Challenge

Being a wholesale, retail-first brand brings a different set of obstacles than those of a traditional D2C brand. “Being a wholesale brand, reviews are everything,” says David Rapps, President and Chief Strategy Officer. “On Walmart.com, you need to make it easy for shoppers to choose your brand when your competitor’s listing is right next to yours. The number of reviews your product has sets you apart.”

Knowing the importance of authentic customer feedback, iFLY started collecting reviews right away with their previous reviews platform, Bazaarvoice. However, as iFLY expanded its digital ambitions, it migrated to Yotpo because of the elevated user experience, easy digital integrations, and Walmart syndication partnership. Switching over to Yotpo gave iFLY the flexibility and freedom to customize their review requests, resulting in a better user interface and experience, and ultimately leading to an increase in their review submissions.

Solutions

“We look at reviews as a way to speak directly with our consumers. When you’re a wholesaler selling on a marketplace like Walmart.com, you can’t connect with your customers the same way you can on a D2C site. Yotpo’s platform solution provides that ability.” says Rapps.

“We are huge nerds when it comes to reviews. We look at every single review that comes in, and we love replying to reviews, good or bad,” says Rapps. Reviews don’t just build brand trust and influence potential customers; for iFLY, reviews impact their branding, product packaging, email marketing campaigns, and the actual products themselves. Yotpo’s Smart Prompts encourage higher-quality, more detailed reviews, enabling iFLY to perform robust internal analysis to determine popular review topics and keywords, what people like about their products, and what needs to be modified.

The keywords gathered from Yotpo Reviews are then printed on the side of their product packaging. “When customers are in a big retail store like Walmart, seeing user-generated content directly on the product’s packaging and in the description is huge. It really makes a difference for the end consumer,” says Rapps. iFLY ensures they direct every customer to leave a review, even retail customers. Yotpo’s on-site review capabilities initiate the consumer's digital relationship with their brand, even if it originated offline or in-store.

Results

“Ratings and reviews have built so much of iFLY’s business,” says Rapps. It was extremely important for the brand to ensure they were with the right review provider since that feedback heavily impacts their business and customer relationships.

iFLY’s unique custom integrations made it extremely easy for consumers to leave reviews, increasing their daily review generation by 7x. In addition, iFLY took advantage of Yotpo’s AI-influenced Smart Prompts, which automatically suggest high-converting topics of interest as customers write reviews. This led the brand to generate over 1,000 reviews in only 40 days. iFLY is now on pace to generate over 10,000 fresh reviews over the next 12 months with Yotpo’s solution.

iFLY knew they needed more than a one point solution to get maximum value out of their eCommerce marketing strategy — they needed a platform. “Choose a platform that is equipped with marketing tools for today’s world,” Rapps recommends. “Reviews are just one point of customer engagement, and Yotpo provides a total platform solution for each phase of the customer journey.” iFLY began with Yotpo reviews and Walmart syndication. As a Walmart Supplier of the Year, the brand knew Yotpo could provide the integrated and robust tech stack they needed to be the best supplier possible for Walmart. In addition, iFLY quickly added Yotpo SMS & Email to their stack as well, providing another channel to further engage with their customers. Loyalty is the next piece of the puzzle.

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