Ecommerce Consumer Goods D2C Startup, 10% Quarter-on-Quarter Sales Growth, Digital Marketing & 5-Stars Customer Ratings by Charles Dushek

A chronology of my Ecommerce Experience, Audience Insights, Digital Marketing Skills, and Accomplishments doing 37 Projects Leading Marketing and Operations Staff during the Startup, Grow-Phase, and Maturity of Marché Provence.com Marketplace, an Online Selling Marketplace from 2012 through 2021.  Marge, the CEO of French Decor LLC, started the business as a non-Ecommerce live-markets selling business in 2010, and in 2012, it evolved to an online Ecommerce business, and did live marketing and selling at near 100 EXPOs, Trade Shows and Festival Events from the Midwest to the East Coast States.

          

       Marge CEO                        Chuck Director                  Tina Manager

* At this time, MP is undergoing a full conversion from a Magento Platform to a richer and more tech-innovative Big Commerce SaaS Ecommerce Platform  launching the following Omnichannel Marketing & Selling initiatives:

6 Web Development, UX & UI Projects:

1. Fully Automated MP2C (Marketplaces to Customers) Multichannel 3rd party Selling on Amazon, Walmart, Target, up to 40 others, plus Pinterest-Instagram-Facebook DTC Selling integrating centralized Website Orders Handling & Fulfillments processing.

2. Establishing Unlimited Legacy-Customer Audiences & Affinity Groups Segmentation for Customized Email & SMS Promos, Customized Product Categories & Product Offers. 

3. Product Categories Catalog Management to Optimize UX & Merchandising to “Most-Viewed & Most-Searched-For items” in Google Monthly Hi-Volume Search-Terms Analytics. 

4. Elastic-Expansive Faceted-Search Filters for Shoppers to find desired items Instantly & Grow AOV and Diminish Abandoned-Carts due to “Product-Not-Found” Shopping-Failures. 

5. On-Site tracking/recording of every shopper’s Navigation Journey to auto-detect optimal A/B Pages Testing for minimizing Bounce-Rate and optimizing Conversion Buying Actions”, and Where a Shopper Abandoned the Selling Funnel Journey.

6. Automating Shopper Suggestion Popups for Related, Cross & Ensemble Product(s) Suggestions, based upon Items Currently-Carted, to increase AOV.

MP evolved from a small live-events discretionary consumer goods vendor/seller...to a Hybrid Online Retail B2C, and a D2C enterprise. Initial Grass-Roots Marketing began at Live-Marketplace Events as a Seller and Marketer.  By 2020 having done 100 large public shows, events, festivals in the US Midwest Area and events from Maine to Florida, sales trended exponentially.  This enabled MP to accelerate sales to facilitate gaining 35,000 online repeat customers by 2020 and to hit a $100+ AOV milestone.  100 Events equaled 40,000 face-to-face sales with new MP customers, and create MP brand impressions to 4 million event visitors.

We "Listen & Talk" with hundreds of Ladies at Events, usually 45-years and older, about "What They Want or Need".  Today, Conversational Online Marketing & Selling is Trending and integral to our online business in utilizing Live Phone Chat doing consultative shopping, with Rep to Shopper Desktop Screen-Sharing with customers and gaining valuable shopper insights. 

Those thousands of live shopper experiences in Live-UX's over 10 years gave us Insights into Product Curation & Management.   It taught us insights in website UI (APIs) & UX innovations, to be able to grow sales at 10% compounded rate Quarter-on-Quarter.

Marché Provence Home Furnishings at LIVE Milwaukee Bastille Days Festival of 4-days and 250,000 visitors!

                           Meet, Greet, Sell at Large Festivals...

Marché Provence Home Furnishings of Table Linens, Garden Tables & Chairs at Botanical Gardens Festivals Events at Top US  venues like "Chicago Botanic Garden" and "Fairchild Florida Botanic Garden" that have near 15,000 daily event visitors. 

