How Forever 21 Used Smart Banners™ to Get 11x ROAS
Fash fashion giant Forever 21 worked with Zembula to implement a new email personalization strategy using Smart Banners™. They saw 11x ROAS. Learn more.
Forever 21 is a global fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded as one store in 1984; today, there are over 540 retail operations worldwide. The company focuses on delivering on-trend and high-style designs and basics at affordable prices, targeting fashionable consumers who care about a high-value customer experience.
Forever 21 values innovation. The company wants to expand access and convenience to customers across in-store, eCommerce, and other digital channels. Of course, email marketing plays a significant role in this strategy.
They wanted to find a way to improve email by adding more personalization without adding more manual processes and complicated workflows for the marketing team. So, Forever 21 turned to Zembula for help.
Here’s what happened.
The challenge: Increase ROAS and bump revenue
Every brand wants to increase return on ad spend (ROAS) and revenue. But it’s a delicate balance to do so while still serving the customer and ensuring they’re getting the messages that matter to them.
Research shows that email marketing is a key channel for retail and eCommerce brands, helping build customer relationships and drive more return purchases.
- Digital ad spending is expected to grow to over $315 billion by 2025, more than doubling 2020’s numbers.
- According to a recent study, email still accounts for nearly 20% of all transactions, level with paid search and only slightly below organic traffic.
- The average eCommerce retention rate for the apparel industry is around 26%, slightly lower than the average across all industries.
In addition, Forever 21 wanted to implement a solution that wouldn’t hamper its marketing team with extra manual tweaks and effort. The new approach to personalized email marketing had to deliver both measurable improvements and require little additional effort.
The solution: Implement Zembula’s Smart Banners™ for revenue optimization
At Zembula, our approach centers around using personalization for revenue optimization. Adding personalization to every message — from triggered abandoned cart notifications to inventory alerts and shipping updates — helps connect with customers.
It provides the 1:1 level of personalization consumers increasingly want and, using data-driven insights, helps create more clickable content. Driving more action and engagement helps improve conversions and revenue over the long term. And that increases the return on investment for email marketing strategies, exactly what Forever 21 hoped to achieve.
Forever 21 pulled from a pool of Smart Banners™ primarily focused on abandoned carts and browse options. These are generally higher-converting messages that can easily be personalized for customer name, shopping behavior, and history. Banners can also use personalized animation to feature moving product images.