Hornby Hobbies has been in the business of developing, manufacturing, and supplying hobby and toy products for 102 years. Based in the UK, the company is home to 12 collectible and scale-model brands with 24 websites, serving a global market with truly iconic brands spanning model railways, slot racing, die-cast models, and plastic model kits.
Story Behind the Brand
34
%
lift in revenue from email campaigns within four months of implementing Engagement
70
%
decrease in analytics creation time with Loomi Analytics
10
%
increase in conversion rates within two months of implementing Discovery
Challenge
Like many toy and hobby brands, Hornby Hobbies traditionally operated on a B2B business model, selling products through larger merchants, local retailers, and model shops. But recently it decided to embark on a digital transformation project — one that would allow the company to fully own its relationship with individual customers.
Aiming to expand its direct-to-consumer channels, Hornby Hobbies knew that its former technology couldn’t support the type of digital commerce growth it was looking to achieve. The brand wanted to replicate the personal and communal in-store experience that customers received in their local hobby shop.
To match this level of personalization on their digital channels, Horny Hobbies needed real-time access to customer data, advanced segmentation capabilities, and more control over its on-site search and merchandising.
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Solution
The company turned to Bloomreach for both its marketing and its search and merchandising needs to make its goals a reality.
Using Bloomreach Engagement, Hornby Hobbies can now collect, connect, and activate all its customer data in effective and personalized campaigns. With a unified solution and agentic AI features like Loomi Analytics, the company can target specific customers with specific recommendations, optimize campaigns with real-time insights, and offer the tailored experience that customers expect from the brand.
Hornby Hobbies also adopted Bloomreach Discovery, revamping its site search experience to operate with the same level of personalization that customers would get in a store. With Bloomreach’s autonomous search capabilities, the brand now has an intelligent, flexible search bar that deeply understands search intent and optimizes results for each customer.
We’ve been able to tailor everything to individual customers, giving them the digital experience they want, and the results have been immediate. That’s what we’re really getting out of Discovery and Engagement — a focused look at what our customers want.
Michael Manton
Head of Ecommerce, Hornby Hobbies
Results
After just a few short months, Hornby Hobbies achieved impressive results.
The company saw a 34% lift in revenue from email campaigns within four months of implementing Engagement. Utilizing targeted product launch promotions and automated follow-up campaigns featuring personalized product recommendations, Hornby Hobbies has been able to capitalize on its customer data right from the start.
Plus, optimizing campaigns is now a streamlined process with Bloomreach. Thanks to our agentic AI-powered platform, Hornby Hobbies’ marketing team can create, personalize, and analyze campaigns with just a few clicks.
Loomi Analytics, our AI-powered data analysis agent, has been particularly effective at boosting the brand’s productivity. Loomi Analytics autonomously executes key analysis tasks, generating reports, funnels, segments, and customized metrics that identify opportunities and help Hornby Hobbies optimize every customer touchpoint. This has cut down on analytics design time by 70%, freeing up the marketing team to focus on strategy, creativity, and growth rather than manual execution.
Within just two months of implementing Discovery, Hornby Hobbies achieved a 10% increase in conversion rates across their websites. With the flexibility of our intelligent search, the brand offers more informed and personalized results, catering to every kind of customer query, whether they are looking for a specific product, hoping to learn more from informative content, or connecting with other like-minded hobbyists in their community forums.
The fast time to value and quick implementation have been game-changing for Hornby Hobbies’ strategy and goals, and this is just the start of the transformative growth that the company expects with our solutions.
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