Apple Rose Beauty Increased Online Sales 300% by Implementing ActiveCampaign CXA

ActiveCampaign, the leader in Customer Experience Automation (CXA), is kicking off its month-long Customer Love Campaign by highlighting the success of its customers, including Apple Rose Beauty, whose mission is to employ survivors of human trafficking and donate to organizations involved in their rescue and rehabilitation. ActiveCampaign is featuring many Black-owned businesses in its month-long campaign to recognize Black History Month, driving consumers to its updated Black-owned Business Guide. A recent consumer poll conducted by ActiveCampaign revealed that supporting Black-owned businesses is top-of-mind for consumers. In fact, more than 60% of consumers surveyed already prioritize or want to prioritize buying from Black-owned businesses.

Using CXA, Apple Rose Beauty turned a mainly in-person approach into a thriving ecommerce business overnight when the pandemic hit and face-to-face interaction wasn’t possible. This is a situation many ActiveCampaign customers found themselves in. In fact, in the company’s recent survey of 500 businesses, nearly 70% of companies that grew over the past year changed their business model in some form — whether that meant moving services online, targeting different customers, or building a hybrid model with in-person and online services. Kristy Alexander, founder and chief big heart of Apple Rose Beauty, implemented automations, created 1:1 experiences and grew the company’s online sales by 300% with the help of ActiveCampaign.

Before the pandemic, only about 30% of Apple Rose Beauty’s business came from online sales. Most of its revenue came from live events, where they were able to get immediate, direct feedback from customers that helped them stay connected. To mimic that in-person experience, Kristy pivoted her email marketing to be more conversational. Prior to COVID shutdowns, email only accounted for 12-15% of Apple Rose Beauty’s total revenue. Today, it consistently accounts for 30-35% of its total revenue. With ActiveCampaign, Apple Rose Beauty is able to deliver a personalized experience at scale so Kristy and her team can focus on delivering great products to their customers.

ActiveCampaign’s most recent poll of 1,000 consumers found that nearly half of those surveyed learn about Black-owned businesses from social media and 42% hear about them by word of mouth, making the experience these businesses provide across channels crucial to future business growth. The data also revealed that over the past year, many consumers have altered their buying habits due to climate change or social justice issues. Nearly one quarter of consumers surveyed now look for sustainable brands, 19% look for brands owned by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and 19% look for small businesses to shop from.

ActiveCampaign’s Customer Love Campaign will highlight many Black-owned businesses throughout the month. The campaign will also include:

A new and improved Valentine’s Day Holiday Gift Guide to encourage consumers to shop at local, Black-owned businesses.
Instagram live stories with businesses throughout February that will dive into not only their success stories, but how other businesses can be successful by implementing CXA.
Tips on how businesses can show their own customers love by sharing automation advice, free tools and more.
Sharing how customers help drive the product roadmap, by featuring the top customer ideas ActiveCampaign made real over the last year.

Additionally, the CXA provider’s ActivelyBlack ERG is highlighting a different theme each week of Black History Month and hosting internal events that highlight Black influence, Black wealth, Black culture and Black wellness. These include:

An interview with Chicago French Press Founder and CEO Kris Christian on her career transition from Wall Street analyst to entrepreneurship, how she scaled her business during the pandemic and the road to building generational wealth in Black communities.
A discussion with Keewa Nurullah, founder of Kido Chicago, on how she balances business and family and her experience being a Black business leader through COVID and recent acts of anti-Blackness in the US.
A Black-owned business customer panel discussion centered around addressing & overcoming the inequities in entrepreneurship impacting Black founders.
A wellness workshop for ActivelyBlack members and allies, guided by facilitators from HealHaus, on how to better support Black colleagues in the workplace.
A Netflix watch party where members of ActivelyBlack will be live streaming and chatting via Teleparty while watching a film celebrating Black excellence.

Supporting quotes

“Our customers continue to amaze us with their drive and innovation in a rapidly changing environment. That’s why we are so proud to continue helping them grow with customer experience automation,” said Jason VandeBoom, Founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign. “Our team is constantly focused on how we can better support our customers and highlight the great things they are doing, not solely this month but year-round. We are continuously listening to customers and their ideas to help them grow. In fact, our product team has implemented more than 300 customer ideas into the ActiveCampaign platform, ensuring we are always iterating and creating wow at the moments that matter.”

“ActiveCampaign enabled us to create that in-person conversational experience, allowing us to make a more direct connection with our customers. They recognize and appreciate that we care about them and their feedback, and they feel invested in our brand,” said Kristy Alexander, Founder and Chief Big Heart of Apple Rose Beauty. “Using ActiveCampaign, even the smallest brands can connect with the largest audience on a massive scale to drive sales and future brand loyalty.”

“Highlighting the success of the Black-owned businesses ActiveCampaign works with ties back to our mission of helping underrepresented groups grow and thrive,” said Chelsea Marion, co-lead of ActivelyBlack. “The customers and Black voices we are amplifying through this campaign are doing incredible things in their communities. It further reiterates how important it is for companies to foster a diverse and inclusive environment, making sure underrepresented groups are seen, heard and valued.”

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Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted online by Dynata from January 26 – 28, 2021. Dynata surveyed 1,000 adults (18+) living in the United States.

About ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s category-defining Customer Experience Automation Platform (CXA) helps over 150,000 businesses in 170 countries meaningfully engage with their customers. The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to 750+ pre-built automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation and CRM for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat and text. Over 70% of ActiveCampaign’s customers use its 870+ integrations including Microsoft, Shopify, Square, Facebook, and Salesforce. ActiveCampaign scores higher in customer satisfaction than any other solution in Marketing Automation, CRM, and E-Commerce Personalization on G2.com and is the Top Rated Marketing Automation Software on TrustRadius. Start a free trial at ActiveCampaign.com.

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