What does your company do?
Flixmedia helps brands and retailers sell more. We do this by automating the process of gathering rich, engaging digital assets – such as product images, videos and descriptions –and delivering them to the product pages of retailers’ websites. We have an extensive global network of partners, encompassing over 1,600 retailers and 100 brands across 80 countries.
What is your USP
I’d say we win on three key pillars. First, we can provide retailers with more brand digital assets than any other outlet. The service is completely free, and through our extensive testing we’ve proven that retailers can sell between 10% to 30% more – simply by delivering engaging, rich product pages. Second, we have more retailers connected to our platform that any other company. We offer brands a ‘one-stop-shop’; they provide us with all of their digital assets and then we take on the hard work of getting those assets onto the product pages of retailers. Finally, we do what we say we’re going to do. Our service delivery teams are world-class. Currently, there are in excess of two million SKUs in our platform available for retailers. We speak more than 20 languages and regularly communicate with retailers all over the world to help make their product pages relevant and rich, contributing to a more dynamic experience for their shoppers.
Which companies/types of companies do you work with / partner and how do you choose them?
Most of our brands today are in the consumer electronics, home appliance, healthcare and toys and games verticals. As a retailer, if you sell any of those products, you’re either working with Flixmedia already, or you should give us a call and we’ll help you sell more. Similarly, a large number of brands in those verticals, such as LG, Samsung, LEGO, Dyson, and Miele are global or European partners of Flixmedia.
When did you start the company and why?
It was November 2004 and I was sitting at my computer, looking at a stereo I was thinking of buying on the product page of a retailer’s website. There was a tiny, blurred photo of it, and just two bullet points of text. I thought;
I really want to see the back of the stereo, what connections it has, how big it is, what the cool features are, how it works, what else comes in the box. I went to the stereo brand’s website and found all the rich content I was looking for there. This was my ‘eureka’ moment!Wouldn’t it be cool if someone took the content from the brand’s website and put it at the point of purchase and consideration on the retailer’s product page. It could answer my questions and I could make a more educated buying decision. Good for me as a shopper, good for the retailer, good for the brand. I quit my job that week and Flixmedia was born.
How would you describe your growth, what have been the main points in your expansion and what has been key to your success?
Starting the business was hard, but managing exponential growth is actually even harder. We grew very fast, right from the very beginning. There were certain milestones along the way that indicated just how significant our opportunity could be. For example, connecting with the big brands and retailers in the USA was a defining moment; our first global contracts, our thousandth live retailer. But, perhaps most importantly, was the moment in which we could prove the impact of the service, empirically. With engagement from the retailer we were able to A/B/C/D test our service, including the layout of the retailer’s page and the type of digital assets being used, and experiment to find the, perfect’ retailer product page. We defined perfect as maximum sales conversion. We didn’t have to sell the service per se to brands or retailers, as the evidence did that for us.
What do you see as challenges for the retail industry over the coming year?
More retail stores closed in 2017 than any other year on record. I meet with the largest retailers all over the world, and I think there are two important factors that all retailers must seriously consider when formulating a strategy, that will truly engage shoppers in the retail experience, and future-proof their business. The first is meeting shopper expectations. They are higher than ever. When you arrive at a website product page as a shopper, you expect there to be a service like Flixmedia’s in place. Namely, an image carousel on the page, a product video, some user-generated content, product reviews, comparison charts to other products within the range, a product recommendation engine – all of these things are expectations today. There are no prizes for ticking all of those boxes, but if you’re not delivering these things, there’s a real problem. The second thing is personalised and immersive experiences, which are increasingly what shoppers want. You need to go beyond expectations and introduce experiences that are so unexpected and fun that the shopper does what every retailer and brand yearns for, they tell someone about it.Find a way to surprise and delight your shoppers in store and online. Formulate a plan.
What are you doing to maximise the chances of shoppers telling and sharing their shopping experience with their friends and family?
Smart retailers are well on the way to deploying immersive technologies like augmented reality and voice search initiatives in their shopper strategies, and we are helping them with those.
How are you prepared to meet those challenges?
Our purpose with any new emerging tech is to ask ourselves ,can we help our brands and retailers deliver a better shopper experience and sell more through this technology? For instance, with regards to augemented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) deployment in retail, there are many varying opinions out there and it can be confusing. At Flixmedia, we will evaluate emerging technologies and make recommendations to our retailers and brands in order to make it as frictionless as possible for the brand and retailer to implement the tech and get it to market.
One sentence elevator pitch to be used as a direct quote on how your company/system benefits retailers…
Our service is free and will help you sell more.
Customer case study: Office Depot Europe
Like all retailers, Office Depot Europe was looking for ways to boost conversions and reduce cart abandonment. While shopping around for answers, it decided tocheck out the value of Flixmedia’s INPage service. In particular, Office Depot Europe was keen to see the specific effect of syndication service on the behavior of its shoppers. Using the Flixmedai INpage service it proved both an uplift in conversion and a reduction in cart abandonment. The test was conducted by Office Depot Europe and the results shared with the team at Flixmedia.
Annemie Van Der Donk, Interim Personalisation Manager Office Depot Europe explains: DzWe’ve thoroughly tested Flixmedia in the majority of our product categories. We’ve seen an overall strong result by conducting an A/B test having reached a 99% significance level that proves an INCREASE in conversion rate, a DECREASE in cart abandonment and an INCREASE in add to cart rate. It seems by showing more rich product information to our customers they are more likely to convert and less likely to drop in our conversion funnel.
Ben Perrins, Chief Strategy Officer at Flixmedia adds: DzA great result for Office Depot Europe and also for the numerous brands Flixmedia represents on their products pages. Many of our global brand and retail partners are interested in the impact of the Flixmedia service on basket conversion but this test also proved a reduction in cart abandonment. Intuitively, a shopper that has been better informed before they click add to cart should have a higher propensity to complete but this test validates that assumption rather elegantly He adds: We are proud and pleased to help the Office Depot Europe team boost site performance with our INpage service. I am also excited to partner with them on continued innovation in the months and years ahead.
FLIXMEDIA IN BRIEF
Flixmedia helps optimise and influence sales across all retail channels by creating an engaging and personalised experience for shoppers. Founded in 2005, the company has offices in the UK, USA and India serving more than 80 countries and services a range of global retailers, including Tesco, Walmart, PC World, Staples and many top line brands including Microsoft, LEGO, Sony, Dyson, Samsung, Electrolux, LG and many others – in fact it has more than 100 of the world’s top brands and 1600 of the world’s biggest retailers. For more information on Flixmedia, please visit https://flixmedia.eu or call 0208 358 3340
This Company Spotlight was produced by InternetRetailing and sponsored by Flixmedia. Funding articles in this way allows us to explore topics and present relevant services and information that we believe our readers will find of interest.
