A guy sneezes and asks for a Kleenex. Your child skins her knee and wants a Band-Aid. Atlanta-based SPANX has become a powerhouse global brand that is equally synonymous with shapewear. But this revolutionary retailer’s products are not your grandma’s girdles, so it is only fitting that SPANX uses Prism Publicator—an innovative digital publishing platform from Zmags—to get the most out of its marketing dollars.

Challenge

SPANX has primarily sold products through upscale brick-and-mortar retailers, the company website and its print catalogs, which are costly to design, produce, update and distribute. Wishing to enhance their online sales presence by pushing existing creative content to the web, SPANX initially tried using low-cost online publishing solutions. But, according to SPANX Sr. Manager, direct to consumer marketing Eric Chism, these tools did not have the level of functionality that the brand demanded.

“The tools we previously used did not let consumers zoom in to better see products, allow us to easily add products to our catalogs, and also provided poor visibility into sales analytics” Chism explains. “Publishing new online pages and providing links was onerous and expensive. I used to hear a lot of complaints about the process.” On top of the less-than-friendly user interface, launching additional product lines under these circumstances would have been difficult, if not impossible.

Solution

In 2012, SPANX began to use the Zmags digital publishing platform to easily push its existing print content to the web for greater exposure and a seamless, interactive digital experience for the customer. Online customers can now view large, high-resolution images that narrate the product story. “Fit Tips” and “Size Charts” provide detailed information on product specs and help shoppers make optimal selections. This information appears as pop-ups when users hover above links, allowing rich functionality without intrusive clutter or having to leave the catalog experience. A “You may also like” bar provides links to related products, offering viewers easy access to relevant alternatives or additions to their shopping cart.

Chism views the Prism Publicator platform from Zmags as a “must-have” tool for effortlessly pushing digital content to the SPANX website—a critical channel for the brand, accounting for a majority of direct to consumer sales. Furthermore, providing a cross-platform solution for mobile and tablet users is a key benefit of the Publicator platform, allowing SPANX to automatically serve a consistent experience to the 40% of visitors coming to the site via mobile devices and tablets.

Results

Prism Publicator has made it easy for SPANX to rotate and update its catalog monthly, improved its ability to analyze engagement, and has allowed the company to test new catalogs and products. In addition to enhancing the online sales presence, Zmags publications have shown significant boosts in conversion rates and order values for SPANX. Compared to visitors who do not view the digital catalog, those engaged with a Zmags publication show 81% higher conversion rates and a 21% lift in total order value.

Due to the continued success with Zmags, which has consistently shown up to a 50x ROI, SPANX has expanded its usage of the Zmags Prism platform to continue to drive customer engagement year after year. “Prism Publicator lets us leverage the expense of our highly valued print catalogs and effortlessly capture an additional 2% of revenue through our online channel,” Chism says. “And, best of all, it bears no extra creative cost.”