BHS - Offline vouchers to online conversions
British Home Stores, or BHS as it is more commonly branded, is one of the most recognised and longstanding brands on the UK high street. First opening their doors in 1928, they now have over 179 stores nationwide and 100 franchise stores overseas across the Middle East, Europe and Africa. BHS is known for its commitment to providing stylish fashion ranges and homeware at prices that represent outstanding value.
Since launching on Affiliate Window in 2008, the BHS programme has gone from strength to strength offering a standard commission of 5% across all product categories. A notable event for BHS occurred in 2009 when the brand became part of the Arcadia group.
In June 2012 BHS launched its new website and through the integration of their menswear products, new search options and faster checkout, the new site offers a heightened customer journey and experience enabling improved site conversion.
Strategy & Execution
BHS identified two key areas they were not utilising within the affiliate space: voucher codes and mobile exposure.
Historically, BHS found it difficult to secure strong coverage on voucher code sites due to a busy onsite promotional calendar. Furthermore, they felt they were not taking advantage of the mobile space and, despite not having a mobile optimised site, wanted to tap into the growing mobile audience.
It was decided that BHS would identify a gap in the onsite promotional calendar to trial an exclusive affiliate voucher code and identify any opportunities to run an offline voucher in order to gain exposure and traction with a mobile audience.
Through conversations with BHS’s online and offline team an opportunity within the affiliate channel was realised. They were able to offer an existing in store flier promotion on an exclusive basis with one affiliate partner, with the ability to extend this offer into the online space, also on an exclusive basis.
In January 2012 an opportunity arose to run this voucher code both online and offline: - 25% off all orders for an 8 day period. Due to the exposure offered by VoucherCodes.co.uk they were selected as BHS’s dedicated voucher code partner for the duration of the promotion.
Exposure was secured in the following:
A number of newsletter placements
Newsletter landing page positions
Online banner carousel
Top 3 category specific positions.
VoucherCodes.co.uk offered the offline vouchers further support by producing a fully designed printable page and mobile app offer. Throughout the duration of the campaign the offer appeared in the top 3 position of printable vouchers on both the homepage and their dedicated high street printables tab.
BHS’s till systems, like many retailers, are unable to scan I-phones or external vouchers. BHS were able to offer a solution by having barcodes behind the tills in each store for shop assistants to scan when presented with either a printed voucher or a mobile phone displaying the VoucherCodes.co.uk voucher. All sale information was fed back to VoucherCodes.co.uk and they were subsequently paid commission based on the standard commission rate.
Results & ROI
Overall results exceeded the expectations of both BHS and VoucherCodes.co.uk. The strength and exclusive nature of the offer and the consumer interest in the BHS brand, coupled with vouchercodes.co.uk’s full promotional support, contributed to the success of the campaign.
The 25% off all orders yielded the following results:
Online sales value uplift (based on VoucherCodes.co.uk results from the previous week) of 786% and total sales uplift of 1026%.
Online and offline results combined contributed to a sales value uplift of 1427% and sales uplift of 3070%.
Looking at the programme as a whole this activity offered a sales value uplift of 267% and sales uplift of 359%.
Due to the strength of the 25% off offer for a period of 8 days, BHS decided to trial a stretch and save offer for a shorter period to assess whether this could also record a strong level of redemptions whilst driving a higher AOV. The results were positive considering the seemingly lesser offer and shorter validity period: 213% sales value uplift and 321% sales uplift. Due to the success of the multi-channel offers, BHS is looking to work across both online and offline as part of an ongoing strategy.
“Over the last year BHS and VoucherCodes.co.uk’s relationship has gone from strength to strength. As a result of their proactive and innovative approach to both online and offline campaigns we have been able to provide them with more exposure and leverage our offline technologies, resulting in fantastic multi-channel performances. We look forward to continuing this partnership throughout 2012!” James Armstrong, Account Director at VoucherCodes.co.uk
“This campaign worked fantastically well, it showed how we could utilise offers that we already have access to in order to drive sales online and even in-store through the affiliate channel.”Aneila Jagpal, Marketing Coordinator at BHS.