Personalized Skincare Shopping: How NOLA Skinsentials Elevates the User Experience with Text Now, Buy Later

Twitter Thread Turned New Tech - #Influenced on a Whym

With the rise of social commerce, one can stumble upon the next big thing unexpectedly.

For Jane, she found Whym, well, on a whim. Scrolling her Twitter feed, she noticed a post from Jason Wong, the mastermind behind the multi-million dollar DTC lash brand, Doe Lashes. A longtime customer of Whym, Jason was sharing his success using Whym to engage shoppers on his website with our Text Me This Item feature, quickly piquing Jane’s curiosity:

“There are certain e-commerce leaders that I follow on Twitter, I would say 60% of everything that they post, I would take into consideration and check out. Especially things that they're actually using on their website and putting out for their customers. Clearly it’s working for them and they have great success with their brand.”

“After visiting Doe’s site, I knew we needed to check out Whym because he's actually using it, not just promoting it.”

Imitation is flattery, and given the similar nature of Doe’s products and ideal buyer profiles, Jane knew Whym was the tool she needed to adapt to the new customer journey.

Beyond Traditional Channels: Embracing The Future of SMS-Based Shopping

While Buy now pay later (BNPL) has been popular, consumers are turning to new options like Save Now, Buy Later.

‍But what about those complicated pre-buying stages? For the 98% of shoppers in browse mode, they rely on saving tabs, texting links, and taking screenshots. But skincare shoppers face an even messier journey—with the average consumer considering four to six brands at any given time.

Source: McKinsey

Whym offers an innovative new product in a category replacing BNPL with a text now, buy later solution— changing the way shoppers research and buy products. With Whym installed across NOLA's product detail pages, shoppers can collect, save and compare products all in one place. Texted items are stored in one centralized shopping inbox that lives on their mobile device, indefinitely. With Whym’s Text Me This Item feature, Jane finally found the solution to bridge the gap for her overwhelmed browsers:

“Skincare is just one of those niches where I feel like it's not really an impulse type of buy. Shoppers take their time, they want to compare, revisit and research. When I found Whym I was impressed by the option shoppers have to text themselves from our website. It's been really helpful to catch those people who are not ready to buy at that specific moment.”

As SMS becomes a valuable channel for NOLA, Jane sees additional value investing in a tool like Whym to support their community building efforts, “Email is great, but I think that SMS is so much more personal because people are always on their phone. It’s also a fantastic channel to build trust with—having that 1:1 access, helps us provide more compelling offers about the products of interest.”

An ANTI-SPAM Experience—Navigating a Cookieless Web with First-Party Data Tools

As the spotlight on data privacy grows, online shoppers are increasingly weary of how their online shopping data is shared and stored. It's crucial that brands like NOLA are forward thinking by investing in tools to put privacy and consent at the forefront.

But there's a catch. With the decline of third-party cookies, brands must find new ways to deliver more engaging experiences with less data. Meanwhile, consumers want personalization without sacrificing privacy.

The solution? First-party data. That's where Whym comes in. Whym offers a unique fully opted-in experience for shoppers right from the start. By using Whym’s tools, shoppers can personalize their own browsing and shopping journey based on their interests, as Jane explains:

“We’re unlocking additional value using Whym as another soft channel to nurture and incentivize the vast majority of our shoppers in browse mode. The data helps us build trust by educating and engaging prospects, allowing them to familiarize themselves with our brand ethos.”

As the old advertising models driven by the Google-Facebook duopoly crumble, Whym’s first-party tools help brands like NOLA overcome the loss of third-party cookies and abide by clean data practices.

Scaling With Intention—Slow and Steady Wins the Advertising Arm’s Race

As the current digital ads arm’s race intensifies, intentional scaling is crucial for e-commerce brands to adapt and thrive. For NOLA, this meant re-evaluating their approach to ad spend entirely, as Jane explains:

“We're not spending nearly as much as we did. What we used to spend a day on ads, we're now spending over the course of three days. It has toned down a lot and you just have to play the long game. I think that there's more value in that—slow and steady is the way to go.”