A deeper look,
The Challenge
Coastal knew that expanding into the digital world was just what their company needed. Wanting to expand into the world of eCommerce meant starting from nothing and working with the team at Coastal to ensure that everything was implemented correctly from in-store to online. Without a digital commerce ecosystem, Coastal was struggling with inventory management, order fulfillment, and order/data flow issues with their dated ERP.
The Platform
Optimizely, a leading digital experience platform specializing in optimization, and creating a seamless digital journey for customers, held true to be the fit for Coastal Farm and Ranch as their Content Management System and eCommerce platform.
The Loyalty Program
With creating an online presence also presented the opportunity to expand their loyalty program. Already having one in-store, Coastal was able to take the idea of allowing their shoppers to earn points on every purchase they made and turn it into a loyalty program that was synchronized both on in-store and online purchases. Creating this experience for loyal shoppers gives guests the opportunity to shop in person and then immediately see their available points online.
An Omnichannel Experience
This also transitioned into the opportunity of buying a gift card online and using it in store, and vice versa. This gives Coastal customers the opportunity to have options on how they would like to have their shopping experience.
When Coastal customers shop in-store, they simply need to show a military ID, or their regular ID to prove to the checkout attendant that they are eligible for a senior or military discount. In wanting to create the same experience for their online shoppers, ensuring that they can easily manage these types of transactions was a goal of ours, which is now offered for their customers online. These types of promotions are now easily managed through the Optimizely platform that we implemented. Along with promotions being managed, the new Optimizely platform also has a product recommendation engine that recommends comparable products to guests who are browsing different items.
