How Bolt helped SkinMedix increase repeat customers by 20%

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We removed fraud from the conversation. It’s not even a consideration on our site anymore.

<p>After graduating from pharmacy school, Aaron Kozol started his career by setting up an online pharmacy in the late 90s. From there, Kozol explored a few business ideas until he launched SkinMedix in 2005. <a href="https://www.skinmedix.com/" target="_blank">SkinMedix</a> is the perfect intersection of Kozol’s knowledge of drug science and ecommerce.</p><p>For over 15 years, SkinMedix has been a force for change in the world of anti-aging skin care and the health and beauty retail world. There was a downside to offering popular products, the website was a target for fraudsters from day one. Kozol experimented with many fraud-protection solutions, but none could solve his problem. But, he didn’t give up, as research and trial are in his DNA.</p>

<h3>When a founder has to double up as a detective</h3><p>The constant flurry of fraudulent orders continued to frustrate Kozol. “If one [fake order] does get past, it can go for days or weeks and literally be 10s of 1000s of dollars before it's caught,” says Kozol. The impact is significant in terms of lost time and money, with a ripple effect on inventory and chargeback fees.</p><p>SkinMedix was running on WooCommerce and PayPal Pro at that time, but Kozol discovered that these solutions were not foolproof. Eventually, he developed a few manual hacks of his own to flag fake transactions.</p><p>“I became a detective with all these tools, researching people and histories and addresses, and I was paying subscription fees for these solutions to look them up,” he says. Regardless, he still had to spend two hours daily on fraud filtration. “It's time that I could have been investing somewhere else,” he acknowledges.</p>

<h3>Finding a healthy solution</h3><p>When Kozol encountered Bolt, he was cautiously optimistic about finding an effective fraud-protection solution, but was still in “prove it” mode. SkinMedix switched to Bolt in January 2020 and quickly saw the proof it needed.</p><p>“We removed fraud from the conversation. It’s not even a consideration on our site anymore. We can go about our lives and do the forecasting for inventory and know that our numbers are accurate,” says Kozol.</p><p>There was also a corresponding decrease in unnecessary chargeback fees with a high order approval rate of 99.1%. "It's a significant savings for us. The Bolt chargeback department is having way more success representing our cases. Funds that were losses in previous years are now recovered," he explains.</p>

<h3>Leveraging the benefits of the Bolt Network</h3><p>Kozol brought in Bolt to tackle SkinMedix’s fraud concerns and those were eliminated in short order. An unexpected surprise was how many shoppers had positive feedback on the new checkout experience. “I've had several customers write to me specifically about the checkout saying it was the fastest checkout that they've ever experienced in their life,” says Kozol. Some were even worried that they perhaps missed out a step in the order placement because it went through really quickly.</p><p>At checkout, after entering their contact and payment details, shoppers have the option to create a Bolt account. They can quickly checkout with a single click for every order after that. For SkinMedix, the speedy checkout process has translated into repeat customers, retaining their new and existing shoppers, and increasing transaction volumes.</p><p>Kozol shared some positive indicators:</p><ul><li>38% of guest transactions convert into Bolt account creation</li><li>Over 12,000 unique shoppers have created a Bolt account from the SkinMedix website</li><li>67.7% of checkout conversions are tied to customers with a Bolt account</li><li>20% of shoppers who created a Bolt account on SkinMedix are repeat customers</li></ul><p>SkinMedix has also seen a 3.5% increase in new shoppers coming from the Bolt network. These are shoppers who created a Bolt account on another site and were first-time visitors to SkinMedix. They can easily check out on SkinMedix with a single click.</p>

<h3>The perfect balance between support and flexibility</h3><p>Although the Bolt team took care of hosting and infrastructure, Kozol still wanted the freedom of code-level customizations. Kozol has always been hands-on with the implementation of technology solutions and Bolt offered “the best of both worlds.” He didn’t have to choose between having to “fly solo” for customizations and being completely dependent on a hosted solution.</p><p>Kozol mentioned Bolt’s willingness to go the extra mile by customizing solutions. “That level of customization…is something unique that I haven’t seen from other vendors,” says Kozol. In particular, Bolt’s seamless integration resolved the previous glitch of enabling Apple Pay as a payment option in the WooCommerce platform. He adds, “I was really impressed that Bolt treated me like a billion-dollar company.”<br>The flexibility of Bolt CheckoutOS is extended to the customers of SkinMedix as well. Kozol has empowered customers to think outside the box when it comes to the way they purchase and select their beauty products. With Bolt, they have access to different payment methods—credit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, and more. As Kozol says, “everybody has their routine that they fall into, and if the platform can cater to that need, it's just one less barrier to conversion.”</p>

<h3>Maximizing value to the shopper</h3><p>Kozol believes that “we’re at the tip of the iceberg” and sees potential for high growth in the health and beauty market. But he also noted that you need to get the basics right—deliver quality products that work and make the buying experience hassle-free for the customer—to build customer loyalty. With Bolt, he has set up a strong base in the online market, freeing up his time to focus on next steps such as expanding to other international markets and adding more curated products to SkinMedix.</p>

How Bolt helped SkinMedix increase repeat customers by 20%

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