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Anna's Incense: Incense Online? Success does Smell Sweet!

Don't think that people would buy incense online? Think again!

Despite being told numerous times that people would never buy incense on the Internet- where people couldn't smell it- Anna's Incense has repeatedly proven the doubters wrong.

Anna's Incense does SERIOUS business - selling thousands of sticks of incense to thousands of customers each month. And the list grows every day.

The Story:

Born in Toronto during the funkiest part of the 70's, Anna later moved to the ragged wilderness of British Columbia where she began her magical journey into the realm of incense. With the help of her family, she soon began sharing her incense at local flea markets and music festivals. Her popularity reached cult proportions with regular fans coming back again and again, bringing friends and family from far and wide for Anna's fine incense.

Unfortunately hampered by the limitations of space and time, Anna was only able to bring her incense to the fortunate few who lived within the reach of her old Dodge van. The rest of Canada and in fact, the world, would still be living without any knowledge of Anna and her wonderful wares, if not for the intervention of Anna's brother, Jeremy.

Having graduated from Radio and Television school, Jeremy applied his knowledge of the Internet - and communications in general - to Anna's successful line of incense bottles. Under the spiritual and financial guidance of their father, Steve, retired entrepreneur and life long sales expert, the brother and sister team had been able to spread the smell of Anna's Incense to thousands of people around the world.

The Challenge:

Anna’s popularity and activity soon outgrew their original website:


  • Fulfilling orders became cumbersome and time-consuming.

  • Sales were being lost due to website limitations.

  • Competitors and "copycat" websites were becoming familiar – potentially cutting into market share.


The Solution:

Anna’s Incense approached Deejays.com -- a Vancouver based website development and management company -- to develop their new website and implement their ideas. The website was to further differentiate themselves, expand marketing, enhance customer service, and streamline business processes. Together, we commerce-enabled four (4) websites that interlink and support consumers throughout the shopping experience.

US Retail:
www.annasincense.com

Canadian Retail:
www.annasincense.ca

US Wholesale:
www.wholesaleincense.com

Canadian Wholesale:
www.wholesaleincense.ca


Web Site Design

The sites are easy to use, the images load quickly, and the style is pleasing and inviting to their target market. The goals of the site design are (1) to help keep potential consumers engaged and motivated to stay and learn about Anna's and their products; (2) to properly communicate the site content; and (3) to help guide consumers to the necessary steps of liking, preference, conviction, and purchase.

E-commerce & Database Development

May I take your order, please? The ordering system is smooth and effortless. Consumers can easily add items to the shopping cart while continuing to browse. Once they have their baskets filled up, the checkout wait is minimal- the page is quick loading and the checkout interface is easy to use. Customer credit card validation is done automatically, and if everything is ok the order is placed. Automated invoices are then sent to the consumer, and order status can be viewed online.

Ready to Reorder? The ordering process is even easier for repeat customers. When a customer enters their phone number in the Ready To Reorder! field, they can click on the Reorder Favorite Items link. This automatically places their previous order in their shopping cart. When the customer is ready to leave, all of their shipping and billing info is already entered. The customer simply has to re-enter their credit card information and click the Place Order button. A four step shopping process.

Webmaster & Marketing

DJ's hosts the sites; provides technical support; helps maintain the search engine positioning and link gathering; brainstorms marketing ideas; performs site updates and changes; communicates key "performance indicators"; and also performs custom tasks to help in the implementation of the strategy.

Without divulging into the particulars, the marketing strategy involves:


  • understanding consumer pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase behaviors, attitudes, and influences.

  • interpreting marketing cues.

  • Measuring and monitoring campaigns.

  • Testing and re-adjusting based on what the measurements reveal.


Emphasis is placed on how consumers come to purchase their products (from unawareness to purchase).

To build awareness, one method is search engine placement. Here are a handful of search engine results under the search term incense*:

Keyword: incense
Position: 1
Search Engine: Yahoo

Keyword: incense
Position: 1
Search Engine: Google

Keyword: incense
Position: 1
Search Engine: MSN

Keyword: incense
Position: 3
Search Engine: LookSmart

Keyword: incense
Position: 1
Search Engine: AOL

Keyword: incense
Position: 1
Search Engine: All The Web

Keyword: incense
Position: 1
Search Engine: Lycos

Keyword: incense
Position: 1
Search Engine: HotBot

* Stats compiled in July 2003.

An important piece of the marketing strategy is using the strengths of the Internet to provide great customer service. Research shows that 90% of all online shoppers consider good customer service to be the critical factor when choosing a Web merchant to give their business (Driving Sales with Service, Forrester Research, November 1999).

The Result:

With the new sites, Anna's has realized a 25% increase in order size, a 30% increase in revenue, and a 20% increase in order frequency and hits to order ratio. Furthermore, they have realized a 20% decrease in operating costs. Anna's Customer Shopping Experience rating is amongst the most highly rated in the Bizrate.com system- and it is constantly increasing at regular intervals.

Anna's Incense is a true Internet success story.

The Intangibles:

Anna’s Incense is a respected industry leader. This spawns copycat competitors. The current functionality of the website and custom programming is difficult to emulate giving Anna’s a distinct competitive advantage.

Customer loyalty to Anna’s Incense is increasing significantly:

  • Anna’s receives increases in repeat orders each month.

  • Anna’s receives hundreds of positive testimonials, many with a “I will only shop at Anna’s for incense” theme.


Visit Anna's Incense at www.annasincense.com


This e-business success story was provided by Deejays.com. Deejays provides Web Design and e-Business Architecture for small and medium sized businesses."We provide down-to-earth web solutions that help you reach consumers and enhance business."

Visit Deejays.com at www.deejays.com
 
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