Snakehive grew onsite conversion by 26% and increased AOV with actionable insights and simplified operations
Talking with Tim Thorp, Co-founder at Snakehive
About
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Industry
Leather Accessories
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Platform
Shopify Plus
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Website
www.snakehive.co.uk
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Instagram
@snakehive
Integrated with these apps
The Snakehive Story
Snakehive began with father-son duo Nick and Tim Thorp out of a back-bedroom in their home in Dorking, Surrey. Launching just as smartphones were gaining popularity in 2012, Nick and Tim realised that while there were cheap, mass produced phone cases on the market, there were not many options for the discerning customer looking to protect their phones with a high-quality phone case, made with premium materials that was also environmentally sustainable. Thus Snakehive was born.
The brand sources their premium leather products from Europe. Not afraid to experiment, designs included everything from belt pouch phone holders to sustainable, wood-carved cases, before settling on the ever-popular Vintage Leather Wallet. Confident that they had landed on a keeper, they expanded from humble beginnings as mobile phone case providers to include a wide range of premium leather accessories into their repertoire.
In the last 6 years Snakehive has seen significant success in eCommerce, selling on both Shopify and Amazon and expanding with two more eCommerce stores in the US and Europe.
We spoke with co-founder Tim Thorp to learn about their journey, how they’ve achieved a lift in AOV and Onsite Conversion and how AMP’s growth power-duo Lifetimely and Upsell, have armed them with actionable insights, revenue drivers and simplified their operations.
To Snakehive, good products and people have a lot in common. It's not all about looks; it's about what's on the inside too.
+26%
Increase in Onsite Conversion since using both Lifetimely and Upsell by AMP
The Problem
As with many eCommerce merchants, Tim was initially focused on growing the brand both on Amazon and Shopify. Over time the brand’s strategy shifted to focus heavily on growing their Shopify store. Having previously fallen into the trap of trying “shiny new things” in terms of adding apps to his tech stack, Tim and his team were wary of adding too many tools that did not provide enough value, added another layer of complexity to their operations and drove costs up.
But as the Shopify store scaled, the team of 10 found themselves jumping into spreadsheets everyday to manage their P&L reporting, which was time-consuming and often inaccurate.
“I thought, we're allocating way too much of our resources to just pulling running spreadsheets and subsequently troubleshooting those spreadsheets because those spreadsheets don't update in real time. So when you want to look at the data, it’s often outdated.”
They also needed visibility into their Shopify customers to answer questions like; what did their customer’s buying journeys look like, how often did they make a repeat purchase, what types of products should they focus promotional campaigns on to drive new customer acquisition and how much could they afford to spend on acquisition?
In addition to these insights, Tim was also on the lookout for a simple, cost effective, automated way to drive average order value using upsells. In the past the team had used an app that had proven too complex and expensive and they eventually moved away from that solution.
+8-10%
Increase in Average Order Value since using Upsell by AMP
The Solution
We realized from the data that we can get from Lifetimely what are the products that we would not have otherwise focused our remarketing efforts on...That’s where Lifetimely has had the biggest impact on our retention.”
Tim Thorp, Co-founder at Snakehive
As a top priority Tim needed a solution that would give him and his team live, accurate, automated daily P&L reporting replacing outdated spreadsheets. Although this was their primary reason for installing Lifetimely by AMP, Tim soon realized that he could leverage the data in Lifetimely to drive his long term growth strategy from acquisition to retention.
“We came to Lifetimely primarily because of the P&L tool, but what I've learned since upgrading my plan is that there's so much value in all the other features like lifetime value, cohort analysis, the second purchase, understanding how we can grow our average order value- it adds so much more value than just P&L and that initial use case of why we got Lifetimely.”
Snakehive team leverage Lifetimely customer behavior reports to inform strategy. From inventory planning, to campaign calendar, to retention strategies, Tim explains;
“We realized from the data that we can get from Lifetimely what are the products that we would not have otherwise focused our remarketing efforts on, that people are actually likely to buy as a second purchase. Then we can shape our content around those products, we can develop more products like that- add more features, more colors. That’s where I think Lifetimely has had the biggest impact on our retention.”
On the acquisition front Tim and his team have also been able to leverage Lifetimely to identify products that lead to a faster repeat purchase and adjust their marketing budget to be able to spend more on acquiring customers using that product.
“We can look at the data and say these customers are coming back and purchasing much quicker if they buy an accessory from us the first time around. Therefore for the accessory, we're able to spend more money acquiring new customers. So not only are we using Lifetimely for retention, but we're bringing it into our acquisition efforts.”
Overall Lifetimely has helped Snakehive with retention and acquisition as well as to drive key efficiency metrics such as conversion rate, AOV, and more.
"It’s been great being able to configure upsell journeys as well. Since using Upsell I’d say we’ve seen an 8-10% increase in AOV.”
Tim Thorp
When it comes to boosting AOV and conversion rate, Upsell by AMP has also become instrumental for Snakehive. Having previously struggled with increasing basket size, Tim speaks to the importance of strategic product placements;
“We are very careful and strategic about how we're upselling. We've learned that the product matters. So we have to have the right product at those spots and this is where I think Upsell helps us with unlocking those new placements. Being on Shopify Plus we’re also able to add upsells to the checkout page. It’s been great being able to configure upsell journeys as well. Since using Upsell I’d say we’ve seen an 8-10% increase in AOV.”
Having tried another upsell app and a custom solution before turning to Upsell by AMP, one of Tim’s concerns was around the time and complexity of setting up the tool and how soon the brand would start to see an increase in AOV.
“In terms of integrating with the website, it was really easy to set up and drop the blocks in. The cart functionality has been pretty seamless. The Upsell team has been easy to communicate with, very responsive and made the set up process smooth, quickly resolving any issues that undoubtedly arise when setting up a new tool..
We were seeing results within a week of installing Upsell.
Tim Thorp
At AMP, both Lifetimely and Upsell are developed to help you do more and scale more, with less cost and less friction. As Tim succinctly puts it;
“We use 12-15 apps but try to consolidate where possible. Each app has a really good purpose so that it's justifying its place on our tech stack. It's got to really add value, otherwise what’s it doing?”
The Upsell team has been easy to communicate with, very responsive and made the set up process smooth, quickly resolving any issues that undoubtedly arise when setting up a new tool.
Tim Thorp
Thanks to Tim and the Snakehive team for taking the time to speak with us.
Visit www.snakehive.com for premium leather accessories that perfectly balance function with fashion, substance with style, and quality with durability.