Nibble is an award-winning negotiation AI chatbot that gives customers a way to get personalised offers.
Replacing voucher codes and blanket discounts with a more engaging and fun way to receive deals.
1. What’s your name and title, what do you do day-to-day in 20 words or fewer?
Rosie Bailey – CEO and Co-Founder of Nibble.
Spreading joy, 45 seconds and one chatbot negotiation at a time!
2. At Nibble you allow customers to negotiate personalised prices on products. Can you give us a success story for a D2C brand you’ve worked with? Eg what was the problem? what did you do? what were the results?
A really recent success story was ICONIC London, a major US and UK beauty brand, world-famous for cruelty-free, vegan products, and favoured by professional make-up artists and celebrities including Beyonce and Kim Kardashian.
Like many in the beauty world, they used various discounting tactics across their store.
One challenge that we helped them with was how to encourage shoppers with low-value baskets – where the shipping costs would be disproportionate – to increase their order sizes, without having to use chunky voucher codes and discounts.
We set up a new flow for them that flagged to one and two-item basket customers that if they reached three items of $10 or more, then that would qualify them for a “Special Beauty Deal” – the chance to negotiate with Nibble for a special treat discount. It’s the classic win-win – the retailer gets bigger baskets, and the shopper gets a personalised offer in return.
We also had loads of fun tailoring the chat to their tone of voice – Nibble had never said “Hey babe!” or commented on a customer’s “glam” before!
3. You specialise in customer engagement – what piece of advice would you give to DTC brands who want to increase new customer conversion?
Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Imagine how much you would stand out if your online shopping experience was considered fun, not just a service. Customers will love your brand all the more if you inject a little humour and gamification.
The trick is to keep the tone of voice and messaging aligned with your brand and values. And we haven’t met a retailer yet where this wouldn’t be possible to do authentically – no matter what their brand position.
4. What do you think the biggest challenges facing eCommerce/D2C businesses will be over the next 12-18 months?
Keeping up with the pace of change.
Which is all about starting with your customers, not your competitors. And it certainly is not just about technology.
If you go to any e-commerce trade show at the moment, you would be forgiven for thinking that what separates a winning D2C brand is down to the tools they use.
But it’s more fundamental than that. The winners will understand how their customers’ habits are changing. And I really mean ‘their’ customers – not consumers as a whole, or even specific geographies or generational groups, but theirs and theirs alone.
Most e-commerce tools are built on the assumption that consumers’ habits stay static. Their business models even rely on it. But in actual fact, habits are constantly evolving – especially at the points of consideration and purchase. The challenge is therefore to get closer to your customers at these pivotal moments, really understand what is making them tick, and respond perfectly.
5. Complete this sentence – DTC brands that survive and thrive in 2023 will …
Have a strong reason to exist – and one which matters to their customers.
6. Name three D2C brands that are killing it and whom you recommend others to emulate/learn from.
This US furniture retailer is a firm believer that customer sentiment is not just a case of number and metrics. Their focus on individual engagement is frankly refreshing.
As a result, they really understand one of the hugely powerful benefits of Nibble – listening to your customer in the moment.
Nibble’s whole purpose is to create win-win scenarios. We want the retailer to be pleased with the lower discount, but we also want the customer to get the price and “special treat” they want. And you wouldn’t believe how open your customers can be if you just give them the chance to explain why they want the price they do. Price-matching, buying presents, on a budget for a house move, even divorces – we’ve seen it all!
How would your customers perceive and remember your brand if you listened to them in this much detail, and then responded with a special deal just for them?
We love this US and UK beauty brand’s use of their strong brand values and messaging. They have a determined mission, a firm ethical stance and a tone of voice that all resonate in every channel, on every page and crucially, every promotion.
You can see in the answer above the work we did for them, and the fun we had in making sure their brand echoed in Nibble by dropping their distinct tone of voice into Nibble’s usual dialogue.
But a less obvious way that their brand values and customer-centricity appeared in our AOV campaign was how much pride they took in perfecting the recommendations that customers could add. It was important to them that the additional products were driven by what the customer would genuinely benefit from and need, rather than just what ICONIC wanted to shift. It’s subtle, but it’s powerful.
We really admire this brand. They’re combatting a taboo with a product that gives people their confidence back. In some cases, even their confidence to leave the house. It’s a niche, but it’s empowering.
Not only that but hardwired into their raison d’etre is sustainability – a cause we care deeply about. For many brands, sustainability is an add-on. Perhaps only as deep as the words on their “About Us” page. But for these entrepreneurs, it was why they built the business. They really care about sustainability, and they had the commercial creativity to envision, launch and make a success of their own contribution to it.
They’re one of those brands where when we see the results we have on their AOV, it just brings an extra smile to our faces.