CLIENT SUCCESS
LUNA Sandals Educates Shoppers and
Helps Them Find Their Perfect Product
The adventure sandal manufacturer uses Zuvoo, SMARTASSISTANT’s Freemium solution for small
businesses, to streamline the customer decision-making process whilst increasing overall customer
satisfaction and sales.
Technology has changed the world of retail. Brands
Their small team was spending vast amounts of
of all sizes are able to offer expansive product
time advising customers over the phone. LUNA
ranges to consumers across the globe. It’s enabled
Sandals realized they needed a solution that could
small businesses to compete with established multi-
educate consumers. They needed something to
nationals on a global scale. Yet there’s a multitude
help consumers choose the perfect product for their
of problems successful online businesses have to
needs, without increasing customer service costs or
navigate, one of which is often overlooked:
the time employees spent offering advice.
The Paradox of Choice.
To reduce customer service costs without
As product selections grow, so does the difficulty
compromising quality, LUNA Sandals decided to
in choosing the right product. Consumers become
integrate a digital advisor in their online store. Using
overwhelmed by the sheer scale of products on
Zuvoo’s Guided Selling platform, their marketing
offer. Choosing the perfect product becomes too
team created and launched an interactive, dialogue-
difficult and eventually reaches a point where it
based product advisor for LUNAs within 7 weeks.
paralyzes the consumer. The cost of comparing
products to ensure the best decision is made
The advisor has been a resounding success and
becomes too extreme, often leading to no decision
continues to move
being made whatsoever.
purchase. All this whilst minimizing the amount of
40% of its users direct to
time LUNA Sandals staff spends giving consumer
It’s a problem niche product manufacturers like
advice via expensive, high-touch channels such as
LUNA Sandals have to be particularly cautious of.
live chat or call center services.
They realized that their expanding product range
could be confusing to potential customers.
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SMARTASSISTANT Case Study | LUNA Sandals
ABOUT
Company
LUNA Sandals is a Seattle-based manufacturer of
LUNA Sandals
handcrafted adventure sandals, used for hiking,
www.lunasandals.com
running, and just about any outdoor adventure
you can think of.
Suite Products
Commerce & Sales
The successful, small-sized company was
Customer Service
founded in 2010 by Ted “barefoot” McDonald
and currently consists of a team of 12 staff
Contact Center
members. The idea for LUNA Sandals was born
when McDonald, a leader in the outdoor and
adventure sandal movement, travelled to Mexico
to run a gruelling 50 mile ultra-marathon with
Ted McDonald
Founder & President of
LUNA Sandals
the Tarahumara, a tribe known for their distance
running prowess. The story of his journey is
famously chronicled in the bestselling book
“Born to Run”.
“The core mantra of LUNA Sandals is “thoughtful simplicity”.
Created to endure 50 miles across the world’s
Our customers love our sandals for the simplicity of design,
toughest terrain, LUNA Sandals have become the
ease of use and the amount of thought that goes into each
chosen sandal for barefoot runners. The niche
and every pair. We owe it to our customers to offer the
product is distributed though LUNA Sandals’
same thoughtful simplicity with our purchasing process.
regional online stores and is also available in
Zuvoo allows us to focus on each customer, simplify his or
select retail locations in the US, Europe and Asia.
her decision-making process and increase confidence in the
choices made.“
The Challenge
With an expanding product range of niche
products, it was becoming difficult for
LUNA Sandals to ensure all customers received
the perfect product for their needs.
Helping consumers choose the perfect product
for their needs has always been a challenge for
online players. As product ranges grow, so does the
difficulty in ensuring consumers purchase the right
product for their needs. Filters become less distinct,
product comparisons quickly get confusing and the
time customer service agents need to make the best
The majority of LUNA Sandals consumers didn’t
know enough about the product to understand the
differences between categories, let alone products
within those categories. A basic comparison feature
reliant on an understanding of model names and
specifications simply wasn’t enough.
Irem Guroglu, LUNA Sandals Director of Sales and
Business Development, explains how the previous
strategy the company employed to help consumers
did little to minimize confusion.
recommendation for individual shoppers increases.
“We had a comparison chart that was basically an
Get it wrong, and you’ll spend more time and
excel spreadsheet. It worked great for staff offering
money processing vast numbers of product returns.
advice to consumers, but to really get the best
product you had to have an in depth knowledge
This was the problem LUNA Sandals faced, yet it
of the product. For consumers unfamiliar with our
was coupled with the niche nature of their product.
brand, it was just a confusing mass of statistics.”
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SMARTASSISTANT Case Study | LUNA Sandals
The problem compounded as LUNA Sandals
offer the most personalized, accurate product
started to expand their product range. The growing
recommendation to each individual shopper.
selection was becoming overwhelming. Consumers,
A solution that automated the customer guidance
in their quest for the perfect pair of sandals, would
procedure was needed. However, a simple guide
resort to one of three actions:
wouldn’t suffice, the solution also needed to:
- spend hours reading each product description
to compare products,
- call a customer service advisor for advice
- simply exit the site.
The team understood that none of these solutions
were ideal. They either wasted the time of the
consumer and staff member, or led to a missed sales
• Be centered primarily on customer needs,
not on products
• Help educate consumers on the product range
so they walk away with a better knowledge of
the products and brand
• Drastically simplify the online customer journey
and decision-making process
opportunity.