Botanical Gardens Theme is FLOWERS, All Over the US, and Marché Provence Products Themes & Designs are...universally FLORAL!  So...We Go to Market via PPC Ads to 15 Targeted US States having the "Best Affinity Audiences" that generate 90% of our online sales.

The Marché Provence Home Furnishings Startup...

Beginning as an online start-up in 2012, we spent the first year analyzing the marketspace we were in, and did SEO and Google Analytics to learn quickly "What States and Metro-Area Cities, and Affinity Audiences" across the US were our prime market locations to target PPC campaigns.  

We set goals for Quarterly Growth to hit Percentage Growth Rate Targets for compounding Quarterly Growth, on rising Quarter to Quarter base numbers.  

Example Above is an Excel Example for Multi-Category Sales Growth Illustration, so We can understand Sales Trends in Major Product Categories and see relative Sale Performance Year-to-Year Comparisons

MP does not have Seasonality-Selling-Cycles, because  Outdoor Patio, Terrace, Balcony & Garden Tabletop dining lines ensembles were constant "All-Seasons Demand Goods" especially in CA, AZ, TX, LA, FL, GA, HI, NV rotating our PPC Geo-Targeting Ads spend to these Warm-Weather States from November to April.

The Online business took off in 2012, as many Live-Events Customers converted to 24/7/365 Online Customers.  The Consumer Discretionary Category Goods Mix expanded from about 300 SKUs in French Dining Table Linens in 2010 in a One-Brand Category, to 3,000 SKUs offered by 15 French Branded Categories of tablecloths, runners, placemats, napkins, women's dresses & fashion accessories, terrace and patio dining furniture, botanic garden décor, bar soaps & lotions beauty products, culinary herbs & ceramics, kitchen & wine accessories.

Newest Project 31 is in implementation-stage to convert from a Magento Web Platform to a Big Commerce (BC) SaaS Web Platform with very automated Multichannel Selling MP2C and internal site UX, UI and Dashboard-Controlled Email and SMS customized Promos, Offers & New Product Releases.  

BC Website Dashboard Functionality gives total Viewing & Control over sales performance for each MP2C selling channel to Rank “Best & Worst Channels” for Every Listed Product and Category across the Omnichannel spectrum. 

Led 31 Projects Completed since 2010...

We made the UI elements of the New-Site Awesome with: 

1. Shoppers needed to Click on any Website Product Pic and Instantly land on the Product or Sub-Category Page. EZ-Shopper-Navigation to Categories & Sub-Categories for 3,000 items. 

2. Faster Product Finding.  Expansive-Elastic Search Box to find any item by Brand Names, Colloquial-Terms, or Precise Keywords Strings. 

3. A Website for All Nationalities.  EZ-Click Language Translation Tabs that instantly change all website text to any of 12 major languages from a Menu Banner at top left of the Header Page illustrated by Country Flags to denote the language desired for reading all textual content on all pages of the website...Especially from English to French! 

4. Global Currencies Shopping & Checkouts.  All Items Prices Could be Displayed-In and for making Checkout-Payments in any of 6-Major World Transaction Currencies, by Clicking on a Dropdown Menu of 6 currency selections, to intstantly price all products in any currency. 

5. Striking Colors & Hi-Res Imagery.  Hi-Res & Animated Ambiance Images all-over the site to give a "Feel... of Being in France...While Shopping Online".

6. Shopping is Also a Learning Experience.  Many External Back-Links to "Learn More" Info French Resource Content & Blog Sites for SEO enrichment.

7. Be Successful Like Nordstrom...Lifetime Product Guarantees.  Launched our 100% Unconditional Lifetime Products Guarantee for Refund, Replacement, or Exchange on everything we sell to customers, which boosted Gifts Purchases a Lot!.

8. Sell More Items & Earn More Revenues.  Introduced Table Linens Ensemble Collections (Related & Cross-Sell Items) of matching Tablecloths, Table-Toppers, Runners, Placemats & Napkins that Grew our AOV from $30 to Over $100.

