Our Favorite Brands: Zulily

By: Courtney Love


The persuasive power of purple and personalization. 

​As I was asked to write about one of my favorite brands or a brand that is catching my eye right now, the first brand that came to mind was Zulily.  As we are homebound at the moment and spending more time shopping online (whether it’s for necessities or impulse purchases…and for me it’s the latter lately,) I thought about how this brand in particular gets me to visit their app or website every single day. Do I buy every day? No, but I’m there, on their site, browsing all of the items they have, checking out their flash sales and if I feel like I’m going to miss out on the deal, I’ll buy it.

For those who don’t know what Zulily is, they refer to themselves in search results as “A New Store Every Day.” The best part is, that’s incredibly true. From clothing to pets to home décor to electronics to sports to you name it, they have it all. And new brands sell their products on there every day. You can shop by category or by stores that are “ending soon” or “new today” but the one thing that is consistent is that everything is offered at a deal and stock may be limited so if you want something but don’t buy it immediately you may come back to find out it’s “all gone.”

What Zulily does well is that it constantly encourages you to come back to their app or site through various tactics.  As a marketer, I know their data warehouse must be second to none because they provide their customers with personalized experiences that has helped to propel their brand to e-commerce success. In fact, in doing some research while writing this blog, I learned that 92% of their customers are repeat buyers.  You can be sure I’m in that 92%.

A quick look at my Gmail inbox shows several different types of emails that I receive from Zulily.  One is simply an announcement of a new brand that will be available (whether it’s a teaser for one in the future or one that launches later in the day.) Another is an “early access” email that makes me feel important as a member that I can access this “store” earlier than other members.  I also receive emails when my “waitlist items are back.”  If you do go to purchase an item but it’s “all gone” as previously written about, you can choose to add it to your waitlist.  If the item comes back in stock, you’ll get a notification about it.
 
As I visit other pages on the web, retargeting comes into play as I’m served both general Zulily ads as well as ones that show me either items I’ve looked at before or items that I may like based on what I’ve looked at before.  I’ve even started noticing Zulily commercials on TV and received a fair share of postcards in the mail. 

At the end of the day, Zulily is successful because of this multitouch approach of reaching you wherever you are consuming information.  They then take it one step further in the way they make you feel like they’re shopping just for you.  These personalized experiences translate into the feeling of “they know me;” they know who I am, what I like to buy and what I’m most likely to purchase.  It’s an important thing to think about as you promote your products to your target audience.  Can you leverage your own data or data you receive from your advertising partners to create a better experience for your customers? Can you suggest other products they might like based on products they’ve searched for? Can you reach out to potential customers who have looked at your products with a special message or offer encouraging them to come back?

As a marketer, I applaud brands when they are able to mine their data for information and create this cohesive multichannel strategy. And, as a daily Zulily browser and frequent buyer, I appreciate that my user experience is unique and personal.  You can bet their combination of tactics work. It’s evident by the number of packages that show up on my doorstep on a weekly basis in that purple Zulily-branded box.