Santa Monica Seafood Explores a Sea of Opportunities by Expanding to Direct-to-Consumer
Santa Monica Seafood was officially founded back in 1939 on the Santa Monica Pier. One or two things own tainted larger than the years. They still offer the highest quality and selection of seafood to restaurants and customers next to their two Southern California retail locations. However, promptly customers universally can experience their lobster tails, swordfish and more through their Dock Direct online salt away.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major blow on fill with worldwide, moving everything from their jobs and social lives to how they supermarket and wherever they dine. Overnight many of the restaurants the seafood brand company supplied were shuttered. At the same stage, persons restaurants’ previous customers were missing the seafood dishes they formerly enjoyed. The direct-to-consumer transaction exploded as fill with absolute to try cooking their favorites representing themselves.
Fishing representing the Right Fit
To the same extent Santa Monica happening to investigate expanding their direct-to-consumer ecommerce transaction, they knew they considered necessary to last to prioritize their customers and collapse them the unsurpassed potential experience. They furthermore knew, as they were still figuring improbable how this modern customer vile was shopping, they would need a flexible locate to facilitate would give permission them nominate changes quickly.
To the same extent Alfredo Chavez, Director of Ecommerce next to Santa Monica Seafood, explains: “We had a deep affiliation with our customers we wanted to last. The amount of flexibility to facilitate was on hand by the platform was recipe to us since we didn’t know exactly come again? Our direct-to-consumer offering was departing to look like. We had a quantity of broad strokes. But we didn’t know, representing illustration, to facilitate it’s very central to customers to facilitate they be able to select the shipping time. And we didn’t know if they would have a preference to select the species or own it pre-selected since selling fish was modern to them.”
They considered Magento and Shopify Plus or settling on BigCommerce. Khai Vuong, Director of IT representing Santa Monica Seafood, explains: “We wanted to comprehend into a platform to facilitate would allow us to grow to thousands, and potentially millions, of transactions for every month. So that’s why we happening the journey, looking next to multiple solutions improbable at hand. BigCommerce strikes the absolute inside ground amid the fat, convoluted solutions, such as Magento, and a lesser, more lithe but restrictive solution, such as Shopify.”
Magento was quickly unconcerned from the options since of the high spot development expenses. “Magento would require more from the IT team to avow. The security implications, the patching and a quantity of of the support on creating content on our complication salt away, maintaining a quantity of of the marketing campaign, we considered all of to facilitate,” says Vuong.
Chavez explains why BigCommerce ultimately won improbable larger than Shopify: “Once we happening really digging in and discussion to our developers as well, BigCommerce became the easiest wealth. It on hand the for the most part flexibility, both in stipulations of programmatically and how unproblematic it was to nominate adjustments.” Chavez appreciates to facilitate his team can effortlessly nominate adjustments to themes as considered necessary.
A Site That Works representing Everyone
The flexibility was incredibly central since it tolerable Santa Monica Seafood to nominate a locate to facilitate worked both representing developers on the backend and the marketing team on the frontend.
“One of the advantages of BigCommerce to facilitate really stood improbable is the Page Builder widget,” says Vuong. “That allows our creative director to not single create the salt away, but furthermore to avow the content of the salt away exclusive of involvement from IT. That is extremely crucial representing us, as we make for through the pandemic and loom the migration of our whole transaction larger than to a modern ERP usage. The IT team really needs to focus on the ERP characteristic.”
Speaking from the marketing characteristic Chavez adds: “I own all the nonconformity to look after whatever I would like to build this up. With a tool like BigCommerce, it’s unproblematic. So, I not at all uneasiness around, ‘How look after I look after to facilitate? How look after I plunk a banner up? How look after I top this promotion or start a promotion? How look after I offer a buy-one-get-one-free [offer]?’ All to facilitate stuff is truly built in. Once you’ve used it as soon as, that’s it. You’ve learned it. It’s like a bicycle, you’re not departing to put out of your mind how to look after it.”
Santa Monica Seafood leverages headless buying — to facilitate is using a separate frontend and BigCommerce representing ecommerce on the backend — to provide even greater flexibility. Vuong explains: “The headless buying aspect allows us to comprehend a salt away up and running quickly, capitalize on the advertise to facilitate was improbable at hand and start broadcasting our presence improbable to our consumers. But it allows us the flexibility and the power to grow into something greatly better than come again? We even had in mind what time we happening improbable.”
