Founded in 1980, Grupo Carso has been in the Mexican Stock Market for over 30 years, where it remains one of the market leaders. With more than 450 stores and restaurants, and over 48K employees, the conglomerate is one of the largest and most diversified in Latin America, and offers an exceptional portfolio of formats, products and services.They have operations in commercial, telecommunications, industrial, infrastructure and construction industries, as well as in the energy sector. Its retail arm, Grupo Sanborns, includes some of the most well known Mexican brands like Sanborns, Sears, Claroshop, MixUp, iShop, Dax and Saks Fifth Avenue.
The challenge of exceeding previous year’s results during the Hot Sale while maintaining a good customer experience
In 2020, Grupo Carso had great results during Hot Sale, the 9-day-online sale campaign. It became one of the most important purchasing moments of the year for the company.
The company’s expectations around Hot Sale in 2021 were higher and the group’s objectives were ambitious: to increase the results of the previous year, reaching new customers while also consolidating their relationship with current ones. Providing a great customer experience while achieving great sales results was a priority for Grupo Carso 3 main brands: Sears, Sanborns and Claroshop.
Deploying a holistic approach to reach the right customers through WhatsApp
Grupo Carso faced many challenges for Hot Sale 2021. They needed to find and develop the right marketing and sales channel for their audience, deploy marketing campaigns to bring more customers to participate during the Hot Sale and develop virtual assistants to answer customers’ demands during the process.
To address these challenges, Grupo Carso and Yalo partnered to deploy a holistic conversational commerce strategy on an automated WhatsApp channel on Yalo’s platform. This would let themreach Mexican customers on an app already known by them.
Working with Yalo & WhatsApp during one of the most important sales campaigns of the year was key to achieving our goals. We were able to increase our reach to our audiences, be on the channels they preferred and innovate in the way we interact with each one of our customers ”
Christian Ordaz - Head of Digital Marketing, Claro Shop
Grupo Carso started with a marketing campaign prior to Hot Sale using the Engagement Suite on Yalo’s platform. They sent WhatsApp notifications to customers inviting them to opt-in to receive meaningful and targeted information about the event. As a result, the company connected with the users that were truly interested in the Hot Sale campaign and could focus on them during the promotion, targeting the right audience with the correct messaging.
To provide a personalized experience to opt-in customers, and establish a close relationship with them, Grupo Carso analyzed the demographic characteristics of each retailer and adapted their tactics and messages accordingly. From this analysis they identified customers who preferred to have a guided process. For these customers, they offered an Assisted Sales program, where sellers would provide information and assistance on WhatsApp during the purchasing process.
During the Hot Sale, Grupo Carso used Yaloʼs technology to simplify customers’ experience on WhatsApp and deployed easy conversational flows in which customers could easily interact and convert.
Thanks to these new interactive experiences, which took into account all different types of customers, while providing relevant and succinct information to the right audiences, Hot Sale was a great success. The company attracted almost 50,000 unique online buyers to their promotional deals, with a 35% increase compared to 2020 results the year before!
OUTCOME - interactive experiences + user loyalty beyond the campaign.
