Succès Story
Following a $1,100 investment in 1990, Steve Madden has expanded over the past thirty-plus years from its initial footwear focus to become one of the most iconic lifestyle and fashion brands in America. In addition to Steve Madden, the company also operates other fashion footwear brands, including Dolce Vita.
Today, Steve Madden is known for its creative designs, inspired by rock and roll and the company’s New York roots. These designs provide an outlet for customers to express their individuality. The product offering also comprises accessories, including watches, jewellery, handbags, womenswear, and hosiery. The Steve Madden brand is sold in 269 company-operated stores across the globe.
Dolce Vita, meanwhile, was founded in New York in 2001 and bought by Steve Madden in 2014. The brand promises ‘one-of-a-kind’ styles that range in price from $80 to $295.
Key KPIs delivered by Taggstar
The Steve Madden and Dolce Vita businesses constantly focus on building growth and improving conversion and revenue. Realizing the value of social proof, the team wanted to try Taggstar’s platform its capabilities and service offerings.
Colleen Waters, VP of eCommerce at Steve Madden, said: “In today’s social media world, it’s more important than ever that shoppers can look outside of brands directly for additional validation from others like them. Social proof and seeing in real-time what’s trending and how many other shoppers are interested in a style helps to build trust and credibility with consumers.”
Taggstar social proof messaging was tested in the US, first on the Dolce Vita site and then on the Steve Madden website. The proof of concept ran on Dolce Vita for 45 days and was implemented using a full-funnel across PLP, PDP, and Basket. 13 standard message types were used, including ‘best seller’ and ‘units sold’. After seeing the impressive results with Dolce Vita, the team was confident in running a shorter test over 19 days on the Steve Madden brand.
“Taggstar had the data to back up their product, making it easy for us to choose them for our social proof messaging.”
Social proof messaging drove a 5.41% conversion rate uplift for Steve Madden and a 3.82% uplift for Dolce Vita.
Waters said the Steve Madden brand was impressed with the ability to quickly see the positive results of social proof messaging across its footwear brands. “Taggstar had the data to back up their product, making it easy for us to choose them for our social proof messaging.”
“Being able to A/B test the experience on the website made it easy to see the numbers. The proposed uplift was evident, proof that the messaging positively impacted our customers’ buying behaviors and assisted them in buying decisions,” she said.
Following the test’s success, the Steve Madden and Dolce Vita brands plan to roll out additional message types.
According to Waters, an extension of social proof messaging types will also follow. “We are also keen to try new messaging, incorporating more sub-category levels and review data as well as exploring the value of social media messaging in other channels, such as paid ads,” she said.
Peter Buckley, CRO at Taggstar, said: “Steve Madden and Dolce Vita are brands that could see the value of social proof messaging from the outset. We delivered the results we promised, showing that their trust in the solution and in us as a company was well-founded. We will now look to deliver similar successes for them as they roll out internationally and across additional message types.”
