0

in Growth

0

increase in Sales

Challenge

Since 1894, The Hershey Company has made confectionery treats a staple in grocery store aisles everywhere. As consumer shopping channels continue to shift online, Hershey’s asked DEG to develop a direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategic plan to gather first-party data to better understand customer behavior and extend its lead in the confectionery industry.

To start, DEG focused in on the most important customer insight: Most shoppers buy sweets to satisfy a craving. But if purchasing treats as a gift, shoppers are likely to spend more and purchase unique products, especially when shopping online.

Solution

DEG agency developed a cross-channel, multi-year marketing and technology roadmap to guide the expansion of Hershey’s into the DTC space and propel it toward achieving its revenue goals. The roadmap included three distinct personas to target, channel strategy and media recommendations based on persona-specific tactics for acquisition and retention, and ecommerce development initiatives designed to increase engagement and conversion.

Mixing a recipe for success, DEG leveraged its commerce and creative experts to build a one-stop Hershey’s DTC site on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Each Hershey’s brand used a variable template to showcase its unique color palette, as well as dynamic seasonal shifts in content throughout the year. DEG’s creative team developed a design structure for each brand to live harmoniously within the same website without compromising consumer-brand affinity.

Results

Leveraging its strong brands and market position, Hershey’s and DEG launched the new DTC website in summer of 2019, during the key months leading up to the holiday and corporate-gifting season. Since the launch, Shop.Hersheys.com has seen a 98% growth in orders and a 105% increase in sales compared with the previous year.

This was the first step in transforming the business of a more-than-100-year-old brand to build loyalty and revenue by unwrapping happiness through digital commerce.

DEG

DEG is a full-service digital agency crafting data-driven, creatively led, and customer-centric experiences that resonate at the point of greatest impact. We fuse creativity, strategy, and technology to transform our clients’ businesses and engage their customers in the moments that matter most. DEG can be found at www.degdigital.com and on Twitter @DEGdigital.

Learn more about DEG