• MarTech Today
  • Sections
    • Ads
    • Marketing
    • Content
    • Sales
    • Analytics
    • Management
    • Resources
    • More
    • Home
  • MarTech Today
  • Ads
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Mgmt
  • Resources
  • More
  • Events
  • SUBSCRIBE

MarTech Today

MarTech Today
  • Ads
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Management
  • Resources
  • More
  • Events
  • Newsletters
  • Home
Martech: Commerce

Needle Adds New Features To Its Customer Advocate Service For Shopping Sites

Salt Lake City-based company expands beyond live chat with advocates to customer-created answers, demos and other new capabilities.

Barry Levine on February 23, 2016 at 12:57 pm
  • More
shopping cart on keyboard

Needle operates on the principle that the best marketers for a product are happy owners of the product.

Today, the Salt Lake City-based company is expanding on that principle, with the launch of its Advocate Marketing Cloud for shopping sites.

Founded in 2010, Needle previously offered a real-time chat with advocates, selected customers who are fans of the product line. Needle recruits top customers online — it currently manages between 350 and 500 advocates — then screens and certifies them, provides them with information and rewards them with points that can be exchanged for products and with cash.

President and COO Scott Pulsipher told me that the chat was designed to assist customers at the bottom end of the sales funnel, when they were close to making a purchase decision. Over last Black Friday weekend, Needle says it generated more than 56,000 chats that contributed to $3.6 million in sales.

The new Cloud, he said, adds mid-funnel attention, as it provides info, advice and assistance for visitors sorting through possible choices.

The new Instant Answers offer advocate-created on-demand answers with text, photos and video about specific questions, such as the difference between two similar-sounding products. A user can ask the question on the product page and soon receive a pre-written response from an enthusiast. There are also new tools for advocates to generate photo- or video-based demos.

Also new is List Builder, a tool for capturing email addresses and Facebook names provided by site visitors in conversation with advocates. That information, Needle said, is sometimes released by visitors in exchange for product discounts.

Needle - Conversations Article (2)

Within several months, the company expects to add what it calls Advocate SEO, where previous conversations with advocates are searchable for specific answers, like the best camera for shooting active sports.

In a typical use case, Pulsipher said, a customer on the site of a retailer might browse for a high-end HDTV. Needle’s software notices that the visitor is comparing products, and then it sends an invite to talk to an expert, who is an advocate. Pulsipher said about two or three percent of visitors accept the invitation.

Needle’s advocate management is focused on “considered purchases” that require some research and consideration, including footwear, home and garden, computers, sporting goods and automotive products. It says it currently supports about five dozen shopping sites.

The company claims its new Cloud yields five to 10 times more sales conversions than normal and generates an increase in average order value ranging from ten to 35 percent. Golf retailer TaylorMade and electronics retailer New Egg were among the companies that have utilized the Advocate Cloud during its beta phase.

Pulsipher acknowledged that influencer marketing can generate some of the same enthusiasm by non-sales people, support communities like Lithium’s offer peer-to-peer advice, and plenty of sites provide related user-generated content or live chat with support personnel.

But, he added, his company’s new product suite to harness advocate enthusiasm has no “natural competitor in shopping.”



About The Author

Barry Levine
Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.

Related Topics

Channel: Martech: Commerce

Subscribe to receive daily martech news and expert insights. See terms.


We're listening.

Have something to say about this article? Share it with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.
See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

MarTech 2021: March 16-17

MarTech 2021: Sept. 14-15

MarTech 2020: Watch On-Demand

×

Attend MarTech - Click Here


Learn More About Our MarTech Events

White Papers

  • The Media-First Approach Why visual media must be a primary consideration for e-commerce businesses
  • Visual Experiences That Connect: A look at the power of UGC and the tech needed to support it
  • Become an Experience-Led Business with an Agile CX Tech Stack
  • Transformational CX: Video-Powered Experiences Meet Consumers’ Demands
  • What Customer Experience Means in 2021
See More Whitepapers

Webinars

  • The AI Revolution Is Coming to Every Stage of Your Buyer’s Journey
  • The Fundamentals of Link Building for E-Commerce & Affiliate Sites in 2021
  • Your Customer is Calling: Make the Most of Your Marketing Spend with Call Tracking
See More Webinars

Research Reports

  • Local Marketing Solutions for Multi-Location Businesses
  • Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
  • Identity Resolution Platforms
  • Customer Data Platforms
  • B2B Marketing Automation Platforms
  • Call Analytics Platforms
See More Research

Register For MarTech - Free

Receive daily martech news and analysis.

Channels

  • Advertising
  • Marketing
  • Content
  • Social
  • Commerce
  • Sales
  • Analytics
  • Management
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • SMX

Resources

  • White Papers
  • Research
  • Webinars

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2021 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.