How Berries.com used Lyris ListManager
to Build a Booming Online Gift Destination

Company Background

In 1985, Shari Fitzpatrick was an up-and-coming mortgage broker in Los Angeles. Seeking an innovative way of expanding her business contacts, she began giving baskets of her homemade chocolate–dipped strawberries to local realtors and other prospective clients.

The memorable strategy worked and before long, the berry baskets had become so popular that Shari was inspired to turn the venture into a full-time enterprise. After steady local growth, the business took off in 1998 with the launch of Berries.com—two full years before the company published its first mail order catalog.

Today, Berries.com is a popular destination not only among business clients, but well-intentioned procrastinators too. Since every shipment is sent via overnight express, people hunting for last-minute birthday and anniversary gifts have been known to flock to the site for such items such as "strawberry roses" (a dozen chocolate covered strawberries on silk stems) and a chocolate covered bottles of champagne—complete with a handy pull cord for breaking off chunks of the delicious outer coating.

Goals and Challenges

While making the transition from a local, word-of-mouth venture into a thriving online business with international distribution, Berries.com first had to rely on the most affordable methods of reaching customers.

"We had a really enthusiastic customer base, but at that point in time, we didn't have the capital to do a major catalog push," recalls Karen Garcia, Web Marketing Manager of Berries.com.

Quick and cost effective, email rapidly became the cornerstone of the company's direct marketing efforts, and the business expanded dramatically as a result. After a few years, however, the company's email marketing strategies began to pose unexpected difficulties.

Sales numbers remained healthy, but the in-house marketing software was having difficulty keeping pace with list growth. A clunky interface, slow sending speeds, and unreliable performance meant that successful campaigns were becoming more difficult to orchestrate. On Garcia's recommendation, the company decided to make a change.

The Solution

Wisely, Garcia took time to conduct a thorough investigation of the many email marketing products in the marketplace. After reviewing several company profiles and testing a number of software applications, she narrowed the field to three possibilities.

By coincidence, on the day she selected the three remaining candidates, she happened to receive a courtesy call from a Lyris representative.

"To make a long story short, I was so impressed with the representative and the capabilities of Lyris ListManager that I was an hour late to meet our company's CEO," laughs Garcia.

Garcia eventually made it to the meeting, where she related what she'd learned. Later that day, the Berries.com team decided to purchase a ListManager software license.

The Results

Since becoming a Lyris customer in 2002, Berries.com's in-house lists have grown significantly, and its online business continues to expand.

"The email campaigns work extremely well," says Garcia. "Our response rates are very, very good. In fact, we typically start checking for results immediately after sending out an email. Within five minutes, we'll usually have 10 to 15 orders," she says.

Garcia reports that Lyris ListManager has been an essential part of the success.

"ListManager has allowed us to stay current with all the changes in the email marketing world. Implementation of best practices is a breeze, and the interface is easy to navigate. Above all, our ROI is better than ever, partially due to the fact that list hygiene is a snap."

"In addition," says Garcia, "the crew at Lyris is so very responsive that any technical questions we have had have been answered quickly. They're willing to listen to our specific needs and they're always looking to improve their own product."

Future Plans

Going forward, Garcia says she plans to use Lyris ListManager to create more personalized content for the company's email marketing campaigns. One possibility, she says, is making a special birthday reminder service available to customers, or messages that are tailored to a customer's gender and specific gift preferences.

"Men don't want to be told about holidays as often as women do, she laughs, "but they really appreciate the last-minute reminders to buy for their wives and girlfriends."

"Location is another way we'd like to pursue more customized offers," she explains. "Because our products are perishable, it will be nice to parse things out for one coast or another so that we can send special deals to the places where we have a little more leeway to ship."

In addition to expanding the business, Garcia says that ListManager will also help Berries.com stay close to its cherished customers.

"ListManager helps us keep in touch with them, and we love their stories. They use our berries to propose or send last minute anniversary gifts. They write to say, 'Thanks, she said yes!' or 'Thanks, you really saved my bacon!' We never get tired of hearing that."

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