Retail Recovery – Women’s Boutique
When this women’s boutique brand approached us, they were facing one of the most common yet crippling challenges in the post-iOS 14 world: declining ROAS, outdated targeting, and minimal insight into what was actually working. Their ad performance had dropped from a consistent 5x to just 1.5x, and customer engagement was slipping.
We applied our CONNECT Framework™ to stabilize their performance, rebuild trust with lapsed customers, and create scalable systems for growth—resulting in a consistent 14x return and more than $500K in ad-attributed revenue within six months.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2016
E-commerce
Challenge
Post-iOS 14 performance collapse: ROAS declined from 5x to just 1.5x
Attribution issues made campaign data fragmented and unreliable
Ad fatigue and generic targeting weakened customer engagement
Lapsed high-value customers and declining retention
Results
📈 Grew average ROAS to 14x over six months
💸 $36,000 in ad spend returned $504,000 in tracked revenue
📬 Email marketing revenue increased from 16% to 35% of total revenue
🧠 CRO insights led to a 95% improvement in marