How Bisleri goes 'phygital" with MoEngage, boosts customer engagement

Bottled water company Bisleri International, with over 150 operational plants, a network of 6,000 distributors, and 7,500 distribution trucks, was desperately looking for a solution to engage more effectively with its customers. The Mumbai-based brand, which started way back in the 1970s, shifted to what it calls a "phygital" or omni-channel approach that includes a physical distribution network and digital channels to reach its customers more effectively. 
 
On average, Bisleri has a hefty 500,000 active users on its platform every month, according to Ronak Sharma, Head of D2C & Digital at Bisleri. Driving that traffic to download the Bisleri app and acquire a subscription required a phygital/omnichannel approach and an engagement partner that could handle this at the scale at which we function. 
 
Sharma says that, in a nutshell, there were two primary objectives in mind: driving subscriptions and nudging customers to repurchase products. After thorough market research, Bisleri partnered with MoEngage to help them streamline the brand's engagement initiatives and connect with customers across multiple touch points. 
 
Yash Reddy, Chief Business Officer (APAC & EMEA) at MoEngage, explains that the Bisleri team leveraged several capabilities from MoEngage's suite of features. This includes customer journey orchestration, known as Flows, to create and automate campaigns across multiple channels like email, push, and in-app, for seamless customer experiences. They also used Push Amplification Plus to ensure high deliverability of push notifications through the push service channel of the customer's device, and intelligent onsite messaging (OSM) to optimize web customer experiences and connect with visitors using personalized and contextual campaigns. 
 
The first step was to optimise web experiences for customers. "To achieve that, we utilized MoEngage's On-site Messaging capabilities to set up campaigns that enticed users to redirect them to our app. The idea was to induce FOMO with the help of discounts and offers that awaited them when they downloaded the app and signed up on the platform. With water being an everyday need, our aim is always to fulfill customers' desire for the best quality in the market and give them the best possible deals on each purchase," he said. 
 
These campaigns received a positive response from customers, with Sharma stating that they resulted in a 1.2% conversion rate, indicating prospects that converted to customers within a day. 
 
Email has also been a major driver for this initiative. "We utilised MoEngage's Flows feature to send out as many as 3 million emails every month, nudging customers to complete their purchases and sharing offers on purchasing Bisleri subscriptions," Sharma said. He added that these campaigns saw delivery rates of about 98% and open rates of 25-30%. 
 
The company also simultaneously utilized push notifications to nudge customers to make purchases and saw great success with them. With the help of MoEngage's Push Amplification Plus technology, these campaigns achieved over an 8% click through rate and saw customers completing purchases at a 1% conversion rate. Sharma emphasized that, considering the volume they work with, it was imperative for them to have an intelligent platform that could provide the right infrastructure to support their engagement endeavours without a hitch. 
 
"With comprehensive and automated customer journeys in place, engaging and re-engaging customers on a regular basis, we achieved great retention rates: 16% for iOS, 10% for Android, and 3% for Web," he said. 
 
McKinsey’s research report published in last year identifies that omnichannel strategies and personalisation have been on retailers' radars for years. According to a report by MoEngage, brands with an omnichannel presence have 89% customer retention in contrast to the brands without it, which are able to retain only 33.33%.