How Macroonline Uses Storyly As a Creative Space for Building Customer Loyalty

Turkey’s leading luxury grocery app, Macroonline, specializes in providing exclusive products and a premium experience. It is the digital form of Macrocenter stores, a high-end supermarket chain with a unique and exclusive experience. The Macroonline app aims to digitize this specialty experience for its niche community of 100k users devoted to their delicious and high-quality offerings.

Challenge #1 – Delivering an Exclusive Experience to Macroonline Users

Chic in-store designs and an elite staff have been at the heart of the offline branding priorities for Macrocenter. However, the pandemic interrupted many consumer shopping habits, especially when it comes to groceries. 20% of global retail activity took place online in 2020, and this trend is here to stay. Macroonline marketers started to look for ways to bring their brand equity to their mobile apps. In the end, this has been a crucial part of what they sell. Combining organic goods from different parts of the world with an exclusive mobile experience was essential to building trust and an emotional bond with consumers in this digital landscape.

Challenge #2 – Limited UI Elements for Better Product Discovery

The Macroonline app includes a variety of products from different categories. Each of those goods is carefully selected in terms of quality and listed under the names of Macrostyle, Homemade, and Macropicks. The app users can explore these selections and browse special discounts. The UI elements in the home screen of a shopping app are usually limited  to banners and carousels, creating a problem for Macroonline marketers who were only able to showcase a small selection of products in this format. 

Users were encountering trouble discovering new products and Macroonline marketers needed a way to deliver more product-related content in a convenient, mobile-optimized, visually appealing format.

Challenge #3 – The Lack of an Extra Layer for Delivering Branded Content

Installation is just the beginning of a user journey. Smart in-app marketing strategies can create a bond with brand audiences and build loyalty between users and the app. Macrocenter stores have excelled at nurturing this relationship with a unique brand identity but Macroonline marketers were struggling to translate their brand-building activities to their app. Knowing the importance and long term value of reaching the hearts of their users, Macroonline needed an in-app space for delivering this branded experience.

How did Storyly change the game for Macroonline?

Macroonline implemented Storyly to improve brand-building in their app,  thereby boosting retention, customer loyalty, and conversion. They relied on Storyly as the innovative format to deliver solutions to the above challenges.

‍

“The Storyly team took the time to understand the complexities of our business; they were hands-on during integration and they’re still a close strategic partner, working with us in order to leverage stories the best way possible.” - Ali Conker - Head of Macroonline at Migros Ticaret A.Ş.

Solution #1 – In-App Stories to Evoke In-Store Experience 

Seasonal campaigns have always been at the core of Macrocenter’s marketing efforts not only in the form of special offers but also with in-store decorations reflecting the spirit of that year of time. Beginning with New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, Macrocenter’s seasonal displays enchant visitors with their creativity and charm. Macroonline marketers brought the same WOW factor to the app through stories. Posting content from the store on stories created a 40% CTR, an increase of 15% over the year before.

Solution #2 – In-App Stories as a Creative Space for Building Customer Loyalty

The Macroonline marketers use Storyly as an extra layer of content distribution for their brand marketing activities. Helping their customers become educated consumers was just the beginning of building brand trust. In-app stories with Storyly enabled the Macroonline app to curate narratives for different goods and easily deliver them through videos. The Macroonline marketers brought the benefits and offerings of their physical stores to the digital world to enrich their user experience. 

For a shopping app, delivering video content is a challenge. It needs to be embedded in a way that lets users enjoy the video without interrupting the core shopping action of the app. Storyly provided an elegant solution. Now, Macroonline can deliver video stories about products from stores and co-created content with KOLs on healthy living. Storyly has improved the storytelling capabilities of the Macroonline marketers, and enabled them to build stronger relationships with their customers.

“More and more, we see that the actual brand connection and stickiness happens when we utilize the app space effectively with in-app stories by Storyly to amplify our brand’s story.” - Ali Conker - Head of Macroonline at Migros Ticaret A.Ş.

Solution #3 – Driving CTAs with Product Stories

Macroonline has several sub-brands like Macropicks and Homemade by Macrocenter for exclusive product selections. Marketers use Storyly to create product stories with CTAs directing users to the product detail page. Compared to banners, shoppable stories allow users to discover more products in less time with immersive, full-screen visuals that drive immediate action. Macroonline has seen a 21% CTR for Homemade products. 

When the Macroonline marketers need to move specific products to optimize their inventory, they rely on Storyly Stories to maximize user engagement and conversion, trusting that products featured in stories will quickly be bought up by happy customers. In this way, the marketing team’s actions can support the needs of Macroonline’s fulfillment teams, with the power of direct audience communication. The introduction of stories to the Macroonline app has been a great success for both Macrocenter and their customers.