Since implementing Custobar in 2017, Ruohonjuuri has become one of our esteemed long-term clients. Their outstanding use of Custobar is a benchmark for success, as reflected in their impressive KPIs. With email open rates surpassing 70% and a conversion rate nearing 13%, Ruohonjuuri’s marketing strategy is clearly a winning formula.
Let’s delve into how Ruohonjuuri transformed their marketing approach into an effective, targeted strategy grounded in customer data.
Ruohonjuuri is built on sustainable development principles. With climate change, natural disasters, and greenwashing on the rise, the world needs saviours. Ruohonjuuri is dedicated to helping customers lead more sustainable lives, united by a mission to make the world better. Since the 1980s, Ruohonjuuri started with a clientele of "responsible do-gooders" focused on sustainability – a niche group outside the mainstream. Over time, Ruohonjuuri has reached a wider audience. A Custobar questionnaire exploring values, behaviours, and motivations has helped identify five different value- and motivation-based segments.
Ruohonjuuri offers a curated selection of high-quality and sustainable products that benefit people and are better choices for the planet. Their product range covers four main categories: organic food, nutritional supplements, natural cosmetics, and home goods. Within these categories, customers find hundreds of brands and over 5,000 products to choose from.
A brief overview of Ruohonjuuri’s product selection.
Over the years, Ruohonjuuri has shifted from a "marketing everything for everybody" approach to a smarter, customer segment-driven, and value-based targeted marketing strategy. Initially, they sent a generic newsletter once a month to all customers without detailed targeting, focusing only on store-based activities or local events.
Upon integrating Custobar, they began targeting their marketing efforts towards online customers, although they initially lacked a digital loyalty program and thus had no physical store data in Custobar. Since the introduction of a customer loyalty program in 2021, they have combined in-store and online data into a comprehensive 360° view, making their marketing efforts more relevant and data-driven.
Today, their approach involves a more specific and intelligent targeting mix, often leveraging multiple criteria such as purchase history across all channels (online and offline), browsing history (including brand, product, category, and campaign), reactions to previous emails or campaigns, general purchase behaviour (utilising an RFM matrix), and relevant exclusions. Loyal customers can identify themselves with Custobar’s mobile loyalty card in the stores.
Our transformation from broad marketing to a precise, data-driven strategy demonstrates the power of targeted customer engagement. By integrating Custobar and implementing a digital loyalty program, we’ve harnessed a 360° customer view, enabling smarter and more relevant marketing efforts.
Heidi Waltari, E-Commerce Manager
Ruohonjuuri's newsletters have developed in terms of content and visuals throughout the years.
Value- and motivation-based segmentation examines the motives, values, and lifestyles that shape Ruohonjuuri’s diverse target groups. By analysing these factors, the goal is to understand how different customer segments engage with responsible consumption, including sustainability, ethical sourcing, and environmental impact. Additionally, it identifies well-being trends such as health, mindfulness, and eco-friendliness. These insights enable Ruohonjuuri to customise its offerings and marketing strategies in order to align with consumers’ preferences and motivations.
Ruohonjuuri has perfected targeting content individually to their diverse customer segments, addressing their values and motives.
A smart targeting mix is the unique recipe behind Ruohonjuuri’s successful marketing actions. Their approach involves a combination of several criteria, such as previous purchasing or browsing behaviour at the product, brand, or category level. Factors that are easily identifiable with Custobar.
Custobar also considers reactions to past newsletters and behaviours in previous campaigns while regarding relevant exclusions. The mix can vary greatly depending on the specific campaign, action, or target group. By leveraging business and consumer insights, data, and hypotheses, Ruohonjuuri’s team can craft a targeting strategy uniquely tailored to their objectives. This personalised approach enhances the effectiveness of marketing efforts and ensures that the targeted audience receives relevant and engaging content.
Ruohonjuuri has identified "hot topics" that consistently trend, with iron deficiency being one of them. They offer tailored solutions through a strategic campaign promoting specific products to address this issue. This approach includes articles in their magazine, blog content, targeted newsletters, and paid Meta ads, all aimed at the same customer segment of clients who have shown interest in the topic and - to broaden the reach - their lookalike audiences.
Campaign statistics confirm the concept's success: with opening rates exceeding 70.2% and conversion rates of 12.7%, Ruohonjuuri's approach resonates with their audience. Several targeting criteria have been used.
Our campaign's impressive opening and conversion rates demonstrate that our strategy truly connects with our audience. The use of targeted criteria has been key to this success.
Heidi Waltari, E-Commerce Manager
In this campaign, Ruohonjuuri targeted clients who have shown interest in a specific brand, i.e. they browsed or bought products and who have reacted to previous campaigns. By narrowing down the target group of the campaign newsletter and delivering content that resonates with their identified interests, Ruohonjuuri could reach an opening rate of almost 62 % and an almost 8% conversion rate.
Ruohonjuuri frequently tests new concepts and innovative solutions.
Ruohonjuuri's targeted marketing strategy exemplifies how leveraging data-driven insights and personalised content can significantly enhance customer engagement and conversion rates. By continuously testing and refining their approach, Ruohonjuuri meets and often exceeds customer expectations, strengthening their position as a leader in the ecological retail sector. Their focus on holistic well-being and dedication to addressing consumer needs have successfully resonated with their audience, fostering loyalty and driving sustainable growth.
Founded in 1982, Ruohonjuuri is an ecological retail chain dedicated to holistic and organic well-being. They specialise in nutritional supplements, superfoods, natural cosmetics, and nutrient-rich organic snacks. With 17 stores across Finland and three online stores (ruohonjuuri.fi, happyfoodstore.se, ruohonjuuri.com), they employ around 200 people. Ruohonjuuri is owned by environmental organisations and individuals, with the largest shareholders being the Finnish Environmental and Consumer Policy Association and Dodo ry.
Ruohonjuuri employs various technologies to ensure smooth operations and effective customer engagement. By using Shopify as their e-commerce platform, they can easily integrate their international multi-store business with Custobar, which enhances their customer data management and marketing automation, allowing them to execute their targeted marketing strategy to the fullest. Additionally, Solteq supports their operation with Solteq Connector – an integration tool that communicates with several systems that Ruohonjuuri employs and is used to sync data between Custobar, ERP and the e-commerce platform.
| Platforms used by Ruohonjuuri | |
| Shop Software | Shopify |
| Customer Data and Marketing Platform | Custobar |
| Connector to sync data | Solteq Connector |