9. Dressing Tables Well, Leads to Dressing Ladies & Girls Well.   Added 300 New Woman's, French Chic, Pre-Teen & Teenage Fashion Wearables, and Accessories.  

10. Get The Most Marketing-Reach FREE.  SEO Optimization started the Online Business Model in 2012 with Best SEM Practices in Meta Tags for Product Titles and Descriptions that had maximum keywords relevance to Online Shopper Search Terms to Website Product Titles & Description Landing Page on-page content yielding very low Bounce Rates.  

11. Geo & Demographic PPC Targeting Works Best.  Google Adwords PPC started in 2013, and we limited our Google SEM PPC ads display to only 26 out of the 50 US States that held the highest density of French National Ancestry, and then later to just 15 US States that generated 90% of online sales revenues.

12. Do Live Conversational Selling.  Every Chicagoland Public Event or Festival that drew at least 15,000 shoppers a day, we attended from 2013 onwards.

13. 5-STARS Customer Ratings Led to Faster New Customer Growth.  We signed up with Trustpilot Ratings and Reviews in 2013 to generate all our solicited customer ratings.  TP auto-emailed R&R invitations to every MPM customer that received an online order delivery from us at "5-days after the Tracking Notice Package Delivery Date".....and, We actually Called Out to every Online Customer at 3-days after the actual delivery...so if there was any dissatisfaction of the customer...For Any Reason/Issue...We cured it Before the Customer received the TP Emailed R&R invitation.  

14. Sell Gifts Better with 100% Unconditional Guarantees.  We introduced the MPM "100% Unconditional Lifetime Guarantee for Refund, Exchange, or Replacement" on All Gift Items we sold to any customer anywhere.  "The Gift That Lasts/Satisfies Forever" to every gift recipient!

15.  Gave Away to every customer a 25 cent French Cooking Herbs Packs and We Received Orders 100+ times more valuable.  90% of all our customers were women, ages 45 years and older, who typically liked/loved to cook.  We started including Sampler Packs of "Herbs of Provence" as complimentary, with orders we shipped...Chef Ladies Loved the French Herbs Gifts and became repeat online customers for years since 2012.

16.  Get More Repeat Shopping and Launch a New French Soaps Line.  For any order over $75, we included a small 3 oz Heart-Shaped Fragrance French Shea Butter Bar Soap...As a "Thank You Goodie"!  This endeared us further with customers, and Introduced our new French Shea Butter Bar Soaps Line to all MP shoppers.

17.  A Hand-Written Thank You Note Wins The Heart of Customers.  We processed all our order picking, packing, and shipping by our in-house staff team...Every Order Invoice Copy in the shipment had a Hand Written Personal Message..."Hi XXXX, Thank You for your order...We Appreciate Your Business, and Look Forward to Serving You Again Soon!...Marge!"

18. Do Precision Email Marketing Multiple-Times Per Quarter.  Every Quarter, we analyze our Content Management System (CMS) database to do an Excel Spreadsheet Analysis of "Which Customers have bought Same/Similar Categories of items" and then do MailChimp customized-offer emails for Specific Category Product Lines to Specific Legacy Customer Groups, who have purchased these category goods, thus having a Native Interest.  Our Customized Email Campaigns like these having a Promo Sale or Discount Offer with Category Line Header within the Email Title Line attain Open Rates of 40% and Click-Through Rates of 25% to 50% to Features Items URL Links in the Email Body, and 10% Conversion Rate Sales

19. Prime The Pump for Trustpilot Reviews & Shopper Referrals.  Our French suppliers, frequently have Special Discount Offers or Closeout Deals of very fancy French Jacquard kitchen towels.  We buy these special offers at $1-2 or less for each $15 Retail-Priced Kitchen Towel.  We mail out these Free towels to every MP customer that does a Trust Pilot Review for us, or does any Product Review, or took the time to do Email and SMS Shares, or Email-a-Friend Messages. 

