Kippins on the challenges and importance of building brand trust

Here we have a case study about a children's specialty store that transformed their business with Growave All-in-One marketing solutions. They were able to create a more sustainable and customer friendly experience for their clients and deliver an overwhelmingly positive result.

Nargiz Mendekeeva

Kippins is a famous Australian brand, which is popular not only in Australia but also is far beyond its borders. It was founded in August 2014 by a couple of new parents, Heather & David Rowland. Since that day, the company has made great progress. Today it has dozens of direct branches and 450 stockists in 38 countries, with distribution in Singapore & Malaysia, South Africa, the UAE, Taiwan, the Benelux, South Korea, and Slovakia.

The company began with a well-designed product - an eco-friendly and well-made baby comforter with a unique animal-like design. Each blankie is like a fantastic hero that has its own name, characteristic feature, and a fairytale behind it. And babies see them as their best friends they can quietly fall asleep with.

Challenge

Being a traditional classic startup, Kippins had to put a lot of effort to make people learn about their brand and fall in love with it. It is always the most important thing in the business – to get people to not only notice your brand but also develop a passion for it.

And it’s insanely hard to market a new business when your main customers are mums who are sensitive to everything related to their beloved baby. That’s why this task was particularly hard for Kippins since their client base consisted mostly of them.

“We’re for modern parents who want to get a good night’s sleep for the whole family”.

All know that mums are time-poor. They want to have the right information as well as the right product quickly. And most importantly, they make purchases drawing on the advice and suggestions of other parents. And you have to do what it takes to become an “Approved by Moms” brand. :)

How can we build brand authority? What do mums like? How do we make them come back for more? – These were just some of the very first questions that Kippins had to ask them very often at the beginning stages. In one word, they needed Social Proof for their brand and products.

This challenge made them wear a lot of different hats, moving from one E-commerce Platform to another. Initially, they have launched using Big Cartel, but when they have found that the platform didn’t offer what they needed in terms of customer communication they had to migrate to Bigcommerce, and finally, they have stopped their choice on Shopify. It did not take too long for Kippins to find a solution there. They have installed Growave platform without checking other apps.

“Growave was our first pick. It had its own excellent social proof through reviews. Our marketing agency recommended we use it.”

There’s a huge range of means to create social proof for customers. But testimonials remain the most proven and effective tool. Moreover, when a customer himself shares your site, product, or review with his friends, this effect doubles.

Build trust through reviews and star ratings

The power of reviews for Social Proof marketing is undeniable. We all are people and we tend to trust other happy customer’s experiences when making purchases. And this fact proves the main logic of social proof: if you can convince a few, you can convince many.

“We use Growave mainly showcasing customer reviews, providing incentives for feedback and social sharing”.

However, prior to the installation of Growave, it was difficult for the founders to cope with all the tasks. They didn't have enough human resources and basic free time for that, since, in addition to the online store management, they also had to establish production, monitor the quality of the materials from which their goods are made, and so on.

“We were manually requesting customer reviews and repurposing them across our social platforms. This took hours of work and was often overlooked due to resourcing. Because we have a small team of amazing people who work across customer service, wholesale management, design, product development, and manufacturing. All up we have a mix of 10 full time, part time and contract staff.”

So Kippins decided to change the game with the means of our Reviews. The result became that it's now virtually impossible to meet a product on their store without any feedback, so active are their customers.

Reviews with photos can dispel any doubt

When you are shopping online, you need to rely on outside opinions to make your final decision since you don’t have the product in hand to try it yourself. Therefore, reviews with photo solve this issue best. And because they let you see the real buyer as well as the real product with its size and color, it acts as evidence of safety showing that reviews are real too, i.e. there is no doubt left to purchase the product.

“These days, social proof is absolutely priceless! Not only that, but customers are able to share their experiences with others, so we’re organically reaching a wider audience, without needing to add to our team’s already busy workload.”

As a result, this feature helped the brand to boost its conversions.

Add Social Buttons to make Social Proof work for you

Social media buttons are an amazing tool for any brand to increase general brand awareness outside of its site and social pages. And it’s not unusual for customers who are happy with your products to express their opinion on social media.

So Kippins used this with our Social Sharing product, which allowed them to not only put sharing icons on their product pages but also to run many successful rewarding campaigns that drove more new traffic to their store.

We know that the vast majority of startups fail within their first year of operations. Because rising above the crowd is not an easy task. Everyone can start an online business. Literally everyone. But, only a few will succeed and make it. And Kippins could and did. They have become such a trusted brand with a reputable product that we are immensely proud to be a part of their success. :)

“Being a CEO of Kippins is my dream job in a dream company! I just love our brand story, our fun and creative products and our focus on sustainability. I’m inspired by nature, stories, art and the wild imaginations of my two boys. I’m happy that Growave gives our customers a snapshot of what real customers love about our brand.”