Wickes opened its first store in the UK in 1972 in Whitefield in Manchester. Using a traditional DIY store model to sell to the trade. Wickes became the first fixed-price builders’ merchant in the UK, offering lower prices than other merchants for tradespeople and keen DIYers. Today, Wickes is a digitally-led, service-enabled home improvement business that includes more than 230 stores and continues to serve both trade professionals and DIY consumers alike. Its online range includes more than 30,000 products, and its digital focus means that improving the customer experience online is integral to the brand.
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Animated icons boost Wickes’ social messaging strategy with a 1.57% CR uplift
Key KPIs delivered by Taggstar
The Challenge
Wickes initially implemented social proof messaging from Taggstar in the summer of 2020, with its first proof of concept delivering a 4.48% conversion rate uplift. The retailer was soon displaying more than 100 million social proof messages each month but shares Taggstar’s commitment to a continual optimization process to boost message awareness and conversion.
Taggstar works closely with retailers to develop their social proof strategy and introduce new features that help to refresh the messaging to maximise impact, avoid message blindness, increase engagement and drive further incremental uplifts.
The Solution
To improve message visibility and customer engagement, Taggstar added themed animated icons to Wickes’ social proof messaging across the full funnel of PLP, PDP, Basket and app. Ten message types were used, including trending and popular as well as personalised messaging eg Purchased X times since your last visit.
The animated icon messages included a paint roller rolling out paint for its ‘Popular: x sold in the last 48 hours’ message. The design of the messaging was also changed, with the message size increased to stand out more across the full-funnel implementation.
“The concept of limitless optimization means that we know we can deliver continual improvements in our social proof messaging strategy in partnership with Taggstar.“
Lindsay Costa, Digital Trading Manager
The Results
The results of the latest proof of concept test, which ran in February and reached statistical significance in 17 days and saw a 1.57% conversion rate uplift
Looking to future optimisation and roadmap plan for its social proof messaging strategy, Taggstar has since run a short review messaging test in partnership with Power Reviews for Wickes and is also looking at implementing attribute messaging to highlight the environmentally friendly and energy-saving products available through the retailer.
Testimonials
Lindsay Costa, Digital Trading Manager at Wickes, said: “The concept of limitless optimisation means that we know we can deliver continual improvements in our social proof messaging strategy in partnership with Taggstar.
She continued: Adding animated icons has meant we’ve once again witnessed conversion rate uplifts in just a short period of time. We benefit greatly from the help of the CSM team, who use their expertise in the market and their experience with other customers to help boost our results, but they are attentive to our needs, too. It’s a very collaborative way of working that sees Taggstar take all ideas onboard and help us with both quick wins and in developing our long-term strategy and plans”.
Peter Buckley, CRO at Taggstar, said: “Seeing Wickes take advantage of our animated icons for social proof messaging and benefiting from the conversion rate uplift and revenue that has generated is yet another example of how strong animation can be in boosting social proof messaging results. We are committed to continual optimization, and our partnership approach is vital in getting the best results for our clients.”
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