Bunzlau Castle:
Boosting conversions rates by 50%
A unique tableware brand known for their distinct blue designs.
URL: Bunzlaucastle.com
Market: B2C
Founded: 1984
Trusted Shops membership: 2020
"Trusted Shops is valuable to add to your online shop if you want to grow internationally."
Want to learn how Trusted Shops can help your online business?
In this Success Facts story, we speak to Rick Harink, Head of Sales & Operations at Bunzlau Castle. He tells us more about:
Bunzlau Castle - Online and offline
Bunzlau Castle's unique, handmade collection includes dinnerware, kitchen textiles, and home decoration - all produced in Europe and distinguished for their artistic, blue patterns.
Let's look at how important online trust is for Bunzlau Castle.
Bunzlau Castle recognises the changing buying behaviour of consumers. As a result, purchases are made through various online and offline channels: products are available on their website and in their partners' physical shops.
According to Rick Harink, Head of Sales & Operations, customers should have the choice of whether to buy a product via the online shop, from a retailer, or another channel. Therefore, Bunzlau Castle's online shop mainly serves to exude the brand's stability and allow customers to view the entire collection and buy those products online.
Rick is keen to see the company grow internationally and the German international '.de' domains are already live. Nevertheless, he stresses that good positioning in the Netherlands is essential for foreign growth.
Selling tableware is not without risks
European, handmade products go hand in hand with high selling prices and high-end sales. Exuding trust on their online shop is immensely important, as potential customers simply don't know whether Bunzlau Castle provides the same service as larger and better-known online shops.
"One of the main reasons for choosing the Trusted Shops Trustmark is that it is the market leader in Germany and because it is becoming increasingly well known in Europe."
A trustmark is an essential link for creating trust online and thus convince new customers to place their order. Tableware is fragile and shipments via an external logistics party are not without risks.
"The Trustmark with Buyer Protection and customer reviews in addition to other assurance facets, such as free returns as well as offering guarantees that products will be delivered properly helps remove uncertainties that customers consider before making an online purchase," explains Rick Harink.
Displaying the Trustbadge® with the Trusted Shops Trustmark and Buyer Protection gives customers more security and increases the likelihood of them completing an order. This is especially true for companies focused on international sales. It's important to remove any doubts from these international shoppers. Rick tells us,
"Trusted Shops is valuable to add to your online shop if you want to grow internationally."
*bunzlaucastle.com rating as of July 2023
An all-in-one trust solution
Bunzlau Castle is still relatively new to the German market, making it crucial to communicate safety and inspire confidence. This all-in-one package of the Trustmark, Buyer Protection as well as reviews ensures that Bunzlau Castle has all their trust solutions from one company. This saves them time and effort.
Trusted Shops is the market-leader in Germany. This is one of the reasons why Bunzlau Castle opted for the Trusted Shops Trustmark: it contributes to demonstrating trust, providing security, and stimulating growth in Germany.
"Exuding trust and offering certainty is important to us because customers have to make do with what they see online."
The Buyer Protection is distinctive because it creates a good feeling at the very front end of the online shop. It goes without saying that Bunzlau Castle strives to deliver orders beyond customer expectations. Provided something goes wrong in the purchase or delivery process, the online shop resolves it directly with the customer. The Trustmark and Buyer Protection contribute in providing security and taking away doubts from potential buyers.
A big conversion increase in 2020
A smooth experience with Trusted Shops made it easier for Bunzlau Castle to go live with a German domain. The result: the company saw clear growth in this new market.
The Dutch online shop also saw great growth in 2020:
In one year, our conversion rate increased from less than 2% to more than 4%."
Rick Harink,
Head of Sales & Operations, Bunzlau Castle
That was also the year they integrated the Trustbadge®.
Rick stresses that the whole picture has to be right: "The product has to be good, but so do the deliveries, the follow-up to negative experiences, and generally doing just a bit more than customers expect. This contributes to brand engagement and with the feedback element of the all-in-one solution, this has generated over 2,000 customer reviews in one year."
The timing of review requests are well aligned with the shipping and receipt of an order and with just a few clicks, consumers can leave a review. Bunzlau Castle's well-earned rating score is always clearly visible throughout the website via the Trustbadge in their navigation.
Combined with the Trustmark, the reviews are a symbol of online reliability, making new customers more likely to complete a first order with a higher order value. After all, they can be sure that their money will be returned if something goes wrong with the order.
A further advantage of collecting reviews through Trusted Shops is the convenience of Google Integration. With this, stars are displayed in Google Ads. The stars make ads stand out more and this increases the click-rate. This leads to lower ad costs and the shop is better indexed in Google. So this means better SEO! Rick's advice:
"I recommend the Google Integration to everyone if you receive more than 100 reviews a year."
Support throughout the membership
The Trusted Shops Trustmark offers more than just a solution for online trust, it keeps a close eye on the market; the trust products are adjusted accordingly and new market information is shared with partners. ''I really like the newsletters because they share a lot of new market information that is also useful,'' says Rick.
The audit was an extra check for Bunzlau Castle to see whether the online shop is legally compliant. An audit with Trusted Shops involves advice on any necessary adjustments in the legal field, which can take a few weeks to complete. This way, the company can be sure that their online shop is legally strong. During the audit, Trusted Shops keeps in close contact with shop managers and the company is well supported and advised.
When the audit is complete, contact with the Audit team then gradually decreases until the annual evaluation (and whenever necessary). The account managers are, of course, always available in case of questions or other issues.