Success Stories

Case Study – How Zakeke helps Flex Arcade to offer the best visual shopping experience on WooCommerce thanks to 3D Product Configurator & AR.

eCommerce is evolving. New technologies came out and the number of online buyers is increasing. To meet the growing demand for orders, all you have to do is optimize the time and improve the process that makes you waste time. This is the need that prompted Make Badges – a company on BigCommerce – to look for Zakeke, an easy-to-use product customizer for online and offline stores. About Make Badges Born in 2004, Make Badges is an online business taking orders from all around Australia. As the name suggests, Make Badges is a company that sell badges that customers can customize. As you can imagine, the category of their customers is potentially countless: small business, large business, schools and universities, local government. Or just people who want badges for birthday, political campaign, or other celebrations. I started the business probably about 16 years ago, as a hobby. And slowly over the years, it is grown into a larger and more successful business now employing about six. It has been fun to grow the business and see the success and get other people involved. Paul West – Owner & Director of Make Badges The Challenge Manual work was drowning Make Badges At the beginning, Paul and his team received orders from the customer via email or via an online form on the website. Most of the work was done offline. The Make Badge staff downloaded the design, modified it, resized it, made it compatible with the shape of the badge and sent it to the customer for final approval. Then they decided to use an eCommerce platform, BigCommerce, but the problem went on. We have slowly moved to BigCommerce which allowed customers to upload an artwork file, but they didn’t get any opportunity to see a preview on the site or do any sort of image formatting, or design work. So, we had to do a lot of that work ourselves offline. This means to spend a lot more time resizing and formatting artwork, and then sending that back to the client or the customer for approval, making any changes. Small orders were a problem When all the work is manual, orders that are too small can be a problem. You have to insist with the customer and you risk losing customers. So, Paul began to feel the need to find a tool that would optimize time and thus allow him to accept even minimum orders. Other product customization tools fell short Once on BigCommerce, Paul started looking at the evolution of online design tools, but everything was available in Flash. At that moment, they chose another tool before running into Zakeke, but it wasn’t exactly what they needed. It was slow, had few features and did not perfectly support various operating systems, browsers, and devices. And customer complaints increased. We use it for a little while but it was exactly what we needed. The other app we’re using before Zakeke was a bit slow. It wouldn’t always load on different platforms, operating systems and browsers and different types of devices whether it’s mobile or desktop. So, it wasn’t always easy to use it. The Solution Paul wanted to build something that played nice with BigCommerce and that would scale. He wanted to fulfil more orders in time and keep customer satisfaction high. A Product Customizer easy to use Make Badges needed a tool that allowed them to start a self-serve approach for their business. They could not continue to receive client requests, personalize products, and approve designs manually if they wanted to scale. We were happy to move when we found Zakeke because it has more features than the previous tools we choose and is very easy to use for us and for our customers. Zakeke makes customers able to do a lot of work themselves. And now it’s simpler for us to open the file, make sure it’s suitable for printing and then send it off to print. But also on the back end, setting up the products was very easy. I like the way you can just skip through the five or six steps in setting things up. Customer satisfaction first What was important for Make Badge was to offer the customer a satisfying user experience with an easy-to-use tool regardless of the platform, type of devices or operating systems they are using. We have less Customers calling up saying that something isn’t working, or they can’t do something perfect now we’re using Zakeke. So that’s a good sign. That’s less honest problem for us. And One less problem for our customers. A good text tool Badges have a circular shape. Therefore, many customers want the text to follow the natural curve of the badge. Finding a product customizer that shows exactly what the text will look like is not so obvious. A lot of customers like to include text in their designs. The text tool in Zakeke is very good, particularly the way you could do text on a path. The customers could have the text curving up or down on the badge. A lot of our products are circular there. Round in shapes. So it’s common for people to want to put text that follows the round curve of the product. So a lot of design tools that we’ve tested, we always test how well they could do text on a path. And some of them were pretty bad at it. Zakeke is really good at using the text on a path and is very easy for customers to do that as well. To get satisfied customers, it is essential that they see exactly what the product they are buying will look like. That’s why Make Badges is using Zakeke 3D Live Preview. 3D Live Preview also helps customers visualize exactly how their design is going to look on a product. The Result Make Badges still offers the option to submit your own designs as they did in past, but this tool is mainly used

