How Bimbo Concept builds an omnichannel retail strategy

Bimbo Concept is a multi-brand family concept store and an omnichannel retailer. The company operates three stores in Hong Kong’s prime retail destinations including K11 MUSEA, Central Hollywood Road, and Lee Garden Two. The founder of Bimbo Concept, Elaine So Girardi, advocates the play-and-learn culture and is determined to help create a delightful living environment for children and adults.  Featuring over 70 imported European and US brands, the store offers high-quality, sustainable, and stylish products, such as educational toys, home décor, fashion, and accessories. Elaine also put her heart into creating the company’s own line - Bimbo Casa. It is a kid furniture brand designed in-house and produced by its collaborating artisan, with a mission to inspire imagination and spark  creativity. 

Challenges in multichannel retailing

Lack of internal sales visibility across different stores

Founded in 2019, Bimbo Concept began exclusively online and transitioned to selling in storefronts for a better customer experience. The physical stores are important touch points during the multi-channel customer journey. Customers need to see, touch, and try the products. The brand also offers consultation services for clients who have special needs for nursery or playroom decorations. 

Since its transition, the brand began receiving many online queries from past walk-ins. This has increased the difficulties of maintaining consistent sales service across different stores. Each store has its own WhatsApp number and conversations were stored in one company-owned mobile phone. In-store sales associates took turns passing it around for replying to customers, thus slowing down the response time. 

At the same time, the management and operation teams were blindsided by the lack of visibility to customer conversations in real-time. They needed to be made aware of what customers were asking and how the frontline staff articulated the answer. This duplicated effort between the teams exposed the brand to reputation risk and lost sales.

Keeping customers engaged during the long sales cycle

Having long sales cycles is one of the reasons why Bimbo Concept emphasizes communication on WhatsApp. Many walk-in customers wait to buy, especially when it comes to big wooden toys and furniture. They compare the models, measurements, and colors, then wait for the right occasion to complete the purchase. Most of them prefer to receive follow-up details like catalog, images, pricing, delivery, and installment arrangement via WhatsApp. The brand needed to create automated, relevant, and timely communications to keep customers coming back.

Manually reaching out to specific customers

Bimbo Concept has been using WhatsApp for marketing for a long time. But the process used to be manual and repetitive. In-store sales associates handpicked some regular customers and sent a generic message. Without well-defined customer profiles, reaching out to specific segments is time-consuming and prone to error.

Bimbo Concept uses SleekFlow to improve the sales process

Bimbo Concept now uses SleekFlow omnichannel retail solutions to connect with WhatsApp Business API for managing multiple WhatsApp numbers in one view. The brand also uses SleekFlow as a social CRM tool by integrating its Shopify website.

Drive up sales with one mobile app

SleekFlow omnichannel inbox merges conversations from different stores. In one shared team inbox, in-store associates, back-office operations staff, and management can view customer queries from all locations in real-time. Back-end staff can support in-store sales associates swiftly in adjusting inventory, arranging logistics, facilitating sales and marketing alignment, etc. They can provide accurate product information, maintain a consistent voice and tone, and respond to customers quickly through the SleekFlow mobile app. 

SleekFlow helps retailers achieve total visibility in customer relationship management and identify areas of improvement for frontline sales training.

Elaine So Girardi

Founder of Bimbo Concept

Connect customer data across channels

The SleekFlow-Shopify integration helps Bimbo Concept to connect the dots in the omnichannel customer journey. SleekFlow shows the customer purchase profiles, such as the order status and the purchase history, alongside the chat room. By gathering data about the customer across channels (WhatsApp, website, and physical stores), sales associates can provide relevant product recommendations and strengthen customer loyalty over time. 

Bimbo Concept has ceased using its previous chatbot service provider to avoid website visitors getting frustrated by long wait times and disconnected conversations. Now, customers are directed to WhatsApp, where they can easily pick up the conversation where they left off and let the staff keep sales moving smoothly. 

Send WhatsApp bulk message campaign

Bimbo Concept is also moving towards adopting an omnichannel marketing strategy. The brand uses data gathered from all touchpoints to create customer segments and tailor marketing messages to each of them via SleekFlow Campaign. 

When the festive seasons and birthday celebrations are around the corner, the marketing team can acknowledge these momentous occasions with a reward or discount. SleekFlow's multifunctional template manager (with interactive features like adding list messages, reply buttons, and custom variables) makes sending personalized WhatsApp bulk messages quick and easy. Apart from its omnichannel retail business, Bimbo Concept also uses broadcast messages to promote its playroom events and workshop services to parents.

SleekFlow Broadcast is the most convenient WhatsApp marketing tool for sending targeted WhatsApp messages by customer segmentation.

Elaine So Girardi

Founder of Bimbo Concept