How direct mail is helping Biscuiteers drive online growth

The Challenge

A multi-award-winning business, Biscuiteers was set up in 2007. It was inspired by a trip to New York by its founders. They saw an opportunity to set up an online biscuits gift business, focused on baking biscuits “that would look as beautiful as they tasted.”

Following strong online growth, it opened its first store in Notting Hill in 2012. This was followed by a second in Battersea in 2014.

While the website remains its central sales channel, Biscuiteers was keen to find routes to market to complement its existing digital activity, expand sales and grow its customer base.

The Solution

To maintain growth, in 2015 Biscuiteers joined the Abacus Alliance and introduced a printed catalogue. It wanted to test and understand how direct mail could support its online growth.

This was its first investment in print and Biscuiteers objective was to use the catalogue to drive online sales. Epsilon Abacus worked with Biscuiteers to build a relevant target audience likely to purchase from them. This was achieved by identifying individuals with purchasing behaviours and preferences that reflected Biscuiteers best customers.

The Results

Biscuiteers first campaign generated strong sales and cash ow, as have all subsequent ones. Introducing a catalogue attracted new customers with a higher Average Order Value. Of those recruited via its catalogue, 51% went on to make additional purchases, making them very valuable to the business.

By continuing to test new opportunities and then roll out when successful, Biscuiteers has broadened its direct mail activities.

While driving new customers remains key, working with Epsilon Abacus has helped Biscuiteers enhance its customer retention and reactivation activities. The additional insight derived from the Abacus Alliance has enabled Biscuiteers to re ne its strategies in these areas, focusing resource and effort on only those opportunities most likely to respond.

From a brand perspective, the catalogue has also had a halo effect on other channels. On receiving the catalogue, customers have been readily engaging with social media, commenting on the catalogue and posting pictures of them. It has also become a key driver of online traf c and sales, with anecdotal evidence showing it also drives store visits and bespoke corporate orders.

“We’ve successfully supported the growth of the online business by encompassing Direct Mail as part of our marketing strategy. Epsilon Abacus has been a key partner in each of our campaigns and helped us ensure our objectives are met. To date, all our campaigns have returned a positive ROI, with response rates ranging from 1.6% to 5.7%. We invest in channels that work and our relationship with Epsilon Abacus has ensured direct mail has become an effective one for driving sales for Biscuiteers”, commented Nicola Downes, Head of Marketing at Biscuiteers. “As A Digital Marketer, I have noticed a lot of pureplay eCommerce businesses investing in Direct Mail and print for the first time, seeing successful results and embracing it as part of their wider marketing strategy.“

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