With roots dating back to 1926, HEMA (short for ‘Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam’ – translated to ‘Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam’) is a Dutch variety retailer that began operations as a dime store. Focused on providing premium value to customers, the department store offers a wide variety of personal and household goods at over 800 stores worldwide, including a retail presence in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
The company also operates a thriving e-commerce shop with home delivery and click-and-collect options. Over the years, HEMA has become a national institution in the Netherlands, with Dutch consumers voting it ‘the most indispensable brand in the Netherlands’ several years in a row.
Despite its long history, HEMA has never been stuck in the past, but always keeps a finger on the pulse of current retail consumer trend and evolves accordingly. In light of changing shopping behaviors, the company realized the importance of converting customers across the full spectrum of offline and online shopping channels; especially because research proved omnichannel buyers spend more online as well as in store.
The beloved brand also zeroed in on boosting communications effectiveness, recognizing that their newsletters and promotional emails were sent at various times of day, not influenced by a customer’s individual behavior or preference. The team at HEMA set the following goals:
Thanks to Selligent, we were able to target the perfect time of day to message individual customers and enrich our communications with personalized content based on consumer profiles and behavioral data. The positive results were instantaneous and speak for themselves!
Tim van den Berg
CRM Campaign Lead for HEMA
Working with partner creative agency Yourzine, HEMA relied on Marigold Engage to bring customer engagement to the next level. With Selligent’s data capture capabilities and Universal Consumer Profiles as the foundation for rich customer intelligence, the team used the platform’s built-in campaign execution capabilities as follows:
Yourzine, an Adeptiv agency, is a digital customer journey marketing agency that helps brands and organisations increase customer value throughout all digital and customer contact moments. Their team of marketing professionals embraces various business and marketing models, with one common thread: growth. Yourzine collects, interprets, and implements customer data and information to develop effective customer contact strategies and roll out custom-made creative. Services include data intelligence and solutions, CRM and customer engagement, technology, customer journey strategy, campaign management, and optimization and analytics. Learn more at yourzine.com.
Once the campaign went live, HEMA did not have to wait long for results. In the comparison between control group (without STO) and test group (STO active), emails sent at a personalized time of day clearly performed better, marked by a 2.44% spike in Open Rate. Below-the-line results on business success included a revenue boost above the 1-million-euro mark.
Looking ahead, the HEMA team will keep applying the winning formula in its customer engagement. “The Selligent platform provides the technology that lets us approach customers at the right moment with relevant and personalized content. Thanks to real-time testing capabilities, we can see the benefits right away and will continue to create ‘spot-on’ experiences in this format in the future,” said Tim van den Berg, CRM Campaign Lead for HEMA.
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