Polish toy store enhances customer experience with Algolia Recommend

Noski Noski is a fast-growing high-quality retailer based in Katowice, Poland. The brainchild of event engineer and video producer Piotr Tuszewicki and his wife Marta Nendza, a PR copywriter, the toy store was built so the couple could spend more time with their children. It quickly grew from its humble bricks-and-mortar roots. 

Tuszewicki says the couple came up with the idea, the toy store’s name — Noski Noski points to the act of rubbing noses, suggesting the playful affection the store encourages — and even purchased its website in only an hour. Then the whirlwind started. “It was quite crazy. We didn't know where we were heading, or if this was just going to be a brick-and-mortar store as it was in the beginning," he says. "And, it was the 7th of November, so we had one month until Christmastime." 

Tuszewicki says the couple’s backgrounds and own love of toys from childhood inspired them to launch their then “little” store, but they soon saw the potential of e-commerce and moved the business online. It took off so quickly they had to close their physical location to keep up. They’ve since reopened one physical shop and grown from the original two to a team of 20. They developed the Noski Noski website to be exploratory and inspiring. “We always wanted our website to be like an Instagram for toys.”

Upping marketing and customer experience

Naturally, with the founders’ backgrounds, Noski Noski engages in a lot of video and visual marketing and social media. Despite the company’s quick success, Tuszewicki recognizes a continuous need to improve market and customer experience. 

About 90 percent of Noski Noski’s customers are current and expecting mothers, but the company’s marketing efforts have been expanding to include fathers and grandparents. “But it’s hard to reach them, advertising is expensive in these markets,” Tuszewicki says. 

He and his marketing team of four are obsessed with detail and making sure everything is right, creating the perfect marketing videos and customer experiences. “We know first impressions are very important.”

Adopting Algolia for faster search

Several years ago, as it grew its online presence, Noski Noski launched on the Shopify platform. Tuszewicki says they knew even then that they would one day outgrow Searchandise Commerce, the application they originally used for Search. 

The company’s integrator Patryk Jakubik, Shopify Expert and founder of Tale Commerce, recommended Algolia early on, and when the time was right Noski Noski made the move to improve user experience and website scalability. 

“We knew that Algolia was a really big investment for us but, for us, the quality was the most important thing, and Algolia is the best — one of the best — solutions. So, we adopted it and I really love it.” — Piotr Tuszewicki, Co-Founder, Noski Noski 

The company has implemented Algolia for Search, Collection filtering and sorting, and for Recommendations. Algolia also powers the search around the Noski Noski website blog and is used prominently across the site. Tuzewicki says Search plays a major role in customer retention. 

“Customer acquisition is really expensive. And once you spend that money it’s up to you to sell or not. I knew that once the customer hits that page they need to be served the best experience possible. So, Search is up front and a big part of our header, because we know it’s important.” — Piotr Tuszewicki, Co-Founder, Noski Noski

Integrating Algolia Search with Shopify and the Noski Noski site was implemented in about a month, says Jakubik who was responsible for the integration. He says Algolia was selected because it allowed Noski Noski to do more than its competitors and because of its speed. “The response times from Algolia are just slick; number one,” Jakubik says. 

Tuszewicki echoes this sentiment, calling Algolia’s speed his favorite feature: “Algolia Search is so fast. It’s instant.” 

Noski Noski has plans to implement additional features and use Algolia Recommend in other locations on its website but only after upcoming changes to the store planned on Shopify, including a new website theme.

Enhancing customer experience through product recommendations

Customer experience and especially the speed at which Noski Noski meets customer demands is essential to its business. The company, for example, strives to ensure a maximum shipping time of 24 hours. “We know when moms want something for her or her children, she wants it now,” Tuszewicki says. 

Pleased with the speed and experience delivered by Algolia Search, Tuszewicki decided to implement Algolia Recommend to further improve customer experience by helping customers find products that might interest them based on their last visit. Jakubik says Algolia Recommend was easy to implement, taking less than a month. “All we really had to do was change the URL, customize a couple of options and that was it.” Tuszewicki says Recommend is a crucial capability for the Noski Noski site because customers are unaware of many of the products available before visiting. “Algolia is great at this, so if a customer reaches a page and isn’t interested in what they see, the recommendation shows them something really relevant. The journey on the website is much richer.” 

“Just by looking at it, we knew Algolia’s recommendation API works better, and then we conducted A/B Testing and we saw after two or three weeks that the results are definitely better.”

Future plans and expansion

Today, Tuszewicki says the Noski Noski website is still relatively simple, but he sees it growing in sophistication as the company grows; for example, to further merge media and product to feel even more like shopping in a physical store. “It’s difficult and expensive, but we really want to get there.” 

The vision for the once small Katowice toy store continues to expand. The company is currently working to spread out beyond its Polish borders to serve customers in neighboring countries and looking for external capital investment to help reach this goal. 

He notes how the company’s adoption of best-in-class solutions like Algolia and Shopify Plus aid in the company’s expansion goals. “When I talk with investors, they see we have the best solutions. And if we receive investment, we’re ready to scale fast.”