Marketing Insights for Maximum eCommerce Growth with Naturepedic’s Arin Schultz (episode 471)
Arin Schultz is VP of Sales and Marketing at natural mattress brand Naturepedic. Founded in 2003, Naturepedic sells via its Magento website, 22 stores, and wholesale. Sales-wise they’re in the mid-high 8 figures and have tripled in size since Arin joined 9 years ago.
Listen now for free:
Subscribe on your Favourite Podcast App
Dive in:
[04:08] Shifting from sales to marketing.
[05:34] Taking over Naturepedic’s affiliate program in 2020 and getting great returns.
[07:39] Get the basics of SEO right to build and grown your brand.
[09:56] Plans for bringing more traffic to the website.
[12:18] Naturepedic focuses on customer education.
[13:11] Getting repeat customers due to great customer service.
[16:22] Brand educating on healthy living, environmental impact.
[19:08] Benefits of outsourcing.
[20:49] Hear Arin’s top tips!
Arin’s Journey Into eCommerce
Arin’s journey into eCommerce began about 15 years ago when he moved from the metals industry to sales. He later joined Naturepedic as he sought a more meaningful career path.
Arin shifted into the role of managing the marketing team after excelling in sales. Despite finding the shift daunting, he has been in his current role for two and a half years and has achieved remarkable success.
Finding Success with Influencer Marketing
Arin credits the success of their marketing strategy to influencer and affiliate marketing. In the last few years, they’ve built out their influencer and affiliate programs, experiencing significant growth.
The success is not based on commission structures alone. It is also a result of building strong relationships with affiliates and influencers. Naturepedic’s ROI from influencers is approximately 8x, surpassing returns from other marketing channels.
Using SEO Strategically
Naturepedic’s marketing strategy involves a strong focus on SEO, content, and influencer collaborations. Recognizing the importance of a solid SEO foundation, Arin emphasizes its role in the brand’s organic growth. SEO becomes particularly crucial for a product like mattresses, which often involves extensive research before purchase.
Arin shares their plan for many product launches in 2024 as a strategic SEO tactic for drawing more traffic to the website. The expansion is not arbitrary. It aligns with customer demands and addresses gaps in the market. This ensures that the new products maintain Naturepedic’s commitment to quality and organic standards.
Commitment to Environmental Consciousness & Educating Customers
Sustainability is at Naturepedic’s core. This is seen in how they initiate, advocate for, and support eco-friendly activities. They’ve shifted from plastic to kraft paper packaging for their mattresses. They also have a customizable line where you can swap out layers instead of throwing a whole mattress into a landfill. Outside of their industry, they’ve also sponsored a bill on unhealthy cosmetics.
For Arin, these efforts, combined with their commitment to educate customers on healthier living choices, have played a significant role in its growth.
Additionally, Arin shares that the brand’s growth is not hindered by re-educating customers away from plastic mattresses in a box. Rather, it thrives on repeat customers who appreciate the product quality, an easy return policy, and exceptional customer service.
Balancing Internal and External Resources
At Naturepedic, they’ve combined internal expertise with external consultants and agencies. Their approach to outsourcing different positions and functions has allowed the brand to benefit in different ways.
First, Arin says it’s cost-effective to outsource specific roles rather than make an internal hire. Second, outsourcing brings fresh perspectives and specialized knowledge without the need for an excessively large internal team.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Honest SEO: Demystifying the Google Algorithm To Help You Get More Traffic and Revenue by Jason Hennessey
- About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design 4th Edition by Alan Cooper
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Influencers, podcast advertising, and finding a good affiliate agency
Tool Top Tip
- ChatGPT
Carbon Top Tip
- Arin says they use Route, a tool integrated into the checkout page. This allows customers to purchase insurance for lost or stolen products. This not only transfers responsibility to Route but also incorporates a green aspect by offsetting carbon emissions associated with the purchase.
Interview Links
Related episodes
- Affiliate Marketing – should managing performance partnerships be part of your plan? Author Robert Glazer joins us to discuss (episode 142)
- Weird Marketing Strategies to 2x your Shopify Store with Sheets & Giggles Colin McIntosh (episode 410)
- The eCommerce Mattress Revolution with Mark Tremlett, Founder of Naturalmat (episode 437)
Without the sponsors the podcast wouldn’t be possible – please do check them out:
SHOPLINE is the preferred commerce platform built to simplify complexities for fast-growing enterprises.
Whether it is setting up more sales channels like social commerce or expanding to new markets globally, SHOPLINE takes care of everything from store setups, checkouts, payments, logistics and more!
🛠️ All-in-One Platform: From store setups and checkouts to payments and logistics, SHOPLINE handles it all!
🌐 Asia’s Best now in UK: With our headquarters in Singapore and offices in 13 countries across Asia, the UK, Australia, and America, we have served more than 600,000+ merchants across the world including Lego, Muji and more
📢 You don’t want to miss a chance to migrate and join the league of InTheStyle, BodyCare, and 100+ others who have chosen us! We are just a call away…
When founding Super Payments, Samir Desai wanted to ensure that payments for merchants are free forever & everywhere, and deliver more rewarding shopping for consumers, so everyone wins.
- Zero Processing Fees
💸 The standard Super Payments model allows businesses to refocus these savings into repeat transactions.
2. Increased Customer Loyalty.
💪 By redirecting those savings back to customers in the form of cashback, it incentivises repeat business – on average, by more than 40%.
3. Quick & Safe
🔐With instant settlements & refunds & extremely high levels of fraud detection. Integrates with all major platforms, including Shopify, Magento, Woo, BigCommerce & Salesforce
Full transcript to read & download:
Like to be a guest? Apply Here