$31.7K More Sales, Up 25.99%, on 27.94% More Units

The challenge

February produced $122,044.25 ($122.0K) from 1,358 orders at 1.10 units each, and the catalogue was merchandised as a list of unrelated SKUs. Related lines sat on unconnected listings and nothing on the page suggested what went with what, so a shopper wanting two things had to search twice and usually did not. Meanwhile competitors were running product targeting on our detail pages while we ran none on theirs, so our own traffic was being harvested at the point of decision and the favour was not being returned. Closing that door had to come before opening theirs, because widening the range while competitors sat on our pages would simply have fed them better prospects.

What we changed

• Closed our own detail pages first with defensive Sponsored Display, because every improvement that followed would otherwise have been delivering better qualified prospects to the competitors sitting on them.
• Took the same product targeting offensively against the competitor ASINs our buyers were reaching, converting a defensive repair into a share position once our own pages were held.
• Built virtual bundles across the lines already appearing together in order data, turning a combination shoppers were assembling by hand into one listing with a single delivery promise.
• Rebuilt the A+ Brand Story to run across the whole range rather than per product, since a shopper who does not know a range exists cannot be sold two parts of it.
• Corrected browse node placement so the catalogue competed in the category its buyers search rather than the one it was filed under, widening the pool that ever saw more than one line.

The outcome

• Units reached 1,905, an advance of 27.94% that outran order count at 26.73%, deepening the average basket from 1.10 to 1.11.
• $31,716.70 of additional sales, reading as 25.99%, with order value effectively unchanged either side of it.
• Order count landed at 1,721 against 1,358, with daily orders going from 48.5 to 55.5.
• Order value slipped 0.59% to $89.34, near enough flat, placing the revenue gain in volume rather than in what an order was worth.
• March traded three days more than February. Per day the gain is 13.80% against the 25.99% monthly figure, so the calendar accounts for a large share of the headline.
• Units outgrowing orders is the measurable trace of the bundles and the cross sell placements. Competitor targeting activity on our pages is not something the source records.