Background
Starting in 2015 with their flagship sleep brand, Helix was founded to bring exceptional home furnishings to the modern consumer.
The Helix family has since expanded to include Birch by Helix, which sells all-natural products, and Allform by Helix, which brings high-end products and extreme modularity to the sofa category. Through all of their brands, Helix seeks to provide customers with a more customized product and buying experience.
Challenge
As a brand primarily known for selling big-ticket items, Helix was looking for ways to offer additional products or add-ons to customers and build longer relationships. “One of our main priorities as a business is increasing the lifetime value of our customers,” said Andy Eisen, Director of Digital Products. “We are always thinking about the right times to offer ancillary products and whether we are offering the best ancillary products to our customers.”
While offering more products can be an effective way to increase customer lifetime value, developing physical products comes with its own set of difficulties: “When we have to go through R&D and develop the right physical product, it requires hours of effort from sourcing materials and building prototypes through user-testing and go-to-market strategy,” Eisen said. As Helix explored this challenge, they searched for solutions that provided true value to their customers while minimizing the time investment and risk associated with new product development.
“With Mulberry, there’s none of that additional burden that comes with developing a new physical product. That means with a single partnership we’re able to both improve average order value and deliver additional value to our customers.”
- Andy Eisen, Director of Digital Products
Solution
Helix partnered with Mulberry to launch product protection as a brand new offering on-site starting with their flagship brand, Helix Sleep. Within weeks, the Helix team had worked with Mulberry on their program strategy and integrated protection plans seamlessly into their on-site experience. “It’s low-lift compared to having to integrate with another manufacturer and worry about physical products,” Eisen said. “It was pretty much just plug in the app, create the product in Shopify, and we were good to go.”
Customers have the option to add product protection to their cart directly from the product page. The protection plan gives customers ten years of protection against accidental damage, including spills, stains, or even kids having an accident in bed. Once customers purchase product protection, their plan is automatically registered with Mulberry and they get access to their Mulberry account where they can view their plan details, transfer their protection plan, or file a claim. The Mulberry team handles all claims end-to-end for protected customers.
Results
The revenue impact from Mulberry was immediate. Customers who purchased Mulberry protection plans had a 10% higher AOV on average without any incremental shipping, packaging, or inventory management costs involved.
Over years working together, Mulberry and Helix have meticulously optimized the program. “Mulberry is one of our best partners from a service and support perspective,” said Eisen. “The Mulberry team is always available to jump in, whether it’s technical support, consultative guidance, or proactively offering ways for Helix to improve.” Since their initial launch with Mulberry in 2019, Helix has increased their monthly product protection revenue by 9X.
The initial integration was so successful that today customers can purchase Mulberry protection across all three Helix brands: Helix Sleep, Birch, and Allform.
“There’s so much room to refine your customer experience, especially without the additional work of having to update a physical product. Having an active partner like Mulberry that is constantly updating their product and proactively sharing best practices has been immensely valuable to Helix.”
- Andy Eisen, Director of Digital Products
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