Giving Customers What They Want
Adaptability has been incredibly central as Santa Monica Seafood has explored modern markets and modern customer bases. Chavez has been able to conduct test to explore ways to further the conversion rate and collapse customers come again? They would like.
“When I happening running Google ads, I was getting a respectable amount of traffic, but I was getting very low conversions,” says Chavez. “I went in. I tainted a quantity of verbiage. I added a chief buy token of 10%, all on my own, and my conversion rate went up. The customer needs a little morsel of incentive to complete to facilitate buy. We can look after to facilitate.”
But not all customers were approaching through Google Ads, so Chavez made convinced to attend to all touchpoints to leave rejection customer behind. “We added the 10% to a banner on the landing bleep and as a token what time you sign up representing the newsletter. At all step of the way, it was unproblematic to communicate to my customers, since BigCommerce has the tools. We furthermore benefit from the seamless integration with Klaviyo to handiwork the offer into our email flows. So all good fortune I comprehend, we provide a option representing a customer to know around to facilitate chief 10% token.”
The company is furthermore listening to its customers what time it comes to reaction. Some didn’t like to facilitate they were using styrofoam packaging, so they shifted to curbside recyclable packaging. Another way they’re addressing their DTC customers’ needs is by adapting the fulfillment process to attend to all preferences. For illustration, what time customers wanted a curbside pickup option from their two retail locations, they were able to add to facilitate effortlessly. They’re furthermore using ReCharge, which integrates with BigCommerce, to create a subscription mean so customers can usual up frequent deliveries.
Teach a male to (Cook) Fish
One more way Santa Monica Seafood chains their modern customer vile is by given that content in the form of recipes to help shoppers master cooking their favorite dishes and explore modern ways to benefit from seafood.
“The BigCommerce blog allows us to very effortlessly create and avow recipes, which is very central to drive customer engagement and furthermore purchases, by giving customers ideas on come again? They can nominate with our products. It was a must-have trait at some point in our merchandise selection part, and we love the current implementation of it in BigCommerce,” says Vuong.
From the marketing characteristic, Chavez enjoys how unproblematic the process is: “I can fling recipes up at hand next to a moment’s notice, or on a uniform basis, and not own to uneasiness too much around how to build the content improbable and come again? I would like it to look like.”
Never Stop Experimenting
While Santa Monica Seafood has promptly built a beautiful locate with an exciting modern customer vile, they can’t time-out on their laurels. Things are constantly changing, and so too be required to the locate adapt to keep up.
“Since restaurants happening opening back up next to the top of February, come again? Was working isn’t working anymore,” says Chavez. “My traffic happening to dip. And my advertisement terminology financial plan had to be adjusted. It was a give instructions correlation from opening up, to trailing traffic, to followed by having to adjust how I sell like hot cakes products. For illustration, I was advertising more crab legs and lobster tails what time restaurants were blocked. Now to facilitate they’re candid, I’m more listening carefully on everyday items like wild-caught fish, salmon, wild-caught halibut, things you might cook on a Tuesday night, as an alternative of something to facilitate you ignore from a Saturday sunset feast next to your favorite restaurant.” Being able to pivot quickly to adapt to changing customer behavior has been an central case of Santa Monica Seafood’s strategy.
Wrapping Up
Every transaction has their unique challenges. Santa Monica Seafood solved theirs by conclusion an ecommerce platform to facilitate chains their need representing flexibility so they can last to adapt as they explore modern audiences. On BigCommerce, they can add modern fulfillment methods, quickly spin up modern content or promotions and not affect their backend development handiwork.
Some of the challenges they qualified mirror the anguish points of other enterprise businesses as they seek to adapt to a changing retail landscape. From paying too much representing tech to overreliance on developers, you can explore a quantity of of the biggest challenges qualified by ecommerce businesses at the moment — and how they’re solving them — in this data-driven inform from Digital Commerce 360.
Is your transaction growth being constrained by these anguish points? Get the chock-full inform now to discovery improbable.
