Strawberry
Strawberry is a Manchester-based Shopify Plus Agency. Backed by the best online specialists, Strawberry is a Google Partner as well as one of five Shopify Plus partners in the UK. This award-winning agency specializes in creative marketing communications, e-commerce, and web design.
1. Hi Alice, great to have you with us! Tell us about Strawberry.
We provide both online and offline clients with a wide variety of creative, digital, and marketing services beyond e-commerce platforming, including integrated campaigns, brand, and positioning, search marketing, content, and design.
In 2015, we were awarded Shopify Plus Partner status and have since completed Shopify builds for a variety of retail brands including Roland Mouret and Tropic Skincare.
With a headquarters in the C4DI building in Hull’s Fruit Market, we’ve recently celebrated our 25th anniversary and established a new base in Manchester.
2. What are some of the biggest changes/trends that you currently see happening within e-commerce?
Headless e-commerce is overwhelmingly the biggest trend right now, and something we’re being asked more and more about every week. You can check out our blog post about it for more info.
3. What sets you apart from other agencies? Any special areas of expertise?
We’re the UK’s only full-service Shopify Plus Partner. Not only can we build bespoke, high-performing, beautiful Shopify Plus websites, but we can also do everything else too!
4. What are some of the things you are most excited about for the future of e-commerce?
Augmented Reality (AR) is increasingly becoming a reality and promises exciting features that we’ve discussed with a few clients. This could be anything from helping packaging customers order the right shape and size packaging for their parcel, to making in-store screens more interactive.
5. Why did you choose to partner with Klevu?
Klevu is a great way to create a seamless user experience on your website. It’s an intelligent search platform that connects customers with the products they’re looking for, quickly and easily. Plus, it can be integrated with Shopify or Shopify Plus stores in just minutes!
6. What are some of the ways that you work to improve UI/UX for your clients?
By allowing the data to speak for itself in terms of how people are using the site, and the effect that something has on the conversion rate.
7. What are some of the most overlooked elements of a website that you find to be of importance?
Search! When done well, it can make such a huge difference to conversion rates, but all too often it’s hidden away behind clicks and executed badly.
8. How has the evolution of on-site search enabled your clients to increase conversions with search?
Visitors can find what they’re looking for more quickly and easily, reducing bounce rate and increasing click-through to product pages.
It also encourages link-selling. For example, someone may search for ‘rosehip oil’ on a beauty website and discover that there are a lot of products they didn’t know about which contain rosehip oil, rather than just pure rosehip oil itself. This can encourage both existing and potential customers to try new products.
Finally, Klevu allows clients to prioritise search results according to your business priorities, which is great for helping them to push certain products over others.
9. How important is strategic merchandising on category/collection pages?
It can be very important, depending on the context of the store and what story the data is telling.
This can be a critical part of the user journey, with the potential for growth by increasing average order values – but likewise, the data might show that time and effort is best prioritised elsewhere. It all comes back to understanding the users of that store, what they want, and, perhaps just as importantly, what they don’t want.
10. If your agency was an animal – what animal would it be and why?
Maybe an octopus – intelligent, with lots of arms that work cohesively towards one overall goal.
11. Name 3 words that describe the future of e-commerce?
Even more effortless.
12. What are some of the ways that you are helping your clients to personalize their websites?
There are several great apps we use to help our clients deliver a personalised customer journey.
For example, Yotpo helps collate user-generated content such as reviews, ratings, and visual marketing, and Nosto tailors the content your customers see based on their previous behaviour and order history.
Loyalty schemes are also a great way to make customers feel valued and improve their customer journey.
13. What consumer trends are you beginning to pick up on, that you see affecting the future of e-commerce?
There are probably quite a few ideas here, which may or may not be coming in a blog post soon (watch this space), but we’ll go for PWA technology.
PWA’s (Progressive Web Apps) tie in nicely with the headless stuff mentioned earlier on – and basically mean the store can be launched instantly from the user’s home screen – like an app – without a network connection. It’s one that’s already being used for the really big boys in tech (Google, Alibaba, etc.) but is becoming more realistic for everyone else now. In some form, I think this technology will have a big impact on ecommerce.
14. What would you say to online retailers that have not used an agency like yours before?
Firstly, we’re a full-service agency, which means we’ve got people of all different skills and expertise ready to approach your challenges from different angles. We’ll question everything, have opinions and ultimately help you grow.
Secondly, we’re digitally well-versed across the board, not just when it comes to Shopify. We’ve worked on a lot of projects involving complex integrations to help create a functional, seamless and personalised customer experience.
Finally, we help our clients with both online and offline marketing and are experienced in marrying up the two. Getting good sales isn’t just about having a brilliant website (although that certainly helps!), it’s about ensuring you’re giving customers a strong, consistent brand experience across all channels, too.