Who is Rotate Watches?
Rotate engages watch enthusiasts with hands-on experiences to dive deeper into the inner workings of mechanical watches through a variety of “build your own” watch and movement kits. Those fascinated with the intricate composition of gears, springs and jewels behind the dial are offered a wide selection of all-in-one kits to assemble their own watches or movements. Kits, complete with essential tools, parts, and step-by-step instructions, come in different levels of difficulty (complications), catering to everyone from the curious novices to enthusiasts of different experience and interest levels.
“At Rotate, we’re passionate about sharing the art of watchmaking with enthusiasts of all levels. Our complete kits are curated with everything you’ll need to begin. Our goal is to make watchmaking as digestible and enjoyable as possible,” said Jennifer Zhang, the founder of Rotate Watches.
After making its debut on kickstarter in 2019, Rotate has rapidly generated interest in the watch community and retail outlets, and was even featured in the New York Times and Geeky Gadgets.
Opportunity
Following a successful launch, Rotate is on a mission to make the art of watch making more accessible and engage audiences beyond die-hard mechanical watch enthusiasts. This passion is reflected in Rotate’s product strategy of providing customers with all-inclusive kits, that eliminate the need to have experience in assembling watches or to already possess essential watch making tools. Most other DIY watch kits, catering to customers with more knowledge and/or experience in watch making, only provide the parts and not the tools to assemble the watch or movement.
Rotate kits also cater to a wider range of different style preferences, movement specifications, price points, and levels of difficulty. In addition to their product offerings, those who are interested in leveling up their knowledge can also sign up for introductory classes and access content and resources about watch making on the Rotate website.
As the company gears up for the next phase of awareness and growth objectives, it quickly identifies the two key drivers that must be focused on: 1) Identify and better understand the intent and decisions drivers of target buyers, and 2) Integrate an experience to better engage and educate customers about their products on the website.
Solution
In need of a solution that enables personalized engagement with potential customers and the ability to generate insights on buyer segments, Rotate incorporated ZEALS.ai’s social chat commerce solution into its marketing mix. The wide selection of kits offered can be overwhelming for potential buyers, especially those who are new to Rotate and DIY watch kits. Working closely with the ZEALS.ai conversation design team, a new ‘discover your kit’ experience was integrated with the Rotate website, Instagram DM, and Linktree.
Rotate’s unique chat experience was designed to minimize the friction points in their customer funnel, and to accelerate the generation of leads and sales conversions. Users interested in learning more about Rotate watch and movement kits interact with an automated chat experience, in the form of a fun quiz, to instantly generate personalized kit suggestions that best suits their style preference, watch making experience, and other personal attributes.
Key user interactions and responses from initiated chat experiences are automatically recorded to generate a wealth of customer insights in the form of zero party data. Presented in both aggregate and segmented formats, zero party data generated from all chat interactions help Rotate better understand who their buyers are and what product attributes they are most interested in. “It helps us decide what future products and services to bring on… for example, we’ve learned that our potential buyers are more interested in everyday watches, and there are more women buyers than we anticipated,” said Zhang.
Results
- 93.02% of users complete the chat experience to generate personalized recommendations
- 10.13% of 1st time visitors subscribe to receive updates on new product drops and promotions
Outlook
With a successful integration of ZEALS.ai social chat commerce solutions, Rotate looks forward to the capability of driving more meaningful engagement and better understanding the needs of their returning and new customers. Personalized, interactive chat experiences enable Rotate to more effectively collect zero-party data about their customers at scale, to continuously optimize the shopping experience on their site and product offerings.
