IRISIMO

Initial situation

The first version of the online store was called Hodinky.sk and the business was growing steadily. In 2013, the company had an annual turnover of about €400,000 and was selling solely to the Slovak market. The tasks for Dexfinity were clear:

• deliver expansion,
• set up working performance campaigns,
• comply with the set cost-to-turnover ratios.

The cooperation started in March and after six months we expanded to the Czech Republic. Nowadays we work using a success fee model and the number of markets has grown significantly. The Slovak one accounts for only 25% of turnover.

IRISIMO now operates in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Greece. Next year, we have our sights set on Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria.

A recipe for success in 14 countries

The cooperation with IRISIMO is based on a set cost-per-turnover ratio that must not be exceeded. The agreed cost-to-turnover ratio needs to be distributed across all the markets where IRISIMO operates. In some places advertising costs more and earns less, in others it’s the other way around.

Each month we analyse the results of campaigns and reallocate funds to markets that have the potential to grow. IRISIMO is a very specific and fully performance-based collaboration.

Where to expand to?

Potential markets for IRISIMO are selected not only on the basis of analysis, but also by taking into account the client’s interest. When entering a market, we analyse market availability and the price of transport, and we also compare the prices of services against our competitors. We always look to see if there is already an established retailer with a strong brand on the market.

Entering markets without fully developed e-commerce segments worked especially well. In these cases, we found that even if there is some competition in the market, it tends to not keep up with the times and lacks, for example, the possibility of payment by card or fast delivery services. These are plus points for IRISIMO.

We are currently working with this client to enter the Nordic markets, where customers are particularly sensitive to payment methods. The Klarna system must not be missing from the offer. Conversely, in the Czech Republic, price comparators are a necessity.

How does the market we want to enter work?

The biggest challenge for the entire Dexfinity team is entering new markets. Each requires a different approach. Throughout this collaboration, we addressed bidding processes, but also how the competition works as well as where it sells. We always adapted our pricing strategy accordingly.

In Romania, we took care with addresses

For example, when entering the Romanian market, we advised the client to revise the terms and conditions as soon as possible in order to comply with the legislation.

Not all of the client’s goods were included in the campaigns. We only chose those brands and models of watches that are popular in Romania. In this market, we also had to be careful about entering addresses. If an address is not complete, the courier will not deliver the parcel.

Wrong choice of carrier in Bulgaria

If we make a mistake, we are not afraid to admit it and start again. In Bulgaria, we encountered a problem with the delivery company. It was a local company that generated a huge amount of returns. It took a while to figure out that the shipping company was the cause.

We put the whole expansion on hold because of this problem and found a new carrier.

How to ensure maximum campaign performance?

We manage IRISIMO’s marketing through technology. We rely on campaign performance and data. This combination works in PPC campaigns across the entire customer journey.

We also use performance campaigns to target people who are looking for a specific brand or model of watch. Shopping campaigns have proven successful in targeting a particular brand.

Challenges of the watch segment

• IRISIMO has a wide range of more luxurious watches that customers tend to buy only occasionally. Within our campaigns, we had to take into account that not every customer who comes to the website will make a purchase.
• The customer journey is longer. People can easily click through an ad as many as twenty times before they actually make a purchase, and sometimes that’s for a watch worth as little as €80. IRISIMO pays for every click and our job is to ensure that it is always profitable. When it comes to luxury watches, we therefore address a specific type of audience.
• We constantly analyze growing segments (in the past, for example, smart watches, and currently we are expanding the offer to include jewelry and glasses).
• As IRISIMO deals in selling original watches from distributors (and, thanks to its position in the EU, also directly from the manufacturers), in our campaigns we also leverage the brand power of the labels being sold.
• In some countries we have a problem with fake watches (especially in Bulgaria and Romania). The counterfeit industry is big and the customer wants to know that IRISIMO is an official dealer of genuine brands. If we fail to convince, the customer will purchase the watch for a few euros more in a brick-and-mortar shop.

External marketing team

IRISIMO does not have, and never has had, an in-house marketing team. All activities are covered by Dexfinity. Despite the fact that we sit hundreds of kilometres apart, thanks to open communication, this collaboration has already been going strong for over ten years.

It’s simple. The owner brings the products and the marketer evaluates the numbers. The foundation of this is technological marketing based on performance campaigns and quality feeds. The process doesn’t involve too much creativity, so IRISIMO doesn’t need to pay its own inhouse marketer.

How we switched to a success fee model

The arrival of the coronavirus in the early 2020s brought with it a big drop in sales. We wanted to support the client after years of cooperation and we proposed to share part of the marketing costs with them.

We had already tried and tested a similar model of collaboration. We knew it required sharing numbers. IRISIMO sees how much of the remuneration goes to Dexfinity and where the money from the turnover is invested. In order for this model to work, the online store needs to be of a certain size. IRISIMO fulfilled this condition.

We might be extremely close, but we also trust each other

With this remuneration system, we have to get the numbers right. We need data not only from Google, but also from the CMS system. The results we need to see must be net of refunds and cancellations. Thanks to the previous years of cooperation and mutual trust, the transition to the success fee model was smooth.

If some months we earned more, we didn’t keep the money for ourselves. We involved additional specialists in the team who were able to raise IRISIMO up even further. Conversely, any budget saved is put aside for longer-term and harder to measure goals like link-building and SEO.

A project built on trust

We see IRISIMO as an example of mutually beneficial cooperation that is based on maximum trust and partnership. We work together to solve problems and share profits.

The owner of IRISIMO is extremely supportive and we see the partnership we have built over the years as the goal of every single collaboration. The fact that the IRISIMO-Dexfinity partnership is working is clearly demonstrated by the results achieved. Nowadays, IRISIMO more or less dominates the market in Central and Southern Europe.