Page 82 - AVN Januray 2017

PRODUCT NEWS
INTERVIEW | CALEXOTICS
CALEXOTICS’ NEW FACE
New website addresses needs of customers and consumers
amount of traffic coming from consumers. On the new site these
users have the ability to purchase our items from online affiliates,
directly linked on the product page, or from a list of brick and
mortar retailers around the world. This helps us better close the
consumer purchase gap.
In the past CalExotics has focused on education. How will that
priority be reflected on the new site?
Education is a central part of our overall mission. With the
new website, we can better educate both consumers and industry
professionals. For consumers, the new site provides education
on products and sexual health and wellness. Product education
can be found in the form of product specifications, videos
and instructions. For sexual health and wellness education,
consumers can look to the blog section. This area of the site
focuses on sex advice, tips and information.
For industry professionals, the site is the primary location
for all of our assets and information. When logged in, industry
professionals can access detailed product information, catalogs,
brochures, images, videos and more. The site is also the main
portal for the company’s online educational center, the CalExotics
Institute. The CalExotics Institute is an online educational
resource for industry professionals aimed at aiding in the selling
experience, specifically at the retail level. It provides courses on
sales training for both CalExotics and JOPEN products, along
with product-specific resources and sexual wellness content.
The terms “showrooming” and “webrooming” are tossed around
to describe consumer behavior. Does your website address the
changing nature of how people shop in the digital world?
The online practice of “showrooming” is happening across
every retail segment. To help combat this issue we’re giving
consumers direct access to real-time ordering via our affiliate
network. The framework is simple; a consumer navigates to a
product page, they click the affiliate banner, and the link takes
them directly to a retail site where they can make a purchase. This
type of marketing helps build trusted, long-term relationships.
We’re providing a value-added service to consumers by directing
them to a trusted online retailer. This strengthens brand loyalty.
CalExotics has a huge catalog of products. How do you present
them to consumers and keep them from getting lost?
The company website is often the first place someone goes to
interact with the brand. To ensure this interaction is successful
our website must provide a full-featured brand experience. This
includes everything from the product selection, imagery, verbiage
and navigation experience. We want the experience to be positive,
and with the new site, this goal is definitely achievable.
When discussing branded products online, it is important to
discuss the target customer. With over 80 collections, our target
market varies. In order to better segment our target audiences
we’ve broken down the website into three brands; CalExotics,
CalExotics Etc., and Jopen. CalExotics is our flagship brand, with
a focus on passion and romance. Within the CalExotics brand,
popular products like the Butterfly Kiss and Jack Rabbit can be
found. CalExotics Etc. was created with the adventure seeker in
mind. This brand includes collections like Scandal and Love Rider.
Jopen is for luxury shoppers. Top Jopen collections include Callie,
a favorite of Cosmopolitan magazine, and Opal, the one-of-a-kind
rechargeable glass massager. This segmentation allows us better
target the consumer and to drive traffic to the most desirable
products based on consumer needs.
And an important part of that process is putting a good digital face forward, in the form of a
Putting your best face forward—it’s one of the most important things you can do in business.
company website. CalExotics certainly understands this, which is why the pleasure product
manufacturing giant has worked so hard on both its business-to-business website and its
consumer site, ClubCalExotics.com.
But for 2017, the company’s various portals are getting a face life. CalExotics President and
co-founder Susan Colvin shared the company’s process in developing the new site and how they
expect it will better serve both B2B clients and end consumers.
How long has the new site been in the works?
We’ve been working on the new website for about a year. This includes everything from
development to deployment. The last time our site went through a major overhaul was in 2010, so
we had a long list of must-haves. One major area of focus was on our mobile capability. According
to Statista, about 19 percent of all e-commerce transactions are processed via a smartphone, and
that number is expected to rise to 27 percent by 2018. Consumers, especially millennials, are more
tech savvy and we must do our best to reach them no matter what device they are using. With this
in mind, we made mobile capability a top priority.
What factors led CalExotics to undertake the redesign?
A website overhaul has been on our “to-do” list for some time. Technology has changed dramat-
ically over the past six years, and we needed a site that can keep up. We also wanted a centralized
hub for all of our information. With our old website, we had multiple sites handling a variety of
tasks. We had one site for sexual health and wellness content, one for warranty information, one
for our sister company, Jopen, and a variety of others. With the new site, we can aggregate all of our
content into one centralized location. This is extremely helpful when it comes to marketing. All of
our online marketing efforts can now be focused on driving traffic to one place. This will help us
maximize our efforts and enable better monitoring and reporting.
What are some major differences with the new site?
One central area in which the new site differs from the old site is in terms of accessing
information. Before users can access the information, they must log in. This allows us to control
who receives access to sensitive and proprietary information, including product information,
pricing, and imagery. This will help us in our ongoing fight against counterfeit goods.
The new website was built using the latest e-commerce platform. This means the site is run
using up-to-date technology, allowing for more advanced capabilities and more efficient processing.
Is the site more focused on business customers or on the general public—or is it a bit of both?
The new site is focused on two main user groups: customers and consumers. For customers,
we’ve ensured the new CalExotics.com is the ultimate reseller’s resource. It acts as a centralized
location for the company’s collateral and assets; plus, it is easy to navigate and place orders. For
consumers, we’ve created a site that is full of information, product specific and sexual health and
wellness related. Our mission is to be an educational source, and the new website helps reinforce
this mission. The new site also gives consumers a more direct path to retailers, both online and
brick and mortar. CalExotics.com receives tens of thousands of hits a month, with a significant
82 | AVN.com | 1.17