Marsellolaunched on Shopify in 2017 with an ambitious goal: become an all-in-one marketing platform for retailers. By combiningecommerceand point of sale data, the solution helps merchants create smart and targeted marketing campaigns, email, SMS, loyalty programs, and more. In short, the team’s mission is to help retailers grow sales, online and in store..
Getting involved with Shopify was an easy decision for Marsello, according to Kat Williams, the company’s Product Manager. “The Shopify ecosystem is incredibly impressive,” she says. “Beyond that, the innovative community and passion for retail is what really sold us. Marsello’s values align nicely with Shopify’s mission to help retailers grow their businesses”.
It was that passion about their own product that truly drove their success. As Marsello gained momentum, the team quickly realized they needed to understand how retailers were interacting with their product and how they could make Marsello an even better tool to help retailers.
“When we got our first retailer on board it was really exciting,” Williams says. “We were all watching what they were doing in the app so closely and it was hard not to interrupt the customer discovery phase. But we established support and feedback channels to ensure we were there to help if needed.”
It was this desire to gather feedback and understand the market that quickly opened the door for future success. By using live chat and gathering as much feedback as they could, Marsello was able to not only get direct feedback from its customers, but also make the solution an even more powerful tool based on customer feedback.
As Williams says: “Marsello is really based around increasing sales, we want to help generate value, and we know that if a retailer turns on five pillar features in the first 30 days they will make 10x on their ROI.”
That's exactly what the company did forMy Sister’s Closet Boutique, a clothing boutique that specializes in trendy, comfy, and modest apparel for women of all shapes and sizes. Since launching their first campaign with Marsello they have achieved 190x ROI.
One key to Marsello’s success is that the team found its niche customer market and then narrowed down its feature list to develop the most impactful capability. “We clearly identified who our ideal customers are and had that laser focus on the type of customer we want to sell to,” says Craig Bass, General Manager of Partnerships at Marsello. “You have to be very clear on who you are trying to attract and then build the best possible product for them.”
Brady Thomas, Marsello’s CPO and Co-founder, agreed, adding: “The marketplace is so big now that you don’t have to have mass appeal, you can stick to your DNA. For instance, our DNA is helping omnichannel merchants craft the perfect customer experience to help drive revenue, and there are enough merchants in the Shopify community to provide a unique experience for that audience.”
While Marsello has made the effort to create the best possible product for its customer base, the team has also invested resources into building a strong app profile to help ensure that prospective merchants understand the value of the solution. “The Shopify App Store is a thriving ecosystem, which means there are a lot of available apps," says Jamie Armitage, Global Marketing Lead at Marsello. "Being able to showcase Marsello in front of our ideal customers is hugely important. Understanding how to optimize our app listings is critical to helping us get in front of customers who need our solution and will see immediate benefits."
Finding their niche, listening to their audience, and building powerful and unique experiences based on merchant feedback have helped the Marsello team grow the company from only a handful of merchants to thousands. The company now serves retailers of all sizes, from less than $10,000 to over $50 million in gross merchandise value (GMV). But for Marsello, this is just the beginning.
As Kat Williams puts it: “This year we’ve relaunched the entire frontend of Marsello and used our existing functionality to create the best possible experience for our merchants and their customers. We want to provide the power of an entire marketing team in the palm of a retailer's hand, and we are well on our way to meeting our goals.”