THG Delivers Omnichannel Customer Experiences at a Global Scale

THG is a vertically integrated, digital-first consumer brands group, retailing its own brands in beauty and nutrition, plus third-party brands, via its complete digital commerce solution, Ingenuity, to an online and global customer base.

For this case study interview, we connected with Paul Bonner, the Group Marketing Director at THG.

What Are Your Goals?
Our main goal is to maximize sales whilst maintaining an efficient cost of sale. Driven by data, we ensure that we invest our efforts into channels and areas that will drive the most efficiency.

In terms of our CRM, our goal is to drive as many customers through these “free” channels as possible to allow us to invest more effectively in paid channels to drive customer acquisition, then convert them into returning customers via email and our mobile app channels. We make improvements to the customer journey by launching initiatives such as Wishlists, Preference Centre, and improved personalization and automation, in an effort to enhance the customer experience and drive retention.

What Are Your Biggest Challenges?
Cost inflation as well as operating in saturated markets such as the UK is making it more difficult to acquire new customers efficiently, so it’s important that we retain customers and continue to do so via free and owned channels. Email is getting harder to get the same impact, so important that we diversify into new channels like in-app messages and push notifications. Given the current climate, our messaging strategy is critical to our growth because it allows us to focus on driving retention via owned channels.

Is There a Messaging Channel or Campaign You Have Found Particularly Impactful?
Our app engagement strategy has been the most impactful over the last couple of years, we have driven a large percentage of our customer base to our app by creating exclusivity — including offers, content, and product launches.

What Does Your Messaging Strategy Look Like?
We primarily segment our user base based on purchase history (Products, recency, frequency) and engagement (visited site, opened/clicked emails). We use push notifications to share promotions, re-engage inactive users, launch new products, encourage two-factor authentication, and more. In-app messaging has allowed us to run download initiatives for new users and then use in-app notifications to show the users personalized offers and intro messages.

Why OneSignal?
We needed a solution that provided everything we needed to fulfill our requirement for push notifications and allow for easy integration. OneSignal has helped us grow our user base, engage new users, and drive return purchases.