Footwear Brand VIBAe increased 2x Profit

Company Background

VIBAe is a Finnish footwear brand known for its focus on sustainability, comfort, and profitability. Every pair is handcrafted in Portugal by a family-run factory, bringing together traditional craftsmanship and modern eco-consciousness. Launched in 2020, the footwear brand has expanded to selling in over 150 countries.

In September 2023, the brand partnered with StoreHero to drive profitable growth and significantly boost net profit. Leveraging data-driven insights, VIBAe increased prices by 20%, achieving an impressive threefold increase in profits.

The challenge

Despite the fast growth the company was achieving, VIBAe faced a significant challenge in finding the right balance between scaling and maintaining marketing efficiency. They had been conservative with ad spend, prioritizing high ROAS to ensure efficiency. However, this approach was limiting their net profit growth potential.

Key challenges:

Hesitation to increase spending: VIBAe had concerns over a potential drop in marketing efficiency (MER).
Balancing growth and profitability: Although net sales were rising, VIBAe needed to ensure this growth was profitable.
Impact of increased spend: After increasing ad spend, at StoreHero we needed to assess whether this would lead to sustainable growth by evaluating if the increased investment would be beneficial despite the drop in marketing efficiency.
Scaling profitably: we recommended to the brand to scale customer acquisition and top-line sales. However, this needed to be done without sacrificing overall profitability.

StoreHero in action

After meeting with VIBAe’s team, we addressed their concerns about increasing ad spend and the risks involved. The first step was analyzing scenarios and creating a clear profit plan. We identified scalable opportunities that maintained profitability. This focus on profit metrics gave to the brand the confidence to increase spending.

Strong communication during the entire process ensured all essential data—operational costs, creative assets, and channel integrations—was seamlessly connected to StoreHero. This foundation enabled actionable insights and strategic growth.

Consolidated scattered data for clearer insights: To give VIBAe a clearer understanding of their overall performance, we first consolidated their scattered data into StoreHero’s unified dashboard. This provided them with a comprehensive view of their marketing spend, gross profit, and contribution margin. We then identified key opportunities to scale their business using the Store Overview Page, which highlighted areas for investment that could drive growth. This helped VIBAe make strategic decisions on where to allocate resources most effectively.
Refined market strategy for better results: Analyzing geographical performance through the Orders Page became a cornerstone of our strategy. By pinpointing their most profitable countries such as United States and Australia, VIBAe refined their targeting strategies to focus on high-return markets.
Optimized ad spend through creative insights: The Creative Dashboard simplified ad performance analysis, helping identify the most profitable creatives. This enabled VIBAe to optimize their budget allocation and achieve higher ROI.
Improved retention through product analysis: we used the Retention Page Overview to analyze product performance. This revealed which items brought back the most repeat customers, enabling VIBAe to focus on key products that boosted customer retention and loyalty.
Enhanced lifetime value (LTV): finally, to ensure sustained growth, we used the Cohorts Dashboard to track customer behavior and lifetime value (LTV) over time. This allowed VIBAe to measure when marketing investments were recouped and refine their acquisition and retention strategies to drive long-term profitability.

A key factor in this restructuring process was ensuring easy, clear, and quick access to data for informed, strategic decisions.

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Eddie Cheng

Co-Owner of VIBAe

The Outcomes

Net Sales: 77%

Contribution Margin: 108%

Repeat Customers: 45%

After shifting from a sole reliance on ROAS to a more comprehensive, profitability-focused approach, the brand gained enough data-backed confidence to increase their prices by 20%, achieving significant results.

November 2024 YoY:

77% Growth in net sales: VIBAe saw a substantial increase in net sales due to their improved marketing strategy. As a result, their revenue growth was driven by more efficient marketing efforts.
27% Increase in contribution margin: By strategically increasing ad spend (37% YoY) , they also boosted their efficiency (MER), resulting in a remarkable 108% growth contribution margin – more than double last year’s figure. This is a great example of how taking the risk to increase ad spend can directly lead to significant gains in profitability.
36% new customers: VIBAe also achieved a 36% increase in new customers, reflecting strong and sustainable growth. Not only did they attract a significant number of first-time buyers, but they also maintained a healthy balance by fostering repeat purchases from their existing customer base.