The challenge

JOANN is the nation’s category leader in sewing and fabrics and one of the fastest growing players in the arts and crafts industry, with more than 850 stores across 49 states and a robust e-commerce business. In 2018, JOANN evaluated its stores for growth and customer experience opportunities, and set out to accomplish two main goals. First, JOANN wanted to drive more revenue in-store. Second, with 15M downloads of its mobile app, JOANN wanted to make it easier for customers to locate products through the app and make additional purchases while in a store. JOANN needed a way to drive larger basket sizes while customers were shopping in-store – even if the item they were looking for was only available online.

The team hypothesized that if a customer was opening the JOANN app in a store, they were likely looking for a product they couldn’t find on the shelf. By using Geofencing, JOANN could validate that the customer was in a store, then display an in-app offer to fulfill their purchase through joann.com instead of visiting a competitor.

By combining location-aware experiences with location-based marketing, the JOANN team believed that they would be able to drive additional revenue, increase app engagement, and provide a more convenient customer experience.

The solution

To accomplish this, the team explored both developing an in-house location solution and pursuing an out-of-the-box geofencing platform. Building a location solution in-house was ultimately prohibitive because of the significant development effort and technology investment required. Often, in-house solutions for location pose limitations for both business stakeholders and end-users including limitations around the number of geofences that can be used, inaccurate entry and exit behavior data, and battery drain issues for end-users.

After evaluating solutions, JOANN decided to implement Radar’s industry-leading geofencing platform to support its revenue and in-store experience goals. When a user engages with the app, Radar checks the user’s location to see if they are in a JOANN store geofence. If the user is inside a JOANN geofence, a free shipping coupon is displayed, encouraging the customer to place an online order if the item they’re searching for isn’t available in-store.

This incentivizes customers to place their order through the JOANN app instead of leaving the store to look for the item at a competitor. Not only does it help JOANN increase larger basket sizes, it also gives customers a better shopping experience.

The results

JOANN’s in-store mode gives customers a reason to opt-in to location sharing. In fact, 89% of app users opted to share their location in exchange for savings and a more seamless way to purchase the items they need. These compelling location-aware experiences also drive app engagement — these users are 33x more engaged than users who have not granted location permissions.

As a direct result of the new in-store coupon offers powered by Radar’s geofences, JOANN generated more than 25,000 incremental orders with a return on investment of 718%. With a 7x ROI in 2021, JOANN’s use of Radar far exceeded expectations. JOANN’s success provides insight into the power of location-aware experiences for retailers and the experiences they can provide to their customers.

Moving forward, JOANN continues to use location-aware experiences and marketing strategies powered by Radar to increase order volumes and in-store sales.