Lowering Customer Acquisition
Cost with Samples

South Bay International started in 1993 as a bedding and mattress OEM. In 2008, they decided to start their own retail brands in order to create a relationship directly with  their end customers. One of those brands, Blissful Nights, embodies the mission that “A good nights sleep shouldn’t come at a high price”.
Blissful Nights has set out to make amazing sleep solutions affordable to everyone, knowing that 
a mattress is a large, important purchase to most shoppers. In addition, they wanted to lower the barrier of entry to give more shoppers a chance to try their mattress before committing to a purchase.

Toby Konetzny joined Blissful Nights in January 2018 as SVP of Business Development before becoming CEO in November 2022. He wanted to build the retail side of South Bay International to be of equal importance to the thriving OEM division. First priority was to focus on customer acquisition and finding ways to acquire customers affordably. He met Blackcart at a trade show and determined that Try Before You Buy could potentially be a great fit for customer acquisition at Blissful Nights.

While evaluating the potential of Try Before You Buy, Toby reviewed a projected Profit & Loss statement prepared by Blackcart showing the expected impact to Blissful Nights. The P&L included all items you will usually find; returns cost, product cost, paid advertising, payment processing fees and ended with a profit contribution amount for the Try Before You Buy channel.

After seeing the P&L, it didn’t take long for Toby 
to decide to move forward with Blackcart on Blissful Nights’ eCommerce store. The first  30 days was a free trial that included an A/B test, led by Blackcart, to measure the impact of Try Before You Buy for Blissful Nights. The A/B test compared Try Before You Buy vs the existing store without TBYB. Following the A/B test, Blissful Nights was convinced they had found a revenue and profit winning formula.
“Every eCom store should do this. It doesn’t make sense if they are not. I’m telling all my friends they should implement Blackcart”.
- Toby Konetzny at Blissful Nights
Results
The results experienced by Blissful Nights far outperformed what was expected and set forward as goals when the A/B test started. On average, merchants using Blackcart see a 57% AOV increase and 24% profit contribution increase. For Blissful Nights, the results substantially outperformed the averages. Blackcart has seen great results in the bedding industry and this was another example.
AOV increase
Blissful Nights saw a 127% higher Net AOV (after returns) on Try Before You Buy orders compared to regular online orders. This has a very positive impact on profit contribution.
Customer Acquisition
After their 30 day A/B test; results showed a 30% conversion rate increase when Blackcart was present. This higher conversion rate has stayed the same since the conclusion of the A/B. This was achieved with no additional advertising spend, which resulted in a lower Customer Acquisition Cost for Blissful Nights.

In addition to A/B testing and analytics of KPIs, Blackcart also conducts a post checkout survey to validate the data. It is evident that there is a need and fit for Blackcart, but the survey also solidifies the actual performance data Blissful Nights and Blackcart has seen.
Profit Contribution
Blackcart calculates profit contribution by taking sales and subtracting discounts, returns, shipping and returns cost, product cost, paid advertising and payment processing fees to get a final profit contribution amount. This can be divided by the order volume to get a profit per order. The result for Blissful Nights was a staggering 131% higher profit contribution on Try Before You Buy orders vs regular orders. This means for every Blackcart order Blissful Nights made 2.3X more net profit.
Conclusion
These results show Blackcart helps Blissful Nights reach an audience that spends more on average and is more profitable. It also suggests the issue Blissful Nights had with acquiring and capturing customers is a thing of the past.

By increasing conversions from their current traffic and increasing AOV Blissful Nights was able to lower their CaC and increase their profits significantly without increasing their spend. In addition they were able to increase the shopping experience, by giving the option to try before you buy Blissful Nights gives a segment of shoppers who would otherwise not have purchased a chance to try the product.

At a Glance

127%
AOV increase
30%
Conversion rate increase
131%
Increase in profit 
per order
Your Turn
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