Catch Co. hooks users with tailored content recommendations

Leading fishing equipment retailer uses content recommendations to further educate its customers and drive conversions
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35%
uplift in ARPU from on-site content recommendations for a campaign targeted toward non-search traffic visitors against a control of no content recommendations
25%
click-through rate on content recommendation widgets placed in post-purchase emails recommending content related to recently purchased items

Introduction

Aspiring to rescue people from the indoors by connecting them with the outdoors through fishing, Chicago-based Catch Co. is on a mission to create amazing products, content, and shopping experiences for the modern angler. With over 50 million Americans participating in the sport each year, the company has tapped into this market and emerged as an industry leader in the outdoor retail space, providing the equipment, education, and experiences fishing enthusiasts are in search of. Originally a monthly fishing tackle subscription, the company has rapidly evolved and now includes its own eCommerce platform (Karl’s Bait & Tackle), as well as several product brands making lures, rods, and other gear. Catch Co. also produces long-form and multimedia content for use across its various channels. As a digital-first brand, the organization understands the importance of developing relationships with its customers and takes the unique approach of connecting content and commerce to build an active and engaged fishing community. Looking to automate its ability to deliver tailored, cross-channel content and product recommendations, the fishing retailer enlisted the help of Dynamic Yield, resulting in a 35% uplift in revenue per user from on-site content recommendations.
Catch Co. logo
“Dynamic Yield is an incredibly powerful platform that helps us segment our customers and deliver personalized and relevant content and product recommendations throughout our digital properties. The Dynamic Yield team is attentive, creative, and resourceful in helping us come up with novel ways to engage with our customers.”
Geoffrey Champlin, SVP of Revenue at Catch Co.

The Challenge

As a savvy digital brand, Catch Co. was already in pursuit of linking content about fishing and fishing equipment to its product inventory to serve as a one-stop shop for education and gear. However, the team believed it was important to streamline their efforts across channels to create a relevant and seamless user experience. Interested in either partnering with technology or building an in-house data science team to drive personalization, the team needed to ensure the approach they chose could:

  • Deploy content and product recommendations across the eCommerce site.
  • Inject recommendations into triggered email campaigns through Catch Co.’s ESP.
  • Tailor content to users based on keywords and product attributes in the product feed.
After assessing all options, Catch Co. ultimately selected Dynamic Yield as its personalization solution because of the platform’s robust recommendation engine and quickly began using the platform to tailor digital experiences both on-site and via email.

Execution

Re-engaged recent purchasers using tailored content recommendations in post-purchase emails
In addition to educating consumers and employing digital tactics to drive first-time conversions, Catch Co. was focused on the community-building aspect of its mission. The team was ready to focus on deploying campaigns that would keep users coming back to its site to re-engage them with more products and content. With email being such an essential channel for the company, they wanted to inject content recommendations into post-purchase email campaigns to encourage users to return to the site to read relevant content.

Using Dynamic Yield’s recommendation engine, Catch Co. was able to seamlessly connect the platform with its email service provider to place tailored recommendations into its email campaigns for previous purchasers and Karl’s Club members. Using the Similarity algorithm, the content recommendations were tailored according to the products users recently purchased or have purchased historically. That way, users learned more about specific sub-categories of equipment they have been shopping for and have the product knowledge they need to be confident both in purchasing and using the equipment. This widget placement was highly effective, resulting in a 25% click-through rate for the post-purchase email campaign.
Example of a personalized content recommendation widget inserted into a post-purchase email
Deployed tailored, on-site product and content recommendations across the eCommerce site to facilitate product discovery
Catch Co. wasn’t going to limit the scope of its recommendations to just email, especially considering the unique nature of its product inventory, which often requires some level of research for less-seasoned fishers. With a wide array of content available on its site, the company wanted to let its articles and videos lend themselves to facilitate the product discovery experience, especially after a site analysis revealed users who engaged with the retailer’s on-site content eventually engaged with products. Catch Co. began pumping its blog posts into its data feed and used Dynamic Yield to recommend relevant content on product pages. The team segmented their content recommendation campaigns by traffic source, testing different algorithms for users with non-branded search queries, users directly searching for Catch Co., and non-search-based traffic. The best performing campaign was its content recommendations targeted at non-search traffic, which resulted in a 35% uplift in average revenue per user against the control. After seeing uplifts in revenue for a number of its campaigns, the Catch Co. team has started scaling its campaigns, serving personalized content recommendations to all users in each one of its audience segments.
Example of a personalized content recommendation widget located below a product description on a product detail page showcasing articles related to a user’s recent purchases

The Key Takeaway

While fishing and digital experience creation may seem like an unlikely match, Catch Co.’s dedication to consistently presenting its customers with the best possible eCommerce experience is at the heart of its business. As leaders in the outdoor retail industry, the company has invested heavily in building not just a platform but a community, using technology and experimentation to better connect consumers to the equipment and product knowledge they are in search of. And after partnering with Dynamic Yield, the team has been able to link content with commerce, personalizing recommendations in email and on-site to educate its customer base and help them make confident purchase decisions, driving a 35% uplift in revenue from on-site content recommendations.

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