Women’s Apparel E-commerce Case Study

The Client

Passionate about people and the planet, the founders had experienced success through an e-commerce platform and strategic distribution, but also weathered some turnover in marketing leadership. They sought growth in online channels and knew they needed a broader, full-funnel marketing plan along with strategic digital direction. That’s where Orchard Marketing came in.

The Challenge

The client had worked with another agency previously. The strategy they developed was focused exclusively on META (Facebook/Instagram) ads. While that advertising strategy delivered some impact and contributed to growth, the founders were poised for expansion and hoped to reach more women seeking trend-relevant staples. Orchard Marketing and the clothing company’s Marketing Manager knew each other from previous work, and the key strategist, Tracey,[2.1] came highly recommended. With aggressive growth goals laying the foundation, a productive partnership began. Focused on full-funnel marketing plans designed to reach potential buyers throughout the sales cycle, they also needed to stay top-of-mind with their current customer base. Adding complexity to the work was the fact that the company was temporarily without marketing executives and needed to rely on Orchard Marketing to bring in expertise on email funnels, website conversion rates, etc. Orchard optimized each channel to work cohesively, achieving tangible results from lowering CPA to increasing net revenue and ROAS.

The Work

Tracey saw immediately that the current ad strategy was not enough to meet such lofty goals. She developed a plan designed to help her new client grow aggressively through a sophisticated set of digital tactics, including:

Expanding the current marketing strategy beyond META ads. A full-funnel approach with programmatic display ads for top funnel prospecting helped them to reach additional potential buyers.
Reducing the amount of ads running on specific platforms to place more focus on the current customer base with higher frequency.
Optimizing META ads for the mid and bottom tiers of the sales funnel, while adding new Google ads focused on the bottom half of the funnel.
Creating look-alike and custom audiences of eco-conscious women who fit the brand’s profile, and serving well-timed display ads across their internet activity.
Enhancing conversion rate by creating and testing new META ads. By leveraging their algorithm, Orchard was able to discover new users across the top and mid-level of the sales funnel.

The Results

In just a short timeframe, the work being done made a significant impact. The client saw a spike in several critical KPIs, and in the course of months reached some of their most aggressive growth goals.

68% Increase in Gross Sales
17% More Orders
42% Jump in Conversion Rate
3.5% Improvement in AOV

As the collaboration between the two companies continued, strategies were refined and audience outreach improved. Deciding to pour gasoline on the fire, Orchard Marketing suggested further investments in media spend, resulting in:

114% Increase in Gross Sales
16% Order Increases
68% New User Expansion
67% Boost in Shopping Sessions

Additionally, the partnership decided to focus on SEO which was a previously neglected strategy. Because of these efforts, their online ranking improved substantially and the business was even used as a source for Google AI. This means that what Google learned from their website helps to generate summaries and address user queries, which can create real lift in brand recognition. Furthermore, the advanced digital strategies resulted in a decrease of sessions for users that were less likely to buy. By being more strategic in targeting, the client spent less effort on prospects that weren’t likely to convert, creating more energy in segments that were ready to spend with the clothing company.

The Future

The client feels confident that the right systems and processes are in place to continue their forward momentum. Due to the groundwork laid by Tracey and her team, the new internal marketing team of the clothing company has everything they need to continue the digital programs that lead to success. “The work we did with Orchard has not only driven the right kind of traffic, but ramped up our conversion rate and overall sales as well. We’re now reaching the right people at the right time, and that helps us to reach our goals of truly making an impact.” “Since we started working with Tracey, our online visibility skyrocketed. It’s been incredible to see how a strategic approach to campaign-building has helped us resonate with our eco-conscious audience.”