Doe Lashes Captures $20,000 of pent-up Demand with Text Me This Item

Launching in 2020, Doe Lashes’ founder Jason Wong sought to bring comfort, affordability and ethical manufacturing to the lash industry. His curiosity and commitment to quality paid off. In just two years, his idea has exploded into a multimillion dollar brand. Lash lovers flock to Doe for their signature blend of handcrafted silk lashes, which can be worn 15+ times with care. 

Doe attributes their early marketing success to diversifying their efforts across channels like Snapchat, Tiktok, Facebook and email. But after the post-pandemic eCommerce boom, Jason noticed a major shift in his buyer’s behavior. 

With more competition and channels vying for customer’s attention, traditional ad channels quickly were completely oversaturated. “Ads are being shown to less relevant consumers and the customer journey is getting longer. It takes more to convert them and on the brand side we had to adjust,” says Jason.

Redefining Metrics that Matter in the New Era of eCommerce

Adapting to these shifts in consumer behavior, Jason re-evaluated how his team measured success. Their old models were too heavily focused on conversions, a “bottom of funnel metric” only serving customers ready to buy now. 

‍This neglected the vast majority of shoppers at the “top of the funnel,” in browse mode—which recent data shows is an overwhelming 98% of shoppers. 

The north star metrics they once relied on didn’t paint the whole picture, as Jason explains, “Back in the day we were focused on simple metrics like ROAS, but our shift in the KPIs has changed with the market conditions. We’ve had to refocus on the website and ensure we’re providing the best experience for those browsing as opposed to being focused on conversions alone.”

‍The challenge? Collecting & connecting customer data to product intent in order to understand exactly how and when passive browsers would buy later. With ad costs rising and conversion rates falling, Jason used Whym as a tool to compensate for latent shopper demand and sales. 

Driving Personalization and Customer Retention at Scale with Intent to Buy Data

Whym’s Text Me This Item button presented the perfect complement to the marketing tactics Doe was already running, at a margin of the cost. 

‍Seamlessly embedded across their website’s product pages, Text Me This Item was up and running in just minutes. “It was very easy to use. You offered two options - one was an automatic setup with your team or simple DIY setup which is just entering a line of code. It was way easier than any other tools I’ve used,” says Jason.

When shoppers engage with Text Me This Item on Doe’s website, Whym collects their products of interest in one global shopping cart, where they can easily collect, compare and save items via SMS until they are ready to buy.

Text Me This Item arms Doe’s marketing team with buyer’s intent data at the product level, which would otherwise be lost to a coupon code or pop-up, as Jason explains, “With Whym you’re creating orders from customers who otherwise would not have bought. Whym is enabling us to make that transaction.”

Capturing Lost Revenue With Text Me This Item

Before Whym, Jason's team relied heavily on email and SMS channels to support their lead generation efforts during high traffic holiday spikes. The strategy for 2022 will largely stay the same, but with the added bonus of Text Me This Item’s buyer intent data:

“This year we’re using Whym. It’s an amplified version of what we’ve been doing before, but provides us with customer data that’s product-specific. Previously we were just collecting phone numbers for the entire brand, but with Whym, we’re capturing people’s intent and their phone numbers and allowing them to make purchases on their own timeline.”

Before installing Text Me This Item across their product pages, Jason was concerned that his standard website conversion rates might be impacted by giving shoppers any other option than 'buy now'.

‍With Text Me This Item? Not only were checkout conversion rates unaffected, but Doe's product pages are working even harder - collecting 6% more shopper revenue in carts ready to close.

Lowering CAC and Ad Spend through Strategic Retargeting

Before Whym, the Doe team was already experiencing paid advertising deterioration (impacted by the iOS 14.5 update) - investing heavily in re-targeting strategies with sub-par performance.

With Whym, Doe is realizing the added benefits of lowering their CAC while capturing data for more strategic retargeting down the line. Rather than investing in outside channels for re-engagement, they own their customer’s data:

“It will improve our margins a lot because we don’t have to spend additional dollars to retarget those customers we once lost. Our margins will improve significantly because you’re adding incremental revenue without the advertising costs that comes with it.”

In less than 60 days with Text Me This Item active on their site, Doe captured 800 new product requests, amounting to $20,000 in potential revenue to be unlocked through retargeting tactics.

Optimizing Inventory Forecasting & Planning for Future Demand

“Whym operates as a universal wishlist - you can capture people’s interest on products they want to get, without forcing them to make a purchase immediately. It’s the only tool I can think of that allows you to do that.”