Gallia, Blédina, PrestaShop: The recipe for direct-to-consumer success

Gallia and Blédina, two emblematic brands of the Danone Group, have opted for DtoC, direct to consumer. This strategy aims to strengthen proximity to final consumers and better meet new consumers' expectations. Providing access to their complete offer, combining products and services, and offering personalized subscriptions through optimized data collection are the ingredients of a winning program.

Welcome to the world of babies... online! A universe that you can (re)discover with two leading brands that are pioneers in their markets. Laboratoire Gallia, the leading brand of infant milk available on prescription, has historically been present in maternity wards and in all distribution channels, pharmacies and supermarkets. Blédina, which celebrated its 110th anniversary, is the French market's favorite brand (43%), and a market leader in baby-food jars, water bottles and teething biscuits.

A CHANGING MARKET

Gallia and Blédina operate in a highly regulated market with demanding standards, whether in terms of nutritional composition, the quality of raw materials or the attention given to the list of ingredients. They target the baby's first 1,000 days, where it all begins!

It's a key period for development and exceptional experiences, learning for the first time, the discovery of taste, textures and flavors. Justine Diochon, ecommerce manager Blédina/Gallia

In recent years, both Gallia and Blédina have been confronted with new consumer trends, homemade meals, the desire for transparency on the origin of ingredients or buying local, and the new habits that have emerged post-Covid: online shopping and click & collect in particular, multiplying the points of contact.

Between 2020 and 2021, home delivery expenses for supermarkets increased by 11% and those of pure players by 21%.
Justine Diochon, ecommerce manager Blédina/Gallia

THE ADVANTAGES OF DTOC

These trends have prompted both brands to seize the opportunities of online sales. With their online store designed on PrestaShop, Gallia and Blédina offer customers access to their complete offer, serving consumers with very specific needs (such as children with allergies), unlike stores that only display a selection of products. Buyers also have access to new products in preview, and can have them delivered anywhere in France and certain other European countries.

CUSTOM SUBSCRIPTION PLANS

With their online stores, Gallia and Blédina's main objective is to offer an immersive experience adapted to customers' needs, with quality content and advice, exclusive products, customization offers and additional services. Thus, the Gallia subscription makes life easier for parents by delivering the infant milk of their choice to their home at a specified frequency.

Thanks to this scalable offer that automatically adapts to the baby's age, Gallia has seen its number of subscriptions increase by + 80%. Justine Diochon, ecommerce manager Blédina/Gallia

THE BOX, A REAL LOYALTY TOOL

Blédina offers exclusive boxes on its site. My First Small Box is designed to accompany baby's first food diversification experience while the pre-planned boxes offer 6 days of complete meals with breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, to be delivered at home, on vacation or at grandma and grandpa's!

This offer adapted to each age, starting at 6 months, has seduced a great number of customers. As proof, My First Small Box, which also exists in an organic version, immediately reached the Top 5 references. This success is also due to the quality of the pack, custom-designed packaging with 12 small jars including 1 personal choice and a guide rich in tips and tricks from a baby food nutrition expert.

The pre-planned boxes, broken down by age, represent 7% of the site's traffic and have an excellent bounce rate from our activation campaigns (13%). Justine Diochon, ecommerce manager Blédina/Gallia

DATA COLLECTION AT THE HEART OF DTOC

The brand also has product offers with audio content thanks to the Ekko platform, which can be interfaced with PrestaShop. These audio files offer advice, give tips, and bring an emotional dimension that helps to create a connection with shoppers.

All these solutions have enabled Gallia and Blédina to increase their turnover by a factor of 4 since 2019, and to collect qualified data.

Online sales and subscriptions are in fact an incredible opportunity for both brands to improve their knowledge about customers. They are also an opportunity to test and experiment with new offers before replicating them on a larger scale...

Our ambitions for tomorrow? To better use data to personalize our products and services. Justine Diochon, ecommerce manager Blédina/Gallia