Vaillancourt Folk Art
Internet Gift Retailing Finalist
Jane Kitchen -- Gifts and Dec, 8/21/2010 5:29:42 AM
One of the few remaining "Made in America" Christmas manufacturers, Vaillancourt Folk Art uses vintage moulds to create highly detailed, hand-painted chalkware figurines, popular with collectors and Christmas enthusiasts alike. But in 2009, Vaillancourt sought to expand its audience, and turned to its website to do so.
The website needed to be utilized by both wholesale and retail customers, and would also serve as a resource for collectors to research their cherished collectibles.
Having recently changed the look of their existing retail space to a more minimalist feel, Director of Digital Marketing Luke Vaillancourt says he wanted to take the website and mimic that.
The new website features simplistic layouts that allow visitors to quickly find what they are looking for, rotating products on the home page, quick access to the "shop online" section, and a "one-page checkout," which has decreased abandoned shopping carts.
Within the first month of launching the new website, Vaillancourt saw an increase in online sales of 275 percent over the same month the previous year. Online sales have continued to grow through 2010, Web traffic has increased 50-60 percent over the previous year, average orders have increased, and almost every month has set record numbers for online sales.
But perhaps more importantly, Vaillancourt has seen a significant increase in visitors using the dealer locator system to find stores that are local to them.
"A lot of the small mom-and-pop shops have gone out of business, and collectors couldn't find our products," explains Vaillancourt. "Now, with a real Web presence, they can use the store locator to find a store that's close to them."
The Collector's Corner details every piece Vaillancourt Folk Art has ever made, with a photo and information on how many were painted, when a piece was introduced, what kind of mould was used and the story behind the creation of the piece.
The company is also reaching out to a new, younger audience through Facebook and Twitter. And to keep things fresh, new products are unveiled on a monthly basis, such as the Tiny Santa series for 2010. Email broadcasts on the first of the month alert customers to what's new.
"We have to be creative," says Vai l lancour t . "In today's marketplace, the consumer is hard to capture, and then once you've captured them, it's hard to keep their attention."
But they're paying attention; Vaillancourt Folk Art's opt-in email marketing subscription list has grown - 42 percent from 2007 to 2010.
Last year ended at 49.58 percent over the previous year, thanks in no small part to the new Web page.
"It's the age of the Internet," says Vaillancourt. "...It's saved us. It's really been a good way for us to reach not only our retail, but also our wholesale clients."
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