While we’ve seen newer retailers embrace the sudden, but necessary, shift to digital, we were curious how other, legacy retailers were adapting. Big box retailers, who may not be as digitally-native as newer brands, had to update antiquated processes to keep up with customer expectations.
Over three weeks, we examined Bed Bath & Beyond’s (BB&B) email and mobile marketing experience to see how they’re adapting to the new landscape. By completing various actions—sign up for emails, abandon a product browse, abandon a cart, etc.—with BB&B, we were able to uncover customer experience successes as well as opportunities.
BB&B is known for their never-expiring 20% off coupons (trust us, your mom has a stack of ‘em somewhere in her house), but we wanted to delve deeper into the digital. How does this direct-mail giant continue the same brand awareness and familiarity in their online marketing channels?
Our consolidated results are showcased at the end of this post, in our Customer Experience Analysis, but we’ve highlighted some stats below for a summary of our experience with Bed Bath & Beyond. Also, be sure to check out our other Customer Experience Analyses of Nike, HBO Max, ASOS, and E.L.F. Cosmetics.
Our Bed Bath & Beyond Customer Experience
In the attached analysis we illustrate the research process in a timeline to demonstrate when and how Bed Bath & Beyond shares their marketing messages.
Over the three weeks we received:
- 46 messages total
- 32 emails (22 promotions, 2 welcome emails, 8 abandoned browse/cart)
- 14 mobile pushes
We wanted to better understand how big box retail brands are transforming their legacy systems and taking advantage of their vast catalogs to create personalized, unique customer experiences. Plus, as always, we were interested in seeing how built-out BB&B’s cross-channel marketing strategy is and how effectively each channel is being used.
While our insights only capture a small sample of BB&B’s full customer experience, the knowledge gained is applicable to marketers across industries.
When we first signed up for BB&B emails, we were sent a transactional email, confirming the sign up, and then immediately received the traditional welcome email—confetti-laden gifs and all. While, yes, the timing could have been optimized, and these emails could have been combined, Bed Bath & Beyond dove headfirst into their cross-channel strategy by including a banner to sign up for SMS communications in the welcome email. This is stellar. Bringing SMS into email immediately creates a holistic experience for the user, demonstrating how each marketing channel connects to one another.
The personalization foundation is in place with BB&B’s marketing messages, but, given the amount of customer data that is available to brands (for example, time zones, ZIP codes, and even communication preferences), content can be customized without needing nitty-gritty details from customers. Bed Bath & Beyond can take advantage of the data that’s immediately available to them.
See how Bed Bath & Beyond can go… beyond (sorry) their current marketing strategy with our additional takeaways in the analysis below.
