From Three Solutions to One:

Bubble Revamps Retention Efforts With Yotpo

Bubble’s new school skincare is made with plant-powered ingredients for when skin, well, happens. Bubble strives for accessibility for today’s Gen Z consumers, meaning their products are affordable, research-backed, and made without harmful ingredients.

Challenge

• Bubble wanted to majorly improve customers’ shopping experience to get them to come back again and again.
• Okendo’s limitations prevented Bubble from amplifying their reviews on Google Ads, which hurt their acquisition and awareness efforts as a new brand.
• Bubble wanted to reconfigure their loyalty and referral program to boost participation and long-term engagement.
• Bubble became disenchanted with their previous SMS provider SuperPhone, which only served as a customer service tool, not a true engagement channel.

Hitting the market in winter 2020, Bubble made a splash with instant fan-favorite Slam Dunk, a hydrating moisturizer. Their products resonated with a younger audience, an often-overlooked market in the skincare industry, and they wanted to cement their success. But, their popularity and growth weren’t supported by their previous tech providers.

Experiencing scattered support across three siloed solutions — Okendo, Smile.io, and SuperPhone — Bubble sought to improve their own experience as well as their customers’. As a brand committed to accessibility, Bubble wanted to offer a cohesive and intuitive user experience. This priority eventually led Bubble to look for an all-in-one approach to their marketing efforts.

For a new brand, acquiring customers and establishing trust are vital. Bubble really focused on paid ads on Google and social to bring in new shoppers. Okendo, their previous provider, couldn’t integrate Bubble’s reviews with their Google Ads, preventing the brand from leveraging their hard-earned customer reviews.

To double down on acquisition, the brand wanted to incentivize happy customers to spread the word about their products. Smile.io, their loyalty and referrals provider, could not support a referral marketing strategy, which resulted in Bubble losing out on a great acquisition channel.

Retention was the burgeoning brand’s primary focus. Smile.io’s loyalty solution lacked any true customization, which led to a disconnected loyalty experience. The program failed to reflect the bright, animated personality that Bubble so carefully crafted. Additionally, Smile.io offered few campaigns, features, and engagement options, and the program’s rewards value was disproportionately high. Collectively, this led to low overall program adoption.

Lastly, Bubble sought to connect with customers in a genuine way — SMS. However, their SMS solution, SuperPhone, wasn’t providing them with the right strategy to do so. SuperPhone had rudimentary communication tools, and Bubble wasn’t seeing any ROI. Overall, the SMS provider acted as a customer service tool rather than an engagement channel.

Solutions

• Yotpo’s all-in-one approach consolidated Bubble’s marketing efforts, reinvigorating their retention strategy and empowering the brand to engage with shoppers authentically.
• Revitalizing their acquisition effort, Bubble easily taps into customer sentiment and leverages it throughout their Google Ads.
• By launching a data-backed loyalty program, Bubble captures the attention — and repeat business — of young shoppers.
• Bringing the customer journey full circle, Bubble sends timely, personalized SMS campaigns that reflect shoppers’ preferences and individual relationships to the brand.

Switching not one, but three different tech solutions is a big undertaking, but Bubble knew Yotpo could take their retention efforts to the next level. “We were using very basic platforms and needed to upgrade to a solution that would match our rapid business growth,” says Emma Standing, Head of Customer Experience & eCommerce at Bubble.

First, Bubble ensures one of their first interactions with new shoppers — Google — immediately conveys the trust and enthusiasm established customers feel toward the brand. Yotpo Reviews makes it simple for shoppers to submit their feedback post-purchase via email and ensure top-tier reviews appear as soon as shoppers make a Google search. And, Bubble collects both product and site reviews simultaneously, ensuring they adhere to Google’s strict requirements. “Yotpo’s In-Mail Review submissions and overall in-house capabilities blew Okendo out the water. In order to have true functionality with Okendo, we’d need to use our email provider — nothing was truly their software, only a third-party integration,” says Standing.

As Bubble’s customers are mostly Gen Z, developing a loyalty program that delights and captivates is essential for retention. After switching to Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals, Bubble launched a fully branded program that speaks to the brand’s youthful, effervescent personality and drives results. By incorporating exciting campaigns, like birthday points and social media follow points, the brand speaks their customers’ language. Additionally, Bubble’s dedicated Customer Success Manager transitioned the brand to realistic rewards values, which perfectly balance aspirational and tangible goals. Now, program sign-ups and engagements are at an all-time high.

To cement that hard-earned loyalty, Bubble works with their SMS Strategist to bring the customer journey full circle. They use SMS to engage with customers at key moments and establish one-on-one relationships. Texting directly with a customer, the brand can ask for post-purchase reviews, easily reward for that review, and remind shoppers of their points balance afterward. And, with Yotpo’s helpdesk partnership with Remaze, Bubble can text with shoppers to assess and resolve issues in real-time.

Yotpo’s all-in-one approach empowers Bubble to understand their shoppers’ fully, making it easy to engage authentically at scale.“Every single day we’re figuring out ways to improve the customer experience because our customers are everything to us,” says Standing.

Results

• Bubble doubled the number of reviews collected each month.
• They grew their SMS subscriber list by 71% in just six months.
• Bubble sees a 73% repeat purchase rate among loyalty redeemers versus 13% for non-redeemers.
• Their average revenue per redeeming loyalty customer is 171% higher than for non-redeemers.

Bubble’s CEO Shai Eisenman admires brands using Yotpo and knew she wanted Bubble to be one of them. With Yotpo’s hands-on Customer Success team, Bubble got three products up and running quickly. Soon after, Bubble doubled their monthly reviews compared to when they used Okendo. “Having the extra user-generated content helps in such a competitive market like skincare,” says Standing.

The brand focuses on SMS subscriber growth so they can continue to personally connect with even more customers. Bubble's SMS subscriber list has grown by over 71% in just six months, fueled in particular by Yotpo’s Dynamic Pop-up, which collects subscribers up to 4x faster than competitors.

Bubble sends tailored SMS messages at just the right moments to catalyze action and engagement. “SMS has had the greatest impact for us. With SuperPhone, we wouldn’t see ROI or even have the ability to send different text campaigns. Now, with Yotpo, our SMS campaigns generate consistent sales,” says Standing.

With SMS working in harmony with Reviews, Bubble automatically sends review requests via text after every customer makes a purchase. Their SMS conversion rate is over 66% higher than email. Not only do these post-purchase requests generate tons of reviews, but they see a 25% conversion rate of returning customers that come back to their site to make additional purchases.

By acting on customer data, like’ purchase behavior and motivators, Bubble's loyalty program has catalyzed customer action and passionate engagement. They’ve seen a significant lift in redemptions, and loyalty redeemers are now the brand’s most valuable customers. Their average revenue per redeeming loyalty customer is 171% higher than non-redeemers. By understanding and activating customer data, Bubble has raised their repeat purchase rate to 73% for redeemers versus 13% for non-redeemers.