According to Allied Market Research, sportswear market is estimated to reach $248.1 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 5.1% from 2019 to 2026. Zakeke always pay attention to new trends and helped store owners to drive 10% of their sales, without any paid or organic campaigns. How? We let explain the story to our American customer, Sleefs. The Market  Sportswear market is growing due to various socio-cultural changes. The rise of the affluent population, the growth in health awareness and the increase in adoption of fitness activities such as aerobics, swimming, running, and yoga among consumers are driving the market growth. Moreover, rise in participation of women in sports and fitness activities fuels the sports apparel market growth. In addition, aggressive advertisements and celebrity endorsement has also helped the sports apparel industry to pave its way toward growth. Meanwhile, desires to maintain a sporty look and follow the latest fashion trends is further driving developments in the sports apparel market. This is further creating opportunities for sports apparel brands to introduce stylish and attractive sports apparels that complement the wearer’s physical attributes, giving him/her a more dynamic overall look. In order to meet the needs of their customers, sellers are increasingly relying on customized solutions. It is the story of Sleefs, a store that sells sports apparel for gym and sports lovers in the US. They went from taking custom orders for wholesale purchases — and fulfilling them at a factory in China — to setting up an in-house production team that ships custom individual orders within 24 hours. The challenge Meeting sports fans’ growing demand for custom orders  When Sleefs launched their store, they weren’t doing any custom orders for retail sales. They only allowed buyers to add details or numbers to their products when it was a wholesale order. But Jaime Schuster, CEO at Sleefs, anticipated a growing demand for personalized products, so they wanted to have the right systems in place to meet that demand. “We sort of anticipated what demand was gonna be because we were doing it for big orders. So, we knew we had to do it for our 1-on-1 customers as well. We just needed to find the right solution to do it” Taking custom orders is the easy part — fulfillment gets harder Sleefs’s factory in China produced their custom orders. Each order had to go through design, approval and printing. There was a lot of back and forth so Sleefs could only offer this service to customers ordering 10 or 20 pieces and up. “It was just one single sleeve, we wouldn’t be able to satisfy that order. They will send us an email with their logo and colors, we will produce the design and send the proof to them. They approve it and we go and produce the order. Not scalable, not fast”. Finding the right tool to help Sleefs scale Jaime and his team were actively looking for tools that would help them automate fulfilment and scale. But getting started was proving difficult as finding the right tool for their store wasn’t easy. “We would find very expensive solutions that would cost us $2,000 a month. So, we sort of put them away until we find something that would be cost effective for us”. Jamie kept getting requests for customized products. He knew Sleefs needed to allow customers to design their own orders if they wanted to grow in that space. They were very picky in how they wanted things to look. The look and feel of a new tool needed to match their brand and website. The solution Automated product customization for online stores It took a bit of effort from Sleefs to get their whole inventory of customizable products online. They reached out to Zakeke’s support team to get help during their initial set up. “One of the things that drew us to Zakeke was their support. If we email and ask questions, the guys are right there to help us figure it out. We did ask for a lot of help to set up new products. We’re very picky in how we want things to look.” Smooth sailing once the zero-code installation is done  Jamie wanted a tool that wouldn’t need much tweaking and upkeep once it’s running. That would have only meant trading time spent on custom orders to time spent fussing with technology. “We got your help in the backend setting up the products. Once we did that, basically it’s up and running. There’s nothing else that we needed to do to install or you know, add scripts or anything like that”. Focus on customers Zakeke does the hard work so Sleefs can focus on their customers. Sleefs goes the extra mile to deliver exceptional design to their customers. Jamie’s team still takes time to review orders and make sure customers get awesome-looking products — even when Zakeke generates print-ready files. The only affordable way they can spend time working on orders in the back end is by saving precious time getting designs ready in the front end. The result Increased sales with no paid campaign Sleefs has solid traffic going to their site and they started seeing results right away after implementing Zakeke. They have active paid campaigns driving traffic to their site, but none of those are targeting custom products. Still, personalized orders jumped to 10% of their total sales since 2018. “We don’t have advertising campaigns for custom products. We’re going to do a little bit more this year. When users see that they can make their own custom products on our website, they really go and do it”. Increased trust and satisfaction Our customers in sportswear industry reported the customization tools and 3D previewer has helped their business grow quit a bit showing visitors actually what they’re going to get when they’re placing their order. Customers do not have issues navigating the different tools in Zakeke and are easily able to customize their products. Zakeke is a loyal

