Ve Interactive talks to Jose I. Rodriguez, Managing Director and Carlos Motoso, E-Commerce and Technology Officer of FitnessDigital.com

Its head office is in Álava (Spain), with offices in Bayonne (France), Lisbon (Portugal) and it also sells into Belgium and The Netherlands. Considered one of the most renowned companies in its field, it is the leading company in the fitness industry in Spain, as well as the main advisor to hundreds of fitness and sports users in Europe. They installed VeCapture in June 2010.

Hi Jose and Carlos, thank you for agreeing to talk to us. You have an impressive five language ecommerce website and a huge selection of products available, so we're fascinated, tell us more about FitnessDigital.com and how we've been able to assist you.

Well FitnessDigital.com grew out of today's social movement for self-improvement in health and beauty through fitness related activities. We specialise in selling high quality fitness equipment to domestic end-users, as well as semi-professional athletes and businesses. We are one of the largest online fitness equipment retailers in Spain and like you say are also present in five key European markets where the ratio of population and Internet usage is high.

How long have you been offering services online?

We started in October 2006 and launched the online business in May 2007.

And how many visitors do you have to your online basket each month?

Using Google Analytics we know that approximately 3% of our monthly visits end in our shopping basket.

What made you decide to use VeCapture?

VeCapture allows us to supplement our Google Analytics reports and analyse how effectively our online forms and shopping basket are working for our customers. It shows us which fields potentially cause our customers to leave without completing the transaction. With VeCapture we are able identify users and potential clients who abandon in the shopping cart stages, especially those filling in the registration form page.

Do you also use VeContact, our email campaign management tool?

Yes. In fact the real value to us is that once an abandoned email address has been captured, VeContact gives us the ability to automatically remarket to it. We run remarketing campaigns to both new and registered abandoned users to learn why they abandoned, but more importantly to incentivise them to return and convert into sales.

FitnessDigital.com is an online enterprise that specialises in the sales of sport, beauty and health products in Europe.

And what sort of approach do you take with your remarketing messaging?

We always take a positive one, offering help if they had any issues whilst attempting to purchase online and an incentive towards their next purchase.

So what kind of customers could expect to receive a remarketing message from you?

Customers who register but do not end up completing their order within a 24-hour time frame and customers who have not been able to complete their registration form but who started filling in their details. These customers in particular are very important as they are brand new potential leads.

So what results have you seen from using VeCapture and VeContact?

Since purchasing VeCapture and VeContact and evaluating the results, we have seen a growth in sales in all the five European markets. We have managed to capture and convert into sales approximately 5.5 percent of clients who abandon during the checkout process.
In the last month alone we have managed to recoup 16% of abandoned users at the registration page for example, which has resulted in an extra 1.5% of revenue. VeCapture is generating between 1% and 2% more in sales for us. We believe this will only increase as we learn more about our customer base and improve our remarketing capabilities and messages.

How do your customers respond to being contacted by email or phone after abandoning?

Positively. They seem to appreciate the personal touch of being invited to return to our website and are pleased with the offer of help. Some are grateful for our concern in wanting to know their reasons for abandoning.

You mentioned incentives earlier?

Yes within our remarketing campaigns we do offer a small incentive, which has been very successful in getting customers to return and complete their purchase, especially attracting those that might be "price" comparing. Some subsequently call in to ask questions about a specific product they were interested in as well as to take advantage of the small incentive promotion. Others will just automatically take advantage of the promotional code and carry out the purchase online themselves.

So how would you summarise the benefits of VeCapture?

Well commercially - obviously being able to capture potential customers who have been on our website and nudge them to conversion is huge for us, but there's also benefits in terms of business strategy too, because VeCapture helps us improve our overall online efficiency. We can now learn from the new abandoned data and use it to optimise our form and shopping cart accordingly, to better serve our customers going forward.

And how have you found working with Ve Interactive?

We would have to say we have been very impressed with the exceptional customer service at Ve Interactive. Our account manager has been very proactive and helpful from the time of installation, through to the analysing of data, maintenance and configuration of the solution. He is always available and happy to help out.

Thank you so much for your time. You have a superb business and we look forward to watching you expand your reach to the UK.

Testimonial

"In just over a month, VeCapture and VeContact have allowed us to recoup 16% of abandonment into sales, resulting in an extra 1.5% in our online revenue, which would equate to an 18% uplift in annual revenue."

Jose L. Rodriguez, Managing Director - FitnessDigital.com