How Email Marketing Boosts E-Commerce Results

April 2013 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

By Bob Johns, associate editor

E-Commerce is Lake Champlain Chocolate’s fastest-growing segment of sales due to a consistent email marketing campaign.

Chocolate holds a special place in many people’s hearts and palates. Nowhere is this more evident than at Lake Champlain Chocolates, a family-owned chocolatier specializing in locally crafted Belgian-style chocolates using local Vermont ingredients. Founded in 1983 by local restaurant owner Jim Lampman to sell the specialty chocolate wholesale, the popularity of the products soon created a retail demand. The company now maintains three retail locations, has a mail order and online presence, and is available in Whole Foods and many other fine specialty and gift locations.

The fastest-growing segment of the business, according to Erin Douglas, Lake Champlain Chocolates’ e-commerce specialist, is the online sales. This growth is driven primarily through an email marketing campaign, which was moved in-house in 2006. The chocolate company is no stranger to email marketing, having begun a campaign managed by its website provider years before. Originally, the website provider handled the entire campaign, from creative to deployment. However, Lampman wanted the company to have more direct control to allow the messaging to be more personal and show the company’s focus on creating European flavors and tastes using local Vermont ingredients and by taking a craftsman’s approach to chocolate — creativity, patience, and mastery were the three components the company wanted to stress.