Maxime Brassaert (Basile CEO & co-founder) engaged in discussion with Flora Rivault (Payplug Marketing Partnership Manager) and Mégane Lewis (Silvr Investment Associate) during this “Combining profitability and growth: 3 lessons to learn from the DNVB model” webinar. They talked about “online acquisition” based on the experience of French leather goods manufacturer Basile. You can find the replay here to learn more about:
- How the Basile CEO studied his market and found the right product.
- Why you should think about return on investment rather than the amount of the investment.
- And how to boost and then monitor your growth with the right partners.
Let’s meet the 3 speakers on this webinar
Basile, the KING of the purse
Maxime Brassaert trained as a civil engineer. He launched the Basile Ecommerce site in August 2020. In the first year, the brand processed 4,700 orders and had a turnover of €900K. The webinar provided him with an opportunity to share his challenges, successes and ambitions with us regarding his leather goods brand.
PayPlug: to ensure the best conversion funnel
Flora Rivault is Marketing Partnership Manager at PayPlug. This credit card PSP supports 15,000 merchants in their growth. As payment is the last step in the purchase funnel, by tailoring it, it can be used as an additional growth lever for conversion.
Silvr: to increase your investments and boost your growth
Mégane Lewis is an Investment Associate at Silvr, the financing company designed for digital companies(Ecommerce operations, DNVBs, SaaS businesses, mobile applications). Silvr is the European leader in Revenue-Based Financing, funding acquisition campaigns and inventory for e-tailers and transforming SaaS MRR into immediate cash flow. Founded in 2020, the RBF fintech already boasts over 200 clients.
Lesson 1: study your market and choose your product well
Maxime and his partner Mathilde wanted to develop an Ecommerce business. So they studied the market and found that:
- Most online shopping is done by women, so why not focus on them with a product they wear every day?
- The luxury sector makes it possible for the average basket to increase. This helps businesses to break more quickly.
- Which products should you choose? Mathilde, a fan of leather goods, knew that when it comes to purses, there are no surprises regarding the size. So that would reduce the return rate.
Although the leather goods market was already saturated by major players, they nevertheless took the gamble and launched Basile. Maxime explains that he prefers to “represent 1% of a market - the leather goods market - that is worth several billion euros rather than 20% of a market - any market - that is only worth €100,000.”
As regards sales channels, the DNVB Basile began by choosing to sell 100% online. Then it grew and was approached by multi-brand retailers such as Ankorstore. As Maxime Brassaert explains, although the cost of acquisition on their site is more expensive, it is still:
- More accurate for collecting data and following the ROI of marketing operations (promotions, emails, surveys, etc.).
- More reliable than depending solely on marketplaces that can end the business relationship whenever they want.
- Possible to buy products without geographic fragmentation (unlike physical stores).
Lesson 2: think return on investment rather than amount of investment
In the leather goods market, it is very hard to be properly indexed and to conduct organic business against the historical players. By making Paid Media its marketing hobbyhorse 90% of the time, Basile launched campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, Google Ads and Google Shopping, and Pinterest, as well as retargeting campaigns on Snapchat. When the brand is profitable, it looks elsewhere on other channels (like YouTube, recently). It takes an omnichannel approach to increase its contact points.
The CEO of Basile then scrutinizes the ROAS (Return on Ads Spend) breakeven. He looks at the overall impact rather than campaign by campaign, or channel by channel. After analyzing the cost of purchases, delivery costs, shipments, packaging, and then calculating margins, he can create campaigns hinged on his ROAS breakeven. By going through the Junto agency for the operational side of things, he also knows that the investment is commensurate with the ROAS, and he can get rid of the emotional link he had with his advertising designs. Especially since Basile also uses its community by taking advantage of the sublime UGC (User Generated Content) it generates.
Maxime Brassaert therefore monitors acquisition campaigns to ensure that the budget for these investments evolves continuously. This macro vision allows him to capitalize on the best-performing Ads platforms during strong seasonal periods.
Lesson 3: Boosting and monitoring your growth with the right partners
With the DNVB Basile, solid growth goes hand-in-hand with having quality partners for:
- Financing your Ads with Silvr.
- Managing payments with PayPlug solutions;
- And creating email automation campaigns with Klaviyo.
Maxime Brassaert's essentials for Basile
Let's look at some of the growth partners that Maxime Brassaert has used to develop his brand.
Shopify: turnkey
“Even if we were to have 1 million visits to the site tomorrow, we know that they would be managed efficiently.” With Shopify, the platform is able to cope with large order volumes.
Email at the heart of customer winback
Basile called on the specialist agency Klaviyo - with these email marketing automation experts by their side, the brand can better react to shopping cart abandonment by following up with the potential customer via an effective email campaign. Similarly, through the use of newsletters, it can maintain a strong and committed community.
Payment and financing functions
PayPlug for a better conversion rate
The purchase on Basile's website is done via PayPlug, because a personalised payment page improves conversion and reduces cart abandonment. By personalising their payment page with PayPlug, Basile has completed its online acquisition strategy.
Silvr funding to unlock growth
As a DNVB, inventory and acquisition financing is central to its growth. Working capital requirements are high, so Maxime Brassaert discovered Silvr. Basile obtained its first Silvr financing in 2021. The brand was then able to cover its needs and intensify some of its investments in inventory, acquisitions or logistics development. The way was clear to grow and set the wheels in motion!
You can read Basile's feedback regarding two of its partners, Silvr and PayPlug, here.
