How Sonos Determined That Wunderkind Could Hit the Right Notes

After expanding eCommerce efforts, Sonos realized that they were falling victim to a consumer behavior known as “reverse showrooming”: consumers would research the product online and show intent to purchase, but would then require the tactile experience of seeing and testing the speakers in-store. Though they had spent significant browsing time on the Sonos site, the store would receive the conversion credit. The onsite cart abandonment rates reflected the impact of this trend, hovering around 88% as consumers dropped off right before converting. Abandonment rates, paired with what Sonos was spending to get consumers to site only to have them convert elsewhere, served as the impetus for beginning to evaluate vendors who might help them address the issue. In addition, Sonos noted that low identification rates hindered their ability to retarget those people who were leaving the site without making a purchase.

Having pinpointed the two fundamental challenges, Sonos began to build out a shortlist of key requirements for finding a solution. Those were as follows: 1) Compatibility with existing ecommerce and CRM tech stack; 2) Capacity of Sonos CRM team in managing the solution; 3) Ability to address limitations pertaining to user identification; 4)Acceleration of “time to first dollar”; 5) Ability to achieve success without discounts; 6) Quantifiable (incremental & measurable) impact

Wunderkind was able address every requirement, but Sonos was particularly swayed by Wunderkind’s ability to address #4: “acceleration of time to first dollar.” Sonos global eCommerce and CRM operations are managed out of the US and sit with a small team that is already strapped for resources. For that reason, ease of global implementation was a critical selling point, and they didn’t want to wait a year (or more) to see the returns from their investment. The premium level of onboarding and strategic service ensured that Sonos got up and running quickly, and enabled them to see immediate—and impactful—return on spend. Over the course of the first six months with Wunderkind, Sonos was impressed with their results feel. In addition to feeling supported, they’ve seeing a 12x return on spend, which far exceeded their forecast. Sonos onsite identification rates also rose significantly, to 21% of site traffic, which aids in more productive retargeting and revenue generation. Sonos has also been able to deploy additional onsite campaigns that improve customer experience and better nurture visitors, as well as brand-appropriate email capture modals that grow their addressable database. All said, Sonos rigorous evaluation landed them with a highly effective partner, and a team that comprehends, internalizes, and executes on the Sonos goals.