Company Background
Founded in 1892, Store Foxford offers authentic and luxurious Irish textiles and homeware products. These include bedding, throws, and scarves, all woven in the west of Ireland in County Mayo.
With a rich heritage rooted in craftsmanship, they have evolved into a leading e-commerce brand. They serve both local and global customers with high-quality products. But like many DTC brands, the post-COVID era brought new challenges. With the help of StoreHero, Foxford increased theirย Contribution Marginย by 91% in September 2024 vs September 2023.
The Challenge: Struggling with eroded margins and profitability challenges in a competitive DTC Market
Though Foxford saw significant growth during the e-commerce boom, rising customer acquisition costs (CAC) began to erode margins. This made it difficult to scale at the same pace. With advertising spread across multiple platformsโGoogle, Meta, and TikTokโthe brand faced the challenge of sorting through conflicting data. As a result, they were unsure which platform provided accurate performance metrics. Without clear insights, their marketing spend felt like a guessing game. Consequently, profitability became harder to sustain.
StoreHero in action
Foxford came to StoreHero seeking clarity on their financial and marketing data, particularly as margins were under pressure. After some in-depth discussions and analysis, Foxford was officially powered by StoreHero as of June 2024
The first step during the onboarding process was to sync all their platformsโShopify, Meta, and Google. Most importantly, we integrated key cost elements such as shipping cost, marketing, ad spend, and discounts. A unified dashboard played a critical role in this step.
This setup quickly revealed key opportunities.
For instance, theย Store Overview and Finance Pageย showed that increasing ad spend on Meta and Google could drive higher contribution margins. Increasing ad spend is a scary thought for any brand. Therefore, we took a cautious but strategic approach. We gradually increased ad spend over several months. This method, as expected, brought impressive results.
โMore spend led to higher contribution marginโ
Next, tracking and monitoring became crucial to identifying what was happening and what needed to change. StoreHero set up notifications and alerts to monitor the progress of campaigns and marketing actions in real time, ensuring Foxford could respond quickly to any shifts in performance.
One challenge many StoreHero customers face is that despite their efforts to drive sales, those sales can sometimes end up unprofitable. A combination of factors like discounts, free shipping thresholds, or lower-margin items can easily lead to small or even negative profit margins. Foxford experienced this as well. But by leveraging theย StoreHero Orders Page,ย they pinpointed which orders were most profitable. Importantly, they also identified those that were dragging down their margins.ย With this data, they refined their site merchandising and adjusted their marketing campaigns to focus on high-performing products.
Furthermore, StoreHeroโsย Creative Overviewย helped Foxford identify which creatives were performing best and spot signs of fatigue in older campaigns. By recognizing this early, we were able to refresh their creative assets and introduce new offers. This adjustment not only revitalized their ad strategy but also made their paid media spend far more effective, driving better engagement and improving overall campaign performance.
Since Foxford began working with StoreHero in June 2024, theyโve gained a clearer overview of their metrics, enabling them to make faster and smarter decisions. By September 2024โjust a few months into the partnershipโthe results speak for themselves when compared to September 2023:
- Ad Spend:ย Foxford increased their ad spend by 49% year-over-year (YoY), leading to a 68% boost in net sales.
- Contribution Margin:ย They doubled their contribution margin with a 91% YoY growth. This marked a significant turnaround from pre-StoreHero challenges.
- Gross Profit Margin:ย A 12% increase in gross profit margin, achieved through smarter customer segmentation and reduced discounting.
- Customer Profitability:ย Gross profit per new customer grew by 21%, while repeat customer profitability surged by 55%.
At StoreHero, weโre proud to be part of Foxfordโs incredible transformation. Since coming on board, theyโve gained a much clearer understanding of what truly drives their business, moving from navigating conflicting data to leveraging actionable insights that fuel sustainable growth. With a strong grasp on what needs to be measured and optimized, Foxford is confidently steering their business forward. Weโre excited to see their continued success and know theyโre poised for an outstanding Q4!