Cake Design is an increasing market. It is probably one of the markets always been characterized by personalization. According to a new study, the global cake design market is expected to reach a CAGR of 3,5% by 2025. Zakeke quickly meets the increasing demand for personalized cakes with a cutting-edge tool that combines easy customization and real time preview. The Market Cakes are among the most personalized items in the world. Each of us loves to celebrate with a beautiful cake with completely personal images, phrases and decorations. The online sale offers even more the opportunity for the customer to create their own cake. Today we do not consider only the goodness of the cake, but also its originality and its decorative part. Cake design combines art with pastry. Cake design is not limited to making cakes, but also includes other types of desserts such as minicakes, cupcakes and macarons. The basis of this artisan activity is, not surprisingly, the transposition of the consumer experience: the creation of a dessert that reproduces the buyer’s dream. There are many pastry chefs in the world today who have decided to open an online showcase to reach a greater number of customers. There is one aspect that is always missing from the offline experience: the ability to see exactly what the creation the customer has asked for will be. The challenge Full understanding of the buyer’s wishes  How many stories do we know about badly made cakes? So many. The big challenge that the sector has always faced is being able to understand exactly the customer’s wishes. A simple misunderstanding will lead to lose the customer trust. A challenge for both offline and online sales. The seller must be sure that he understands what the customer wants. The client must be able to express his wishes without fear of being misunderstood. Time optimization One need that all businesses have in common is time optimization. Trying to decipher the customer’s wishes written in a message or simply ticked in a list of options is a waste of time. Allowing visitors to design their own products is great and time saver but the process needs to be easy and fun for the customer or they will leave the website with the shopping cart empty. Let the customer create his own cake allows seller to optimize time. Is the image too large? Fit, crop, center, edit. What a huge waste of time. It is necessary to find a way to let the customer do it. Is the image too large? He will adapt it according to his wishes. Finding the right tool to help scaling Finding the right customization tool can be frustrating at first because on one hand you really want to grow but on the other hand you fear the tool won’t be as you expect. Some of the difficulties can be crazy investments and upfront costs, hard installation and implementation, not easy to use for buyers and more and more. The solution A product customizer with Realtime preview Buyers can see exactly what they’re going to buy in real time. Zakeke offers a cutting-edge tool with 3D Preview. Customers see the cake that they zoom in on, rotate and move around. No more disappointment but more customers’ trust. Buyer can modify all the elements at will. The seller will already have the print files ready with no headaches. The seller sells exactly what customer wants. Both are satisfied. A product customizer you can install and test in less than one day No more struggling and no more time spent fussing with technology with Zakeke. You can install it and test it in less than one day, no coding required. Moreover, the subscription models perfectly match your needs: small monthly subscription to get started – versus a steep upfront fee. Zakeke is the tool that grants a great experience for both visitors and store owners. Here’s the biggest benefits from both sides using Zakeke: STORE OWNERS Pay $0 on hosting costs or maintenance: Zakeke works on the cloud and integrates seamlessly with the most popular e-commerce platforms. You’ll never have to worry about hosting costs, manual software updates, or maintenance. Launch fast… real fast: creating your customizable products in Zakeke is quick and easy once you get the hang of it. Text, colors, patterns, images… you have full control of every possible customization you want to offer your store visitors. Increase sales and margins: take control of your pricing options with a percentage or fixed rate upcharge for every product attribute your clients change. Receive print-ready files: each order comes with the right files, every single time. Simply get the files and go to print. Zakeke delivers print-ready files in PDF, PNG, SVG and AutoCad DXF formats. Get Customer Support that’s always ready to help: our friendly team will assist you from implementation to launch. You get access to our Guidance Center and direct access to our helpdesk from your Admin Panel. We resolve 97% of support requests within one day and frequently update our tools with fixes and new features. CUSTOMERS Get a fast and intuitive experience: Zakeke works blazing fast on desktop and mobile devices. Customers can easily customize their products and see an immediate, high-quality 3D rendering, without slowing down your website’s load speed. Love to buy from their phones: Zakeke works smoothly on any device and screen size. Visitors get the full customization experience, fast interface, and 3D preview on their phones. See before they buy: Zakeke allows your customers to quickly and easily customize products and preview them in 3D before making a purchase. It’s a uniquely immersive shopping experience that gives customers the confidence to order on the spot. Write 5-star reviews: customers who get exactly what they want love to tell everyone about it. Imagine a swarm of happy buyers publishing glaring reviews for your store on Google, Facebook, Shopify, WooCommerce and all over social media. The result Increased sales After a quick installation process and