The Adaptive Collection: Beyond Back-to-School
The JanSport brand is practically synonymous with backpacks for students of all ages from elementary school to college. In fact, some 60 to 70 percent of its products are sold each year during the Back-to-School retail season. While JanSport will always cater to this loyal customer base, it’s also building out its product offerings in alignment with the company’s values of inclusivity, sustainability, and community.
Case in point: In January 2023, the company introduced its Adaptive Collection, which brings together JanSport durability and style with specific functionality to help individuals who are mobility challenged.
“We want to make JanSport inclusive of all customers,” said a JanSport Ecommerce Project Manager, “and a backpack for wheelchair users was not something readily available in the market.”
The collection includes an Adaptive Backpack, featuring hassle-free adjustable loops and anchor straps for customization and a secure fit. An adjustable top handle secures to a head rest via a slide-release buckle. The Adaptive Cross-Body Bag, featuring similar easy adjustability, completes the collection.
Focused on Listening and Understanding Customer Product Requirements and Needs
Key to the launch of the line was working with and listening to people with disabilities to find out what they wanted from their JanSport. The collection was codesigned alongside the disability community with help from the disability advocacy group Disability:IN. One important finding was the adaptive community sought more bags with a traditional appearance rather than many options that have a medical grade look and feel.
The company knew an important element for the successful launch of its Adaptive Collection was to seed review units with its target demographic so it could build visibility and awareness for the new line through this vital Voice of the Customer.
Seeding Product Samples with Precision Audience Targeting
JanSport has been a PowerReviews platform user since 2013 to solicit User-Generated Content, and has seen great success in its collection of ratings and reviews. Upon learning about JanSport’s new collection, the PowerReviews team was confident its Product Sampling program was a perfect way to help JanSport successfully launch the Adaptive Collection.
“We wanted to get the launch kicked off on the right tact and to give people insight on this product that was so different and unique,” said JanSport. “And, we wanted to make sure that we were able to get this product in front of the right audience, which is more of a niche demographic. We kicked off the Sampling campaign in November 2022 and paired this with an online video tutorial on the product page that showcased how to use the product correctly.”
Product Sampling Campaign Delivers a 90+ Percent Review Completion Rate
PowerReviews handled the audience recruitment process using its BzzAgent community, an extensive, diverse network of everyday consumers. The dedicated campaign team also facilitated the product fulfillment for JanSport, and of course, solicitation for product feedback and reviews. The JanSport team was elated when it received a 90.2 percent review completion rate with a 4.7-star average rating, well above the industry-best average of 85 percent.
Much of this ratings & review content is featured on JanSport’s website landing page dedicated to the Adaptive Collection, and review content with images is displayed on its product display pages.
“As a result of the success of this campaign, we are looking at doing Product Sampling campaigns before all our big launches,” said JanSport.
Impressive Ratings & Review Coverage Across the JanSport Product Catalog
Of course, JanSport leverages the PowerReviews platform to collect ratings & reviews across its full product catalog. To date, it has User-Generated Content for 91.9% of its products. Image collection is a particular focus. “We love when people post images with their reviews,” said JanSport. “We are always looking to improve conversion and sell-through, and we have found reviews – particularly those with images – really help support the buyer journey.
“The portal is easy to navigate, and I particularly like the ‘word bubble’ feature, which shows us common words that are recurring in reviews.” JanSport says. “The ‘Collect’ tab on site analytics is very useful for reporting review activities and gaining a historical view on the previous week or month.”
As JanSport continues to see growth in its digital channels, the company will continue to evolve its ratings & reviews strategy. “The PowerReviews team is super helpful and always taking initiative to help us improve our efforts,” said JanSport.
