Background
Irish textiles and homeware, woven in County Mayo since 1892
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 their Contribution Margin by 91% in September 2024 vs September 2023.
The challenge
Rising acquisition costs and conflicting data from Google, Meta and TikTok
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 platforms—Google, Meta, and TikTok—the 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.
What StoreHero did
A unified dashboard showed that more Meta and Google spend could raise contribution margin
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 platforms—Shopify, 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, the Store Overview and Finance Page 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.
“More spend led to higher contribution margin”
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 the StoreHero Orders Page, they pinpointed which orders were most profitable. Importantly, they also identified those that were dragging down their margins. With this data, they refined their site merchandising and adjusted their marketing campaigns to focus on high-performing products.
Furthermore, StoreHero’s Creative Overview 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.
The results
Contribution margin up 91% and net sales up 68%, September 2024 vs 2023
Since Foxford began working with StoreHero in June 2024, they’ve gained a clearer overview of their metrics, enabling them to make faster and smarter decisions. By September 2024—just a few months into the partnership—the results speak for themselves when compared to September 2023:
- Ad Spend: Foxford increased their ad spend by 49% year-over-year (YoY), leading to a 68% boost in net sales.
- Contribution Margin: They doubled their contribution margin with a 91% YoY growth. This marked a significant turnaround from pre-StoreHero challenges.
- Gross Profit Margin: A 12% increase in gross profit margin, achieved through smarter customer segmentation and reduced discounting.
- Customer Profitability: Gross profit per new customer grew by 21%, while repeat customer profitability surged by 55%.
At StoreHero, we’re proud to be part of Foxford’s incredible transformation. Since coming on board, they’ve 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. We’re excited to see their continued success and know they’re poised for an outstanding Q4!
- Ad spend up 49% YoY, net sales up 68%
- Contribution margin up 91% YoY
- Gross profit margin up 12%
- Gross profit per new customer up 21%
- Repeat customer profitability up 55%
