Today, Mentholatum is a global leader, with products sold across major retailers worldwide. Some of the brand’s most iconic products include Mentholatum Lip Care, Mentholatum Ointment, and Mentholatum Deep Heat Rub, alongside popular stand-alone brands such as Hada Labo, Atorrege AD+ & 50 Megumi, etc.

While Mentholatum products have been found in many households for over a century, products were always sold in third-party stores such as pharmacies and supermarkets, without direct engagement with the customer. But, that is about to change in Hong Kong! The Mentholatum HK team has geared up to offer its own Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) site - launching all brands under one roof on a Mentholatum branded ecommerce platform. Needing a partner with expertise in FMCG, ecommerce, and omnichannel commerce, Mentholatum Hong Kong partnered with Wave Commerce, a leading Hong Kong based Shopify Plus partner. 

Powered by Shopify Plus, Mentholatum Hong Kong’s store has a vast product range across categories such as beauty, body and hair care, and health supplements, targeting all ages and genders. With this in mind, the online experience was as simple and smooth as possible, while showcasing the clear value to customers of each product. 

Unlocking 1,000+ retail stores for an unbeatable omnichannel experience

New to DTC sales, Mentholatum had a goal of growing its direct-to-consumer subscriber base. Wave Commerce implemented OMNI by Wave Commerce, a leading omnichannel customer loyalty solution for Shopify brands. With bespoke customizations to the membership experience, customers can create a member account, answer survey questions, and register for $-off coupons for Mentholatum’s products to be redeemed at over 1,000 retail locations around Hong Kong, such as Watsons, Mannings, SASA, Wellcome, Park’n’shop, or even via HKTV Mall. Each customer can access their coupon that can be redeemed at their selected store easily by the in-store staff, regardless of the POS system. 

O2O campaigns and promotions have allowed Mentholatum to build its member database for direct customer engagement. Mentholatum is able to learn more about customer preferences and interests by pre-defining questionnaires before the coupon redemption, e.g. asking for customer product preferences, their needs, and which retail channel they want to redeem coupons at, etc. After a customer chooses a coupon, the data will also be seamlessly synced into Mentholatum’s CRM, helping to build their loyalty membership database for future retargeting. 

On top of that, Hong Kong consumers are notorious for loving a good deal - and tiered promotions that encourage spending more to unlock a discount are proven to drive new customers and increase order values. As another avenue to increase Mentholatum’s customer database, promotions were integrated throughout the customer journey and product pages - including ‘Member Special Price’ (for specific customer tags), group discount by value & quantity, ‘Gift With Purchase’ and ‘Purchase With Purchase’ (discounted product unlocked) - both triggered by order value & quantity. These extensive promotion frameworks were built with Shopify promotion scripts and native discounts with combination, providing Mentholatum with a huge arsenal of strategies to convert traffic into loyal members. 

Wave Commerce set up and integrated Klaviyo, the leading marketing automation platform for Shopify brands, with OMNI and Shopify Plus. With Klaviyo, Mentholatum’s database is expertly segmented to drive relevant and data-backed campaigns to members to keep the sales funnel driving growth with automation. Best yet, data collected from members and survey results are fed into Klaviyo to provide better product recommendations to customers in EDMs.

A long-term partnership for success

Celebrating 135 years of the brand, Mentholatum Hong Kong worked with PHD Media HK and other agencies to create a major advertising campaign with ads across the MTR, billboards, YouTube and social media. 

As part of our retainer partnership for ongoing support to the Mentholatum team, Wave Commerce helped set up a series of optimized and high functioning landing pages for the campaign, powered by Gempages. Ensuring that new shoppers engaging with Mentholatum for the first time would have a premium experience despite the major traffic visiting the site was paramount, including ensuring strategies were in place to help convert the new traffic into members and paying customers.  

All in all, our team at Wave Commerce thoroughly enjoyed working with the talented Mentholatum team to innovate and drive commerce forward. And lastly, congratulations on 135 years!