, which automatically serve up the products that everyone is looking at during specific occasions, forgoing the need to manually reorder collections by seasonality and driving conversion rates to upwards of 22%.
While the automation and easy setup was a boon for Wendell August Forge’s lean team, the ability to manually influence their merchandising strategy was another big win. Specific featured collections are often spotlighted throughout the site, while product detail pages (PDPs) have either manually curated or automatically generated cross-sells. All of this strategic merchandising has led to 33%+ of Wendell August Forge’s revenue being driven by LimeSpot.
Not only that, Wendell August Forge has also experimented with unique placements of LimeSpot boxes. For example, their cart page upsell has an incredible 58% conversion rate. The company has also heavily leveraged LimeSpot's email functionality, which allows for easy insertion of 1:1 product recommendations in promotional and abandoned cart emails, driving thousands of additional clicks and conversions.
As Wendell August Forge continues to invest in their ecommerce channel with the aim of growing it to account for 50% or more of their total revenue, LimeSpot’s personalization suite is sure to play a role in driving more successful customer journeys and experiences.
The whole process of working with LimeSpot has been so easy, especially for a company with no in-house developers. The team has been so supportive in ensuring our recommendations look and work their very best.
Erin Lewis, Director of Marketing and Ecommerce for Wendell August Forge
"The biggest advantage of using LimeSpot is providing more ease of navigation through our site for customers and providing that custom experience Wendell August Forge is known for.”
- Erin Lewis, Director of Marketing and Ecommerce
Serving up the right product to the right customer at the right time in their buyer’s journey is key to converting and boosting AOV. Discover different strategies to optimize the placement, use, and tactics behind your recommendations to ring up those sales in this how-to series.
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