Salmat Pre-Shop® News | June 2009

Welcome to this issue of Salmat Digital Pre-Shop News. This month we’re looking at case studies of two of our clients who have benefited from implementing our digital services, as well as the more traditional marketing and advertising services of the wider Salmat group.

You hear so much about this new multi-channel retail environment in a general or abstract sense, but what really brings it all home is hearing about how actual Australian retailers have adapted their marketing and operations to get the most out of it. We hope you enjoy reading about these two prominent retailers and if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me – all my information is at the bottom of this email.

Don’t forget to keep up with local and international issues concerning multi-channel retailing with the LinkedIn group – Australian Multichannel Retailer Forum. There are new articles and discussions posted almost every day.

Kind regards

Paul Marshall
Executive Director
Salmat Digital

Borders

As part of the REDGroup Retail group, Borders is Australia’s leading experience-based bookstore, holding the largest range of books, magazines, music and DVDs, as well as housing cafes in many of its 20-plus stores.

Due to the dynamic nature of the market, Borders runs over 12 campaigns each year, advertising hundreds of the latest product offers in every campaign. This requires an integrated solution for its product-based advertising, one that reaches customers across various channels and communicates the latest products and promotional offers directly to consumers.

One million Borders catalogues are delivered by Salmat to support each major retail campaign, targeting households located close to Borders stores using Salmat’s geo-demographic profiling tool MarketFind. Borders also extends its reach to a targeted online audience using Lasoo and Dynamic Campaigns. Product information is easily discoverable via a keyword search of specific titles and authors, and is easily shared through social networks.

Borders now reports it reached an extra 817,000 visitors in the last six months of 2008 on its own site, thanks to Dynamic Catalogue. Almost 20 million individual offer impressions were displayed. Lasoo drives consumers to the Borders website and exposes the brand to new customers. An additional 20,000 visitors per month view the catalogue on Lasoo.

Sam's Warehouse

Sam’s Warehouse (also known as Retail Adventures) is a multi-category discount retailer with over 100 stores and 4000 team members across Australia.

As a long-standing partner of Lasoo.com.au, Sam’s Warehouse advertises all its catalogues as well as unique offers on our site and also publishes the catalogues on its own custom-built Dynamic Catalogue site.

At the completion of one sales period in mid-2008, the company was left with excess stock of a particular brand of GPS units, which were dispersed amongst several Sam’s Warehouse stores in different quantities. The challenge was how to sell this excess stock in a fast and efficient manner.

With varying levels of stock and the fact that some stores had completely sold out, Sam’s Warehouse needed a targeted offering to ensure sales were fast but efficient. We identified the chance to market this excess stock online.

By using Lasoo.com.au, Sam’s Warehouse was able to advertise the units at a reduced price to specific areas. Only people who had set their location to areas in which the retailer had the product available were able to see the offer and only stores with the GPS unit had customers directed to them.

The turnaround for the promotion was a few days and it ensured the company was not burdened with this stock for an extended period. The offer saw a huge increase in traffic for Sam’s Warehouse as well as social sharing of the offer on various sites and forums, including Facebook, and via email. Sales of the product increased by more than 800% in a three-day period for all stores involved. Lasoo was the only media this offer was advertised in.

If you’re looking to target offers in particular areas with a much quicker turnaround than that of traditional media, then online Pre-Shop sites such as Lasoo.com.au are your answer.


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Sound bites…

Online ad spending will rise 8.9% in 2009.


- eMarketer