Why Lotuscraft Tried & Tested REVIEWS.io Before Switching

Richard Ball

September 7, 2021

17 min interview

The story of Lotuscraft spans over a decade, in which time founder Wolfgang Fuchs has learnt a thing or two about running an eCommerce business. But with a powerful tech stack now in place, this already successful brand looks set for an even brighter future.

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The Lotuscraft setup is the dynamic combination of Shopify, Klaviyo and REVIEWS.io - but that’s not always been the case. It’s through trial and error that Wolfgang and the team have ended up with their ideal toolkit.

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What they have now is a set of integrated solutions that deliver a conversion driving customer experience, and help promote the growing demand for sustainability in eCommerce.

The Lotuscraft Story

Wolfgang made the transition from yoga teacher to eCom entrepreneur in 2010 off the back of a single product - the Lotuscraft meditation cushion. But this was a meditation cushion different to most others available at the time.

It carried the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) badge, showing it was an organically certified product, made according to sustainable practices across the entire production process. With no large scale competitors around, Wolfgang spotted a gap in the market:

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11 years later and the Lotuscraft product range includes everything you’d need to practice yoga and meditation. And it all carries those important ecological and environmentally friendly credentials.

Finding the Tools to Support Business Growth

Lotuscraft is based in Vienna, so for a long time the team used Trusted Shops to build credibility (a German solution well recognised in continental Europe). The Trusted Shops badge helped build the company’s reputation, but what Wolfgang realised is that, as customers became more confident shopping online, they were looking for deeper insight which can be found in authentic social proof.

This realisation was prompted by the rise of product reviews on Amazon, on which Lotuscraft had (and still has) a significant presence:

“Product reviews became central for us. We felt more and more that we were a strong brand, and that buying online was not such a big trust issue anymore. The bigger function of importance was actually product reviews.”‍

Trusted Shops realised this too, introducing a product review feature. But it was limited, and Lotuscraft had little control over what they could do with it. So they decided to switch to REVIEWS.io, but not without testing the waters first.

They ran an A/B test to see if there was any loss of trust when using the REVIEWS.io vs. the Trusted Shops badge. The results proved not. In fact, they showed a slight uplift with REVIEWS.io.

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Their second worry was losing reviews already collected - a common concern. But with the help of our team, they found migration was actually no issues at all and that instead of being lost, trust is easily passed on:‍

“I knew when we signed up with Trusted Shops that product reviews were basically our own data that we could migrate if we wanted. But we didn’t know if it was really going to work out in practice, so of course there were some concerns. We were surprised it was so smooth.”
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As well as moving review provider, they also switched to Shopify. And with the integration of Klaviyo, they landed on the eCommerce best-of-breed tech stack.

What these tools offer is simplicity and control. They all adopt a user friendly ‘plug in and play’ approach, and they all talk to each other. The technical side is all taken care of allowing the team to concentrate on building trusted relationships, and driving brand reputation:‍

“What people underestimate is the effect of this cloud based system. The focus shifted from developing our store and maintaining it, to focusing on the marketing part. With this combination of Klaviyo, REVIEWS.io and Shopify we’re confident we can do it ourselves. It’s in our hands now.”
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How Reviews Help Push Sustainability

As well as being a moral obligation we should all be paying more attention to, Wolfgang knows that a sustainable brand is good business. But it’s not always easy. The challenge is to provide value to the consumer without compromising on ethical standards, and indeed to prove that value.

That’s where reviews help. They assure potential buyers that a sustainable product is just as good, if not better, than its less sustainable counterparts.

They also help with shared ownership. Responsibility lies with both businesses and consumers, each needing to do more. In adding attribute questions around sustainability to review collection, brands like Lotuscraft can make customers part of their mission. They can find out what matters to them, and how they can work together to bring about change.

At the same time, asking for their opinion makes the customer feel valued - meaning they’re more inclined to leave a review and show the growing demand for sustainable shift:

“I think the customer will feel more appreciated when you have these options. If you give them some interesting questions they feel are valuable, I think they’re more likely and happy to give feedback.”

REVIEWS.io gives Lotuscraft the features and functionality to do just that. And with their best-of-breed tech stack supporting them, they can elevate their brand - and its purpose - to new levels. Lotuscraft aims to encourage other brands to follow suit by setting a benchmark of GOT standards in cotton production.

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