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ABOUT THE BRAND

Meet Hobbiesville, the go-to shop for collectibles and trading cards.

Founded in 2020 by Logan Fournier & Edmond Georges, Hobbiesville started as a way to sell rare Pokémon cards. The online shop grew quickly, and the company had even opened a brick-and-mortar store in Ottawa. Since then, Hobbiesville has continued to evolve (subtle Pokémon IFYKY) and has expanded to selling new product categories like collectibles, toys, games, and other popular trading cards. Hobbiesville has also received press from Hypebeast and Complex.

We recently sat down with one of the company's founders, Edmond, to discuss Hobbiesville’s success with its mobile app.

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THE CHALLENGE

After switching to Plobal, Hobbiesville returned to Tapcart, seeking reliability and bug-free CX.

Even though Hobbiesville is a relatively new company, the team was already looking for new ways to leverage technology to enhance its shopping experience. The brand wanted to level up its mobile website by creating an engaging, media-rich, and visually beautiful platform.  

One of the key reasons Hobbiesville wanted this platform to be a mobile app? Speed.

After all, speed is a very common churn pain point that most ecommerce brands are actively trying to address. Edmond told us that when a customer's page takes too long to load, that customer is likely to bounce. And when every second counts, every clunky UX design can be a significant deterrent, and it’s easy to leave money on the table. Consumers’ expectations are high; they want nothing less than an ideal shopping experience. 

Hobbiesville originally built its mobile app with Tapcart, but the company later switched to Plobal. Plobal promised Hobbiesville more customizations, but unfortunately, the platform and support team couldn't manage the headache of bugs that came with those customizations. Hobbiesville saw its app user base was churning with its Plobal app, which was a critical issue — app customers were 10% of the company’s loyal cohort. 

“With Plobal, the more customizations, the more custom code, the more bugs… And so you've got support tickets building up, and all of a sudden, we're now a technology company that's focused on trying to keep our customers happy. Worst of all, we’re seeing customer churn and the LTV on those customers is starting to decrease because your mobile app customers are your niche customers.”
Edmond Georges, Founder

Having used both Tapcart and Plobal, the Hobbiesville team decided that its app's improved reliability and CX really mattered. And that’s what led them back to Tapcart — a smooth platform that prioritizes speed, ease, and convenience. Not to mention a consistently supportive customer service team. 

Tapcart also keeps Edmond in the loop regarding the app’s product roadmap. After all, since the Hobbiesville app initially launched, Tapcart has evolved, too. New customization features have arrived, including Custom Blocks that empower brands to use low-code to personalize their app and new integrations. 

Now that the company is firmly re-settled with Tapcart, Hobbiesville is doing everything it can to focus on what matters most: growing the brand and selling products… not becoming a tech company. It's why it opted against developing its own app to begin with. Plus, the quote to build a proprietary app was $250K, with a turnaround time of nine months to a year. Tapcart builds plug-and-play apps that live within your Shopify dashboard in two weeks.

For Hobbiesville, letting a tech company do the “tech” just made sense.

“These platforms like Shopify and Tapcart have already done enough work in terms of optimizing the checkout process.”

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THE SOLUTION

Hobbiesville’s app levels up CX and ensures real collectors get the goods.

Hobbiesville’s app is all about the customer's experience. And Edmond was quick to mention how the app is about more than just maximizing profits. Instead, his team sees the app as a holistic platform that can provide a better CX and expand the brand's reach.

By building an app, it's much easier to be the go-to destination for your customers. In Edmond's words, “we want to become the closest collectible retailer to you at all times." After all, you're literally in their back pocket. They know you’re there and how easy it will be to shop and checkout. (It’s also a key way to reach your best customers and make sure they get the goods before a scalper snatches them up.)

Another critical element of retention? Push notifications.

“There’s something incredibly annoying & scammy about receiving an SMS and email. But for some reason, you could get 100 push notifications, and it doesn’t bother you the same way,”
Edmond Georges, Founder

Edmond also loves push notifications for two reasons:

1. They're free.
2. They're not nails on a chalkboard.

Hobbiesville is committed to providing fresh experiences. Just like people don't want to watch the same episode of television over and over again, they don't want to hear the same bit from your brand on repeat. Customizing push notifications is an easy way to share something new with customers and keep them coming back for more.

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THE RESULTS

10% of Hobbiesville customers use the app. They bring in 40% of revenue.

Hobbiesville enjoys three times the conversion on its app, and the total revenue split is 60% website and 40% mobile app. But Edmond knows that’s not comparing apples to apples. 

And that's because the company's best customers are using the app. While only one-tenth of the customer base are app customers, those customers are much more engaged and have higher retention. And that sliver of the customer base is bringing in 40% of Hobbiesville’s revenue. And that's a huge deal.

(Getting the most — and giving the most — to VIP app customers is a recurring theme for Tapcart brands, including Obvi, BÉIS, and VRG GRL.)

What's more, Edmonds sees a serious connection between customer retention and the number of push notification subscribers. 

Why? 

Well, Hobbiesville sees its app as a holistic channel. And if its push subscriber base is growing quickly and incrementally, that means customers are not annoyed by them, are willing to listen, and maybe even engage for a while before they buy something. These customers don’t need to make a purchase today. They can consume content, share links, tell people about the brand, and so much more…

“You can’t be building a community because you think it’s going to result in more sales…customers are incredibly savvy, and they see through that.”
Edmond Georges, Founder

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Find out how Hobbiesville and other top brands — like Kaged, BÉIS, and Glamnetic — are breaking boundaries and sales records with Tapcart. Let's chat.