userwerk:
go-live after just two months

How to turn a thank you into a business model

Spontaneously buying a little something extra at the checkout is now possible for online customers as well, thanks to the Ulm-based POP marketing specialists userwerk. They use thank you pages to place test packages and bargain offers at the point of purchase (POP) in online stores, converting inactive traffic into valuable additional revenue and offering customers a positive exit experience.

Background
“Thank you for your purchase”: usually, the customer journey in an online store ends once the order has been completed. But couldn’t the traffic that reaches this final page be used for something more significant than a friendly thank you? This was the idea that inspired Dr. Markus Kalb to found his Ulm-based company userwerk after catapulting the affiliate services provider reichweite2 (now Sovendus) to the top of the German market.

What sounds like a straightforward business model has a complex operational core: userwerk mediates between online stores, visitors to thank you pages and the product providers (publishers, producers or retailers) who supply products to the microshops.

Challenges include the visual integration of emotions, brands and microshops, the transmission of order data in line with data protection legislation, and effective communication with users, partners and providers.

The task
The initial task was to develop a functional first version that would allow userwerk to test campaign effectiveness, conversion, scalability and acceptance.

The solution
As early as the planning phase, userwerk put its trust in a number of powerful store operators to help it implement all facets of the application. userwerk’s agile startup culture allowed it to react quickly to feedback from store operators and customers.

Integrated into this network of participating companies, we took over project management, the expansion of the shop system to include elements of the business model and the implementation of a communication channel for invoicing the orders received. We developed the application step by step with a flexible scope, remaining in constant communication with userwerk and tailoring our work to the requirements of the store operators.
userwerk selected Spryker Commerce OS to enable it to react to the high volume of orders it expected from the first software version, and to help flexibly structure the order management process.

To allow the microshops integrated into thank you pages to be adapted to individual corporate designs, we added a white label function to Spryker, along with freely configurable partner and campaign modules. This meant that userwerk could activate new partners within just a few minutes.

On the backend, we ensured that userwerk could manage the conversion of order data into usable order datasets for its processing partners without having to do any programming itself – in customized formats, manually or at specific times, and always reproducibly and in compliance with the GDPR.

Shops that operate a userwerk microshop on their thank you pages can now use this previously dead space to achieve additional revenue without significant overheads. The application went online in March 2018, was continuously developed and, just four months later, achieved a five-figure monthly order volume.

Services

  • Technological consulting, detailed technological concept and product ownership
  • Spryker as the technical basis for performance and expansion
  • Dynamic product data and order management
  • Individual microshop white labeling
  • API-driven integration script for partners
  • Kubernetes-supported CI pipelining and GCP deployment