How 5 Retail Brands Benefit from Product Protection

The small team at Boogie Board^TM is always looking for ways to put the customer first. It’s a common aspiration and continual effort for modern merchants.

Consider a recent customer issue: because Boogie Board writing tablets are portable and used by children and adults alike, they can become damaged and require repair or replacement. Such damage like drops and cracks are in no way Boogie Board's fault, but the brand still took ownership of the issue since these mishaps aren't necessarily covered by their manufacturer's warranty.

Their solution? Offer a modern product protection plan that's quick to implement, easy to maintain, and supplements Boogie Board's existing manufacturer's warranty — while increasing conversions by 29%.

The Benefits of Product Protection in Modern Retail

Boogie Board isn’t the only company with customers who want product protection. Allied Market Research finds that the $120.79 billion global extended warranty market will hit $169.82 billion by 2027.

Not sure how to offer product protection? Start by looking at a few companies who do. These five brands bring shoppers peace of mind with Extend’s product protection plans. We tailor our plans for different industries, so merchants can keep the customers they worked so hard to gain.

Baby Brezza offers accidental damage coverage for busy parents

David Contract, Marketing Team Lead at Extend merchant partner Baby Brezza, “wants to make parenting easier” with time-saving products. One of their popular items, the Formula Pro Advanced Baby Formula Dispenser, saves parents 30 minutes of feeding time per day.

But say a baby knocks over the formula dispenser and it breaks. The last thing busy parents want is to spend hours figuring out how to return or replace it. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey even found that 74% of U.S. parents with children under 18 sometimes felt too busy to enjoy life, compared with 55% of U.S. adults with older or no children.

Not to fear—Extend’s accidental damage protection plan has parents covered!

Extend’s plans cover appliances, electronics, and personal care products from an array of accidents that are a daily occurrence in a child-filled home. Plus, Extend rapidly adjudicates claims in 90 seconds or less, so the warranty process is convenient for busy moms and dads.

Car and Truck Remotes retains customers with key warranties

Ever lost your car remote or key? When this not-so-fun situation happens, the retailer Car and Truck Remotes is there to help consumers make a replacement.

The company’s founder Mariusz Sobanski noticed that other key companies didn’t offer product protection, even though people damage their keys all of the time. Sobanski decided to distinguish his brand by offering Extend plans to his customers.

“Most of our competitors do not offer warranties,” he says. “The fact that we can offer a warranty on a key is a good first impression for new customers.”

Because cars are long-term purchases, Sobanski knows that people are unlikely to remember where they purchased their additional remote keys. He sees Extend’s product protection plans as a valuable way to keep customers connected to his company.

“If a customer buys an extended warranty on a key, they’ll tend to keep that email or that receipt, so it’s a way for them to come back to us when they need a key for their new car,” says Sobanski.

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And the revenue sharing from our plan sales? Icing on the cake.

Bear provides generous protection as a small business

For most people, mattresses aren’t a small impulse purchase. They’re expensive, and customers expect to use them for years. So naturally, many shoppers are uneasy about buying mattresses because they can be higher-ticket items.

Product protection plans ease this anxiety. When the shopper knows they can safely enjoy their mattress for the next decade at least, they feel better making such a big purchase.

Before Extend, small merchants like Bear couldn’t offer product protection plans because legacy insurance companies rarely invested in small retailers or insured mattresses. Plus, Steve Catanzaro—VP of eCommerce—only has a dozen full-time employees, so he doesn’t have enough manpower to internally resolve warranty claims.

That pain point is exactly what drew Catanzaro to Extend.

“[Extend] could respond to customers on claims almost instantaneously,” said Catanzaro. “That was a more progressive idea which Extend’s competitors didn’t have.”

Through Extend, Catanzaro offers a tailored product protection plan that covers accidental mattress damage for up to 10 years. The plan made economic sense to Bear, and its price made sense to Bear’s customers.

While Extend’s speedy resolution of claims is a huge customer benefit, it’s also a major plus for Catanzaro. He doesn’t have to worry about adjudicating claims himself, so he can focus more on what matters: selling really comfy mattresses.

Boogie Board offers coverage beyond the traditional warranty

Remember those Boogie Board writing tablets that were becoming damaged by accidental drops and other everyday mishaps? Boogie Board embraced this issue as an opportunity to improve the customer experience, so they looked into modern product protection by Extend.

Not only was the Extend implementation process smooth, but it also set Boogie Board up for hassle-free maintenance that would allow them to easily add new products to their site without worry. According to Dean Bianchi, Digital Programs Manager at Boogie Board's parent company Kent Displays Inc., Extend "just runs itself."

“The simplicity of Extend was a huge selling point for us,” Dean said. “As a Shopify merchant, we used the Extend app to connect our store to Extend. We worked with Extend’s Merchant Success team to map plans to the products we wanted to cover, and we were live within a few weeks. It was a really painless process.”

Most importantly, customers benefit from an efficient, customer-focused claims process should they need to have their item repaired or replaced for something the manufacturer's warranty can't cover. Customers can file a claim anytime, anywhere with Extend's 24/7 virtual claims assistant, Kaley, and receive a resolution in minutes. That frees up Boogie Board’s customer service team to provide support in other ways and prioritize customer satisfaction.

Jewlr increases order value with product protection

An engagement ring isn’t just any purchase—the customer is buying jewelry that their partner will wear for the rest of their life. It’s a major emotional and financial investment, to say the least!

Daniel Stoppel, Chief Strategy Officer for the jewelry retailer Jewlr, knows how much is at stake. He wasn’t satisfied with the company’s one-year warranty against manufacturing defects and workmanship. For a product expected to last decades, the warranty doesn’t go far enough.

Stoppel hoped that offering more product protection would attract new customers to the site. “We’re not a household name,” he says, “so we have many first-time shoppers."

"The more things we have to highlight our legitimacy, the more confidence we instill, and the more conversions we hope to drive," Stoppel said.

Thanks to Extend, Stoppel is seeing the conversions he hoped for. He reports that “revenue was better when we were showing Extend’s plans as options as opposed to when we didn’t.” The reason? Stoppel saw a marked increase in order values when customers purchased an Extend plan.

Customer Confidence is a Merchant’s Greatest Asset

It doesn’t matter how much your company prioritizes product quality—accidents happen, and customers will need to make exchanges. Shoppers understand this reality, so many are uneasy making online purchases without some sort of product protection.

Extend plans give customers the confidence they need to click “Buy Now.” Our plans also handle the claims process, so merchants don’t have to worry about quickly resolving warranty issues.

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