Kathryn Kerrigan Inc. Case Study
Company Overview
Kathryn Kerrigan, Inc. supplies high fashion shoes in sizes 6-15 for women who stand tall. KathrynKerrigan.com offers stylish and fashionable ballet flats, pumps and boots for women with all shoe sizes. In July 2007, Kathryn opened her own flagship store in Libertyville, IL.
Kathryn Kerrigan, Inc., an online retailer specializing in handcrafted designer shoes for tall women, was created to meet a need known all too well to Kathryn herself. Kathryn’s 6-foot frame requires a size 11 shoe – finding a pair is an uneasy task for any woman in a market geared toward dainty feet.
The Footwear industry in the United States brings in a whopping 25 billion dollars annually; of which small businesses like Kathryn Kerrigan’s make up a large portion. With grim forecasts on economic spending, and realizing the dozens of competitors and abundance of web sites in the sea of the World Wide Web, Kathryn Kerrigan’s presence online needed a boost. Something more. Something competitive and intuitive, and most certainly something that would provide results.
Kerrigan’s dedication to provide a product largely yet unknown to tall women and give them a genuinely gratifying experience is what led her to explore and integrate Velaro’s Click-to-Chat on her company web site. She hadn’t tested the potential in live chat before, and was immediately impressed with the features and possibilities it meant. “From the start it was clear Velaro could do more than I thought possible,” says Kerrigan. “I was floored to learn that with live chat we could sell more of our shoes, increase our per-sale purchases, and close sales faster. The best of all is that Live Chat instantly answers questions our customers have – they love that, and it keeps them happy. The numbers just started climbing.”
Velaro’s Click-to-Chat software, says Kerrigan, was the best solution from both the company and customer perspective. It was easy to integrate, and had an easy-to-use interface. Velaro assessed Kerrigan’s needs and goals, and provided recommendations on how to best implement the chat tool to maximize its benefits and results. It was easily customized so that the software’s appearance reflected Kerrigan’s own online presence – an incredibly appealing feature to many, and in particular to a fashion industry guru.
eCommerce and technology evolves regularly, and companies like Kerrigan’s have to keep up. Velaro’s Click-to-Chat is innovative and often ahead of the curve: no other company can boast a 99.98% uptime – the highest reliability in the industry. In addition Velaro trains agents and cultivates their ability to interact with customers in order to guide them to and through a purchase. This translated into seamless, chat-based sales.
Where approximately one percent of online shoppers actually make a purchase, more than 20% of chatters will convert to a sale. Additionally, 25% of chat users end up purchasing an increased number of items during the transaction. Velaro makes it easy to find out just how much of a difference Live Chat makes: monthly reports outline sales, track conversions and provide deep insight into customer behavior online. For Kerrigan, the results are in: 200% increase in online sales, 90% increase in average order value, and 300% increase in customer satisfaction rate. “You just can’t argue with that,” beams Kerrigan.
