Donald Russell sees 10% sales attribution to Nosto

Industry: Food & Beverage
Platform: Magento
Donald Russell, a renowned Scottish fine foods brand and Nosto customer since 2016.
Learn MoreChallenge:
The brand’s rapid online growth presented time constraint challenges for the digital team.
Learn MoreSOLUTION:
Dynamic Bundles, Pop-ups, Email Widgets and 1-on-1 support from a dedicated Nosto CSM.
Learn MoreResults:
10% sales attribution, 5% CR using Email Widgets and 6% CR achieved through Dynamic Bundles.
Learn MoreAbout Donald Russell
Donald Russell, a renowned Scottish fine foods brand who holds a Royal Warrant due to the quality of their produce, has been a client of Nosto since 2016. It comes as no surprise that a business that supplies Michelin star restaurants takes pride in the quality of their product – and as their Commerce Experience platform of choice, we empower their business to provide online shopping journeys that match that quality.

Challenge: Rapid online growth
Due to rapid online growth, Donald Russell has had to work in an agile manner to continue to deliver an exceptional digital experience that complements the brand’s high standards in fine foods. This growth has presented time constraint challenges for the small but efficient Digital team, who are all committed to delivering the best possible online shopping experience that their customers deserve.
“We have been working alongside Nosto for a number of years and continue to add new and exciting functionality to our E-commerce offering via the platform. We have a good working relationship with our Customer Success Manager, and so far this year have planned and executed some really positive results. Our website and email communications use Nosto to provide a dynamic and personalised user experience to our customers, and this not only ensures we uphold our high standards for customer experience, but also delivers excellent results on the bottom line as we continue on our digital growth strategy.”
Jason Stewart, E-Commerce and Digital Manager
Solution: CSM's support and strategy implementation
Throughout their relationship with Nosto, Donald Russell has leveraged a wide range of personalisation products on their website:
- Product Recommendations
- Dynamic Bundles
- Onsite Content Personalisation
- Pop-ups
- Email Widgets (with Category Merchandising on the horizon)
We understand that not every ecommerce retailer has the time to think of new ways to make the most of the powerful technology they’ve purchased – and Donald Russell is no exception. Thus, our team of Customer Success Managers work alongside brands to unlock the full potential of the Nosto platform. These experts are dedicated to guiding your business towards the most effective personalisation strategies to save you valuable time and bandwidth.
To address Donald Russell’s time constraints and continue to drive a high-quality, personalised shopping experience, the brand is guided by the expertise of a dedicated Nosto Customer Success Manager. The solution is two-fold: Not only is the brand leveraging robust personalisation products that drive performance, but the continuous, 1-on-1 support they receive from their CSM ensures that these experiences run smoothly and give the brand more time to focus on other business goals.
1-on-1 Support from a Nosto Customer Success Manager
For fast-growing merchants like Donald Russell that have multiple areas of focus, investing in technology like Nosto is critical to improving KPIs without sacrificing valuable time and resources. To guarantee that the brand is taking full advantage of the Nosto platform, their dedicated Customer Success Manager guides them towards the most effective ways to leverage the products they’ve implemented. Here are three specific use cases that illustrate how Donald Russell and Nosto teams work together to implement strategies quickly and achieve results:
Dynamic Bundles
When considering consumer behaviour and expectation, time is of the essence. To drive KPIs like conversion and average order value, it’s critical to make it easy for customers to find the products they like and are more likely to buy. Like many other high-quality companies have experienced, Donald Russell has faced challenges with combatting decision fatigue and helping customers find the right products.
To solve this challenge, their dedicated Customer Success Manager helped the brand implement dynamic bundles that showcase auto-generated, visually appealing product recommendations as well as to shift overstocked items in a streamlined and relevant manner. This way, Donald Russell is succeeding in both delivering a high-quality product and service without sacrificing their business agenda. After implementing Dynamic Bundles, the conversion rate for these Nosto-powered recommendations increased from 3% to 7%.

Pop-ups
Enhancing the commerce experience also requires paying attention to the smaller details that are equally essential to your success. For Donald Russell, this means maintaining open communication with their customers in a way that grabs their attention.
With 300,000 5-star reviews and an average of 4.8/5 customer ratings, Donald Russell has generated an astounding level of social affirmation that will cement user confidence in their store. When COVID-19 started affecting the logistical side of business operations, these scores were left vulnerable to slow deliveries and disappointed customers – despite their products flying off the shelves.
To act consistently in line with their customer’s high expectations, the merchant needed to notify customers of the delayed delivery time. Knowing that it is not adequate customer service to announce this post-purchase, the Customer Success Manager set up a homepage pop-up to manage the expectations of customers who were browsing the site before committing to a purchase. This is more of a long-term strategy towards maintaining the brand’s positive reputation, yet still extremely important to make an immediate impact.
Similar to using Dynamic Bundles to facilitate product discovery and eliminate user fatigue, the Customer Success Manager helped the merchant increase conversion by leveraging seasonal Pop-ups during the festive period. Together, they identified three main buyer types and wanted to target them in different ways. Different Pop-ups were shown to different segments:
- If a customer showed an affinity for ‘Convenience’ products, they were shown a Pop-up which took them to a landing page around ‘Christmas made easy’ that focused on products that could be cooked in the oven, all on the same heat.
- If a customer fell into the ‘high AOV’ segment, they were shown a Pop-up directing them to a landing page that suggested luxury products and treats.
- Customers who didn’t fall into either of these segments were still accounted for and were shown the brand’s default Christmas pop-up and landing page.
Email Widgets
Not only does the merchant’s website need to deliver a consistently high level of service, but email communications should also reflect that. To achieve this, Donald Russell leverages Nosto’s dotdigital integration to send over 32 million personalised emails a year. Nosto’s product recommendations are inserted into the emails’ additional ‘window space’ – displaying items that customers may have a high interest in or one related to items they have previously bought – to encourage another purchase.
Results: 10% of sales generated by Nosto powered experiences
The key takeaway from the relationship between Donald Russell and Nosto is that providing a high level of service – in combination with a great product – yields positive business results. In a fast-growing company like Donald Russell, it’s important to have the right resources to continue growing while remaining consistent and maximising time. Together, we’re able to address some of the growth challenges and strategies that many companies often don’t have time for, while doing so in a way that is easy and cost-effective for the merchant.
Results include:
- 10% of sales generated by Nosto-powered experiences
- 5% increase conversion rate using Email Widgets
- 6% conversion rate achieved though Dynamic Bundles
10 %
sales generated by Nosto-powered experiences
5 %
conversion rate using Email Widgets
6 %
conversion rate achieved through Dynamic Bundles