connox catalog cover Publitas
connox logo Publitas

Gaining valuable insights by making our catalogs measurable.

Customer:

Connox

Sector:

Interior

Solution:

Publitas Enterprise

About Connox

Connox is one of the leading European online shops for premium interior design. The Hanover-based company sells more than 33.000 selected designer furniture items and accessories from international brands such as Vitra, Muuto, and HAY on connox.de, connox.com, and other international shops. In addition to a customer-centric approach and highly modern work structures, Connox GmbH is characterized by a sustainable corporate policy and is committed to treating the environment and its resources responsibly. The Dutch online shop Flinders has been part of Connox since 2021. Together with the sister company AmbienteDirect GmbH from Munich, all three companies form the e-commerce segment of Nine United A/S.

mandy wulf Publitas

Short interview with Mandy Wulf

Online-Marketing at Connox

Why do you use digital publications?

“First and foremost, to make our publications measurable and to get valuable learnings from the insights — which pages, topics, and design elements are well received and which are not. This is particularly important to plan future publications in terms of content and optimize them tailored to the customers. In addition, digital catalogs make it possible to exchange content at any time to keep it up-to-date. For example, when we remove a product from our range for unexpected reasons such as delivery problems, we can swap out that product. Unfortunately, this is not possible with a print catalog. Another reason is to offer our customers added value, especially through rich media.”

Did you use any other online publications before?

“No. Before Publitas, we occasionally created whitepapers about furnishing styles, such as the Bauhaus style, or made the catalog available as a plain PDF with simple links. However, we were increasingly missing interactivity, and the measuring options were also limited. With the Publitas dashboard, we now have significantly more KPIs that we can look at.”

Why did you decide to use Publitas?

“Particularly the topic of rich media was a decisive factor. From our point of view, this is indispensable in marketing and communication today. Customers want to be entertained and should also see added value in our publications. With Publitas, we can finally publish online publications in a simple way, where we enrich them with videos, slideshows, and other animations. For example, we can complement illustrated products from our range with content such as background stories or brand portraits.”

How did you make this catalog? Could you share anything about the creative process (product selection/structure)?

“Our Connox catalog, published twice a year as a summer and winter catalog, results from months of cooperation between me, our inventory, our content team, and the graphic and media teams. In an initial brainstorming session, we determine the focus topics of the new catalog (advice articles, interviews with influencers or designers, seasonal topics, new brands). During product selection — closely coordinated with the inventory — we pay attention to a mix of bestsellers and new products.”

“At the same time, we ask the selected brands — who each have a dedicated page in the catalog — what content they want for their pages. Then, we get to work internally and initiate the creation phase. And since we are now also publishing our catalog digitally, a new step in the internal process is that we consider from the outset to what extent we want to adapt the respective pages for the digital version. For example, we ask ourselves where to create space for videos and animations and for which content we make videos internally.”

How did you distribute and share the catalog? What Social channels did you use?

“We advertise our catalog widely on our social media channels, Facebook and Instagram, via social ads, and in various places in appropriate newsletters. Of course, there are also teasers for the catalog on our website itself. For example, a start page banner for the catalog launch. We must regularly advertise the catalog during the period of validity.”

How well is the online catalog received by your audience (reading time, reach)?

“Our catalog was only published digitally for the second time earlier this month (in addition to the print version). Nevertheless, there is a lot of encouragement and praise from our customers, our manufacturers, and the influencer network, which we are very happy about. Our catalog is also featured a lot in stories on Instagram, be that from influencers, customers, or brands from our product range.”

Can you tell us anything about the results?

“Even having only released a few digital catalogs, we have fortunately already determined that the pages with rich media elements perform exceptionally well in terms of page and product views. Especially pages with slideshows and videos.”

How satisfied are you with Publitas, and what stands out for you when working with Publitas?

“The cooperation between Connox and Publitas harmonized well from the very first moment. I especially want to highlight the service we received at the beginning for the one-time setup and the steps where we naturally needed it. But after that, our contact person has always been available to us and continuously provides us with feedback and solutions for every concern and unclarity quickly.”

Would you recommend Publitas, and why?

“Definitely! Publitas is a great and, above all, simple way to digitize your publications and offer customers real added value. Once trained, the tool is straightforward to use. We particularly value the (more than) regular exchange meetings with our Customer Success Manager, where we analyze performance, get learnings, are informed about new features and possibilities and are equipped with many best practices. This gives us plenty of ideas for future publications.”

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