Bachman’s grows online revenue with Sitecore OrderCloud

Bachman’s is the number one luxury floral, gift, and home products and services retailer and wholesaler in Minnesota. It has seven stores, 28 micro in-store outlets, and a thriving online business, which in 2021 helped deliver the company’s best financial year. Recently, Bachman’s business has seen a 400% shift to online retail from around 2% to 10%. Its customer demographic is increasingly younger and combines web and mobile with delivery, store visits, and buy online, pick up in-store or curbside (BOPIS).

Bachman’s wanted to deliver a seamless online ordering process, grow the business, and modernize its differentiated brand experience. Website product search and ordering was slow and complex, with relevant items often hidden or buried, making cross- and up-selling difficult. Customers regularly terminated their online order because it was too complicated, then started over with the call center – or even dropped the order completely.

Partnering with Horizontal Digital, Bachman’s web development team deployed Sitecore OrderCloud as a headless e-commerce platform to improve product search, recommendations, and ordering — increasing choices for customers and helping Bachman's to increase sales. Based on the new platform, Bachman’s launched their first ever e-gift card service, creating a strategic revenue opportunity often only available to much larger businesses.

OrderCloud is at the center of Bachman’s composable digital architecture, which includes a third-party CMS, search engine, digital marketing, and CRM applications. OrderCloud also integrates with Bachman’s ERP system, loyalty program, and a payment gateway. By employing an agile methodology to roll out features in four-week sprints, Bachman’s has improved search and is faster with automated special-event promotions for holidays and special occasions.

“Any way that customers engage with Bachman’s, be that in-store, via mobile, or the website, Sitecore helps us recognize them, support their journey, improve their customer experience, and build loyalty,” says Chris Moore, CIO and EVP of Information Technology at Bachman’s.

Sitecore also helps Bachman’s analyze customer data for enhancing targeted marketing and better customer engagement, such as supporting the business’s ‘Purple Perks’ loyalty program. Bachman’s plans to expand and improve its digital retail capability, from improving content management and sharing, to launching a dedicated wholesale website. Leveraging their composable digital commerce setup, the company can also maintain consistency and accuracy in its coveted, coffee table-ready plant catalogs.

Customers now enjoy a significantly better purchasing experience, and Bachman’s has the capability to grow its business and compete against much larger players.

Website improvements have helped drive up online revenue by 4%, with individual order revenue increasing 15%. The volume of abandoned website orders has fallen as customers are now able to complete orders without assistance. The resulting 8% drop in support calls also frees call center staff to provide valuable customer service rather than troubleshooting online orders.

Special event promotions such as Mother’s Day previously required two people and two days to roll out. New improvements mean the process can be easily managed by one person. Customers also experience the full scope of Bachman’s products and services since items related to an online purchase or previous visit are automatically recommended. This further increases sales through improved cross- and up-sell opportunities.