Nextbase records peak conversions on its DTC site with BigCommerce

Discover how customisable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.

case-study-device-laptop-nextbase

6.34%

conversion rate

122%

conversion rate increase

23%

clickthrough rate increase

Results collected by Shogun on the more personalised content being displayed on the new Nextbase DTC site.

Motoring protection.

Nextbase is the world’s leading manufacturer of front and rear dashcams, accounting for roughly four in every five products sold in the UK each year. Its devices give motorists the piece of mind that, if someone collides with them, whether in front or from behind, they will be recorded on video. 

The company has very strong relationships with tech and car accessory retailers, such as Currys, Argos and Halfords. It also works with many car makers to fit its equipment into new and used cars at their showrooms. When the pandemic hit, though, the business knew it could not carry on relying on third-party retailers and showrooms. It had to also take sales into its own hands and so launched its own direct-to-consumer (DTC) site.

CHALLENGE

Leaving behind tech debt and endless maintenance.

Nextbase knew its initial site was always going to need to be replaced. It got the brand online, selling products when retailers were closed by the pandemic, but it was nowhere near the full-feature ecommerce sales generator it knew it needed. 

“It was just a content management platform because the site was geared towards content,” explained Douglas de Santi, Global Head of Ecommerce at Nextbase. “There was a small plugin for ecommerce, but it was not a proper ecommerce platform. On my first day, I knew that they wanted to change that.”

When the team began the search for a new platform that was flexible and scalable, it was guided as much by what it wanted to avoid as what it was hoping to achieve. Douglas wanted to build a system from scratch that could grow with Nextbase’s online ambitions, without being tied down to legacy software or a platform that would take up his team’s time with endless maintenance.

“Having previously spent five years on a Magento 2 project I still remember that, even after two or three years, close to 70% of my backlog was just bug fixing and forced upgrades they were imposing on us,” he recalls.

“We had to spend our time taking care of caching issues or managing the size of the server. ‘Are we going to survive the next Black Friday?’ was always a fearful question. So I didn't want to go down that painful path again. I wanted to focus on launching new features and improving the site, not just tech technical debt and constraints like that.”

“‘Are we going to survive the next Black Friday?’ was always a fearful question. So I didn't want to go down that painful path again.” 

Douglas de Santi, Global Head of Ecommerce, Nextbase

SOLUTION

Data-led approach to customers.

The BigCommerce platform was chosen because it is a simple to operate SaaS platform that guarantees maximum uptime without requiring its ecommerce team to constantly wrestle with everyday maintenance issues. It has the flexibility to integrate with other apps and the scalability to handle peaks in demands as well as open up new territories. 

Crucially, Nextbase knew it had to build a sophisticated customer data platform to get the most from the direct relationship its website offers with customers. It knew that integrating with its preferred CDP vendor choice, Klaviyo, would be far too complicated with Magento 2 and so the decision to use BigCommerce’s low code, no code platform became relatively easy to make. 

“We knew we needed a great ecosystem of companies we could integrate with, which is why we chose BigCommerce and its app store,” Douglas recalls.

“If we had integrated with Klaviyo on Magento, the hard coding would have taken us easily three, or four months, and then we’d have to start testing everything to find bugs. I'm not a developer, but I actually implemented Klaviyo on BigCommerce in four or five regions within literally two hours. It was just a case of this one, finish, next one, finish. It's completely no code. That was the experience that I was searching for, and I found it on BigCommerce.”

Personalised content.

The BigCommerce platform is empowering Nextbase to move away from what it confessed was previously a brochureware site to a more dynamic service. New content can be loaded without the need for specialist developers and because the site’s technology is so advanced, pages load far quicker than before. This is a very important aspect for the business, Douglas says, because it relies heavily on rich media to bring its products to life.

Additionally, though, the content it serves to visitors is not just immersive, it is personalised. The company is working with ecommerce optimisation business, Shogun, to use its Targeted Experiences services which taps into the data held on the Klaviyo platform to gain a better understanding of its users. This can be used in personalising marketing messages, such as emails, but it is also being used to decide what to show site visitors – and it is all easily integrated with the BigCommerce platform.

“We focus a lot on very rich content, product pages with tonnes of animations and videos, it’s not just a case of basic title, price, and text description that you find in many ecommerce stores,” Douglas says.