LUNA Sandals needed a more comprehensive
The LUNA Sandals team began by examining their
solution. A solution that went beyond basic
current customer advice practices. They realized
comparison and changed the way they advised
when assisting new customers, customer service
consumers. They needed to take the focus off the
agents asked similar sets of questions to determine
products themselves and turn it onto the needs
customer needs. This led to a search for an
of the customer and their intended use of the
integrated system that could ask those questions in
product.
place of the customer service agent. A search which
led them to Zuvoo.
The Solution
LUNA Sandals needed a solution that simplified
the customer decision-making process without
heavy-lifting or expensive investments. A solution
that was intuitive, engaging and focused on
customer needs rather than impersonal product
features and specs.
LUNA Sandals wanted to maintain an exemplary
level of customer satisfaction and the personal
service experience they were known for. Yet, as their
product range and consumer base grew, it became
increasingly difficult for the small team to offer the
level of advice and assistance the brand had been
built on.
They needed to simplify the shopper’s online
decision-making process while at the same time
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SMARTASSISTANT Case Study | LUNA Sandals
After discovering the features of a Zuvoo-based
recommendation that a seasoned member of staff
product advisor, LUNA Sandals knew they’d found
would.
their solution.
LUNA Sandals have full control over the advisor
With Zuvoo, the LUNA Sandals team were able to
and are able to update and optimize it by accessing
get their product advisor off the ground in four
the sophisticated Zuvoo backend, which not only
simple steps:
features a drag-and-drop advisor editing interface,
but includes flexible design capabilities as well as
1. Identify questions shoppers ask when exploring
the products
2. Establish a question and answer flow in the
Zuvoo backend and assign product rules for
every answer combination
3. Design, brand and launch the advisor
4. Integrate the Sandals advisor in the customer
journey (navigation menu, banner, social media
promotion)
The Results
LUNA Sandals created a unique, useful and
dynamic product advisor that not only educates
their visitors on the best product for their needs,
but is able to reach and advise more users than
the customer service team.
In just 7 weeks, LUNA Sandals were able to roll out
their product advisor.
The freemium nature Zuvoo as well as the ability to
get started and see results quickly proved perfect
for a growing and ambitious brand like
LUNA Sandals.
Prior to the roll-out and the integration in their
online store, the LUNA Sandals team put their
advisor to the test and were amazed at the accuracy
of the recommendations.
Ensuring the product advisor was as accurate
as possible was of paramount importance.
Without fail, the product advisor made the same
A/B Testing functionalities.
LUNA Sandals also has access to comprehensive
reports giving an insight into different customer
actions and why they chose certain products.
Analyzing click paths, clickthroughs and generated
conversions make their advisor an invaluable source
of information for LUNA Sandals wider marketing
strategy.
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SMARTASSISTANT Case Study | LUNA Sandals
The Benefits
The product advisor caused an increase in customer
reducing returns and eliciting positive reviews and
satisfaction, ensured all users would receive the
recommendations.
best possible advice, and cut down on staff time
spent advising customers over the phone. It’s
simplified the customer journey and has helped
customers find their perfect pair of sandals.
The LUNA Sandals sandal advisor encompasses their
whole product range. It’s a single solution that’s used
both online by interested consumers and by customer
service advisors for quick reference when helping
customers.
Over
15%
of their total web traffic uses the advisor
to better understand the product range and find the
perfect model for their needs.
It was a perfect addition to their customer service
team and freed up vast amounts of staff time to focus
on other areas of the business.
“Before the advisor we had customers calling for
advice on which product was best for their needs.
The Future
What does the future hold for LUNA Sandals?
Further growth, expansion into new territories and
more product advisors to help them thrive in new
markets.
After implementation we not only saw the number of
LUNA Sandals continues their growth and expansion
calls diminish, but those who did call were far better
as the prime provider of adventure and outdoor
prepared. They’d narrowed their search to two or
sandals. Based on the success of their current US
three models and simply wanted a last piece of advice
store sandal advisor, they plan to roll out sandals
on which was best which saved our team a huge
advisors across their international websites and in
amount of time”. - Irem Guroglu
multiple languages.
The product advisor has helped gently coax potential
Irem Guroglu explains that the LUNA Sandals team
consumers along their customer journey. By reducing
is also planning to make greater use of Zuvoo’s
the number of products consumers have to consider
reporting and A/B test features to elicit a higher rate
in their comparison it’s helped LUNA Sandals direct
of sales and conversions.
40% of paying consumers to the perfect sandals
for their needs.
The product advisor has been incredibly well received
by the LUNA Sandals consumer base. It’s helped
educate customers on the sandal features they
need and in turn has raised consumer confidence
not only in the LUNA Sandals brand, but also in the
consumer’s purchase decision — a key element in
About SMARTASSISTANT
SMARTASSISTANT is the first enterprise-class,
cloud-based Digital Advice technology that lets
retailers, brands and service providers implement
and integrate Digital Advice solutions easily to provide
shoppers with helpful, interactive product advice
online, mobile, and at the point of sale.
Visit us: www.smartassistant.com
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