The Challenge
Imperial’s seasonal trade show is critical to their business, allowing customers to preview new merchandise, get up to speed on the latest trends and place orders for the months to come. The travel and gathering restrictions required during the pandemic made a virtual event solution an absolute necessity.
Our Approach
Yalo crafted a custom experience for their virtual trade show including extensive branding, a custom shopping experience, live demonstrations scheduled throughout the day as well as videos highlighting everything from welcome messaging and keynote presentations to trends and featured products. We were on hand throughout the virtual event to provide support and make adjustments based on user interaction.
Branding for Growth and Scale.
Yalo started with a complete rebrand that allowed for consistency across seasonal shows going forward. Our brand strategists established a new branded approach to merchandise categories and carried it across the browsing and shopping experience.
New iconography was put in place focusing on the season of the show with a focus on adaptability. Fall Winter and Spring Summer designs were created as a starting point. The marks were made to stand alone or live in conjunction with the Imperial branding depending on the needs of the communication.
Custom branded visuals and type treatments were created to bring the shopping categories to life. Almost all of Imperial’s customers were used to shopping by category at the physical shows, so it was important to provide a consistent visual language throughout the shopping experience to help maintain that focus within the virtual show.
Promotional Planning and Registration.
Yalo created and implemented a promotional calendar, including regular email sends to drive registrations for the show. We created graphics and content to highlight the show on the Imperial website as well as the system for registering customers for the event.
Seasonal Merchandise was able to be purchased during the virtual event as well as throughout the following weeks. We continued to promote the shopping experience after the event and remind customers of upcoming order deadlines.
A Virtual Events Welcome.
Yalo created a virtual lobby welcoming everyone to the show with instant access to key videos, links to upcoming live presentations, and direct links to shop the seasonal merchandise. We also created a help section for the event which included a video walkthrough for customers needing some guidance, and staffed a live chat to answer any questions as needed throughout the show.
The Tailored Shopping Experience.
While the shopping experience was straightforward and easy to use for attendees, there was a great deal of complexity going on behind the scenes. Different requirements across multiple products and customers were all accounted for in the development of the virtual event. There were complex shipping options – including shipping waves – scheduled upon purchase at different points throughout the year. The pricing and shopping also allowed for multiple billing zones, driving what was presented to the attendee and a rewards system for discounts based on products and quantities purchased. In addition to the custom e-commerce solution, Yalo handled custom development for high value clients that required purchase management capabilities across their company’s attendees.
Multiple Engagement Opportunities.
The main category pages of the virtual event featured both pre-recorded content with information on trends and featured products as well as links to live demonstrations available throughout the day. A live chat was staffed by category managers to assist clients in real-time with ordering and to answer any questions they had relating to merchandise.
A Clear Picture.
Yalo utilized FullStory to process Imperial’s customer data and surface the greatest sources of frustration and funnel dropout throughout the Imperial 2021 Seasonal Spring-Summer Show. This allowed us both to address any pain points we were noticing during the event itself as well as to capture improvement opportunities for the next Imperial virtual event. FullStory’s powerful analytics engine transforms data interaction points into perfectly actionable insights across your digital channels—at scale.
Uncovered hidden opportunities
Found the greatest sources of frustration and funnel dropout (i.e. rage clicks, dead clicks, incorrect links, small/blurry product images, etc). during the Imperial 2021 Spring-Summer Seasonal Show website from August 25 – September 16th.
Prioritized Movements
Discovered what issues had the greatest impact on users/attendees as they shopped (i.e. product images, all products vs. by category, checkout process, wave dates, etc. ) and needed to be addressed promptly.
Analyzed and Understood
Gained deeper-level insights and solutions by seeing everything the customer experienced on the Imperial 2021 Spring-Summer Seasonal Show site — form the user’s perspective. Replayed sessions, delved into code issues, and measured web performance to find opportunities from every angle.
Tracked and Measured Outcomes
Got updates on whether further fine-tuning was required to improve the digital experience for users during the Imperial 2021 Spring-Summer Seasonal Show.
The Results
Imperial’s first-ever virtual seasonal virtual trade show was a huge success. The show had high engagement with over 160K+ page views and average sessions time of around 30 min. Imperial generated over $4M in seasonal merchandise orders during the seasonal show and continued to collect orders in the weeks following by utilizing the shopping experience built for the virtual event. Yalo was happy to play a part in the success of their first virtual event and have already begun working on Imperial’s Fall Winter Seasonal Show.
Excited about the possibilities and reach of virtual events and online happenings? We’d love to discuss your needs and craft a virtual experience that’s just right for your audience. Reach us below to get a conversation started.