“Our point was, now that we have all this content, we need to deliver this content based on context. Now I know a lot about a person, and I can deliver content made for them or segmented for them. If they went through a quiz and told us they usually drive at night or drive long journeys, I can tailor which feature I'm going to expose and say, ‘hey this camera here is more specific for people with the drivers that match this profile’.” 

Localisation at pace.

International expansion is a major consideration for Nextbase and so the ability of the BigCommerce platform to easily integrate the Weglot translation app has been vital. In fact, Douglas describes the integration as integral to the company’s growth plans.

“We use it in a hybrid mode, so we can go there and improve the translation as needed and it’s been fundamental to our expansion in Europe,” he says. “We now have the site running in 15 languages. We are even using BigCommerce for sites that are still not transactional. For instance, we have an operation in Japan now. The site has been localised, and we were able to launch the site, in a different language, in just a week.”

Tech Stack

Agency:

Highlighted applications:

BigCommerce Services:

  • Solution Architect

  • Implementation Project Manager

  • Customer Success Manager

“We focus a lot on very rich content, product pages with tonnes of animations and videos, it’s not just a case of basic title, price, and text description that you find in many ecommerce stores.”

Douglas de Santi, Global Head of Ecommerce, Nextbase

“We use it in a hybrid mode, so we can go there and improve the translation as needed and it’s been fundamental to our expansion in Europe. We now have the site running in 15 languages. We are even using BigCommerce for sites that are still not transactional. For instance, we have an operation in Japan now. The site has been localised, and we were able to launch the site, in a different language, in just a week.”

Douglas de Santi, Global Head of Ecommerce, Nextbase

case-study-device-tablet-nextbase

RESULTS

8x improvement in conversions.

Every retailer targets conversion rates, and it is here where Douglas is most excited by the gains made through a better performing site.

“Our conversion rate is now almost eight times higher than we achieved initially,” Douglas enthuses.

“What we used to sell in a month, we’re now selling in two days. The DTC site has become a very critical part of the company’s sales. Last Christmas and Black Friday we sold more via DTC than via Amazon. The company was not expecting that two years ago.”

This massive improvement in conversions, and sales, has been aided by Nextbase’s work with Shogun’s Targeted Experience. By utilising the customer data, stored on its Klaviyo platform, visitors are shown more relevant content, and that has made a massive difference. Conversions are up 122%. As tested by Shogun, the more personalised content being displayed on the site achieved a 6.34% conversion rate, compared to 2.86% conversion rate for the original page. The same goes for the clickthroughs, which have shot up by 23%.

Another positive outcome of adopting the BigCommerce platform is a truly collaborative relationship Douglas reveals the company is now enjoying with both its ecommerce agency, AyataCommerce, as well as BigCommerce.

“We have a great relationship with BigCommerce,” he says. “Our customer success manager is there for us every time that we need something, helping us find a company that can provide a service for us. And the AyataCommerce team is truly proactive, and goes above and beyond.”

This means that for Douglas, perhaps the best outcome is that conversions are soaring and yet he can concentrate on running and growing the Nextbase DTC business without having to worry about endless bugs and fixes. 

“In previous jobs I would spend a lot of time on technical tasks, and now I don't know who is keeping everything up, but they are doing a great job,” he says. “All that matters for me is I know that my site is live, and I have zero concerns about surviving the next Black Friday in the technical sense. I can bring as much traffic as I want, and the store is going to be operating normally. The technology part of BigCommerce is way more like an enabler than a point of concern.”

“I have zero concerns about surviving the next Black Friday in the technical sense. I can bring as much traffic as I want, and the store is going to be operating normally.”

Douglas de Santi, Global Head of Ecommerce, Nextbase

LOOKING AHEAD

Expanding to B2B and into new markets with ease.

A major project for the future, which Nextbase is already investigating, will see the business use BigCommerce’s Multi-Storefront feature. This will allow Douglas to ensure the seven sites the business operates (including the UK, Europe and US) have their own store, which can be localised for language and currency, as well being kept up to date through local stock availability.

The other major plan for the future, already being worked on, is launching BigCommerce B2B Edition for Nextbase’s business sales, including its fleet operation. This side of the business is currently handled offline, but having seen what BigCommerce has provided for its DTC site, Nextbase is confident B2B buyers will enjoy ditching the paperwork and using a full-featured, professional site.

“In previous jobs I would spend a lot of time on technical tasks, and now I don't know who is keeping everything up, but they are doing a great job.”

Douglas de Santi, Global Head of Ecommerce, Nextbase

Published: November 2024

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