20. Text-Chat and Shopper Call-Ins Bring New Orders.  We have operated an On-Page...and on Every-Page of the website a Texting Chatbox that rings to our MP house cell phones, so that anyone on duty can Pickup a Live-Chat via Voice or Text Message immediately.  

21.  Selling Non-Breakable Goods has its Logistics Upside.  Over 90% of the items we sell are "Soft-Goods, Unbreakable, and of High-Value at Low-Weights and hence Low-Costs for USPS Shipping by using Just Tyvek Gusseted Envelopes rather than Boxes.  

22.  Going for Bigger Sales via Events Marketing.  MP began a Break-Through Growth Spurt during 2016-2019 by entering the Reception Events Tabletop Decor and Bed & Breakfast activities area of the market.  It began in 2016, when the country's most prestige West Palm Beach Florida Women's Garden Club of 500 Members requested MP to do a complete table-linens project for banquet-sized dining round tabletops and for all service-tables with French Provence Theme Botanical-Garden Imagery coverings. 

23. No Boundaries...Lets Do DIY Wedding Reception Tabletop Linens.  We entered the DIY Wedding Receptions, French-Cultural Events, Wine-Country B&B, and DIY Outdoors Garden Parties sector for $1,000 to $3,000 orders from 2017 to 2019.  

24.  East and West Coast Affluent Ladies Love Doing Elegant Dinner Parties.  The whole 2015-2020 period was a sharp-growth period for AOV, as the higher income and wealthy families doing dinner parties in CA, NY, FL, MA, CT and other Coastal Living Areas were heavy buyers of the long 100" to 144" rectangular tablecloths in Designer-Cotton-Prints & the Jacquard Woven Soft-Thick Classic Filigree borders in designs of: Wines, Olives, Citron, Cassis, Cezanne, Arles, Renaissance, and Versailles flourished as formal dinner party tabletop décor.  

25.  Customers Who Love You Can be Your Best Sales People.  MP creates its own Social Media Boosts, from our customers doing referrals of Friends to MP, via Facebook Posts, Shares via Email and SMS of Goods Product Landing Pages from the MP Categories, about Individual MP Items to thousands of people around the US. They can SHARE Product Categories Flyers directly from our website.

26.  Women and Young Ladies Love Provence Purses, Shopping Bags, Cosmetic Bags and Accessory Décor.  The additions of Women's & Girls Fashions & Accessories vaulted a new category of Women's Wearables and  Accessories.

27. French Shea Butter Bar Soaps Became an AOV order booster.  The ECHO France & LaLavande Bath & Shower Bar Soaps French-Brand lines additions expanded MP into the Personal Care Soaps companion products to French-Fan One-Stop-Shopping convenience...and More Gift Option Purchases.

28.  Conserve on PPC Ads Spend and Surprisingly get Better ROI on PPC.  Each year, we kept reducing the Geo-Locations for States Targeting PPC Paid Google Ads Targeting,  increasing PPC Ads-Reach for Top-of-First-Page SERP to now just 15 States that account for 90% of our total Online Orders. 

29. Metro-Cities Miles-Radius Targeting Reaches Higher-Income Family Population Density.   We are now selecting Metropolitan-Areas for PPC of the 100 Largest US Cities, and setting up Special Google Miles-Radius Areas that are from 5 to 25 miles from City-Center Anchor-Pins for Select-Top 100 Cities. 

30. Select a Most favorable US State to Operate From.  MP's State of Operations/Domicile is Delaware, where we transact all our online selling, process refunds, exchanges and file our business tax returns.  Delaware Does Not mandate in their State Law that we must bill and collect any sales tax on Sales and Shipping Destinations to any outbound States.  

31. Currently, I am finishing changing the entire website platform from Magento to Big Commerce Omnichannel Marketing.

All of the 31 Projects have created Competitive, Comparative, and Absolute Advantages in relation to other competitors.  What MP has done across its business model is unique in some areas.  Yet, the initiatives at-large are basically Replicable to most Consumer Discretionary Goods Online E-Commerce Enterprises.