Ace Hardware Drives 6X Higher Engagement with Hyperpersonalized Holiday Shopping Experiences

6

X

increase in engagement on segmented vs. non-segmented messages

13

%

conversion rate from abandoned cart messaging

Ace Hardware is the largest hardware cooperative in the world, serving more than 8,700 locally owned and operated stores around the globe, while providing the best products, services, and operating methods to nearly 5,200 Ace retail stores in the United States. True to its roots, the majority of the stores remain independently owned and operated by local entrepreneurs today.

Industry

Overview

When Ace was founded in 1924, it changed the retail landscape by allowing individual stores to purchase merchandise in bulk to save money and buy at the lowest possible price. More than one hundred years later, the brand is still revolutionizing the way hardware is sold with digital experiences designed to offer the warm, personalized service customers receive in-store.

With a commitment to innovation and community, Ace continually seeks out new ways to help their customers find the products they need faster and at the most affordable prices, accelerating time to value for shoppers and driving repeat conversions for the business. 

Challenge

As shoppers increasingly expect to browse, buy, and engage directly from their phones, Ace Hardware faced the challenge of transforming its mobile app from a utility into a destination. With a loyal community and a reputation for helpful service, Ace saw an opportunity to make its app the digital extension of its neighborhood stores, a personalized, convenient, and value-driven shopping experience.

To deliver on that vision, Ace needed a mobile engagement partner capable of scaling quickly, integrating seamlessly, and enabling marketing teams to act without relying on IT resources. The challenge was clear: accelerate mobile growth, enhance customer experiences, and demonstrate measurable business impact, all while maintaining the local authenticity that defines the Ace brand.

Results

As price sensitivity looms, brands must deliver concrete value to mobile-first shoppers,  especially when competition is just a click or swipe away. With Airship, the Ace team created highly customizable experiences uniquely tailored to their customers without delays or IT dependencies, accelerating conversions and driving 6X higher engagement with personalized messaging. The success of the campaign validated the team’s investment in mobile and laid the groundwork for continued innovation in the app, creating a hub for personalized product recommendations and seamless shopping experiences.

Our biggest challenge was overcoming reliance on IT resources to innovate the app experience with the speed and organizational agility needed to keep pace with mobile-first audiences. Airship empowered us to scale growth experiments across re-engagement campaigns, data collection, segmentation and more — remaining agile and data-driven in our approach to customizing experiences and converting shoppers.” 

Kristen Reinke
CRM Marketing Manager, Digital

Solution

Ace Hardware Transforms the Mobile Shopping Experience with Airship

Strategic Abandoned Cart Push Notifications Recapture Lost Revenue

Attention is fleeting. The team at Ace first set out to introduce an abandoned cart campaign to re-engage customers before they lost interest in a product they added to their cart. They set up a push notification campaign to be delivered two hours after a customer added the item to their cart but did not complete the purchase. Airship’s ability to deliver real-time information and deliver personalized communications at a massive scale allowed the team to operate with the agility and responsiveness needed to capture customer dollars while the product is still top-of-mind.

Moving forward, the team plans to optimize conversions by A/B testing subject lines, images and messaging. Importantly, the success of this initial campaign — a 13% conversion rate — built a strong business case for future mobile investments.

No-Code Surveys Scale Zero-Party Data Collection

With a foundation in place for app innovation, Ace needed to identify a way to ramp up their 1:1 personalization with limited data. Airship’s native, no-code surveys empowered the team to create a custom holiday gift guide questionnaire to source product wish lists, preferred brands found at Ace and their price range. The goal was to capture relevant customer insights that could be used to deliver hyperpersonalized gift recommendations.

Segmented Push and Scene Experiences Kept Customers “Sticky”

With a 43% survey completion rate, Ace significantly scaled zero-party data and built out more robust customer profiles. The team was then able to introduce segmented messaging via push notifications and Airship Scenes by brand, product and price range, speaking directly to customers wants and needs during the holiday season. This drove a 6X direct engagement compared to non-segmented messages. 

Moving forward, Ace plans to integrate this survey into the app onboarding experience to gather customer intent data as early as possible, and apply the same strategy to other seasonal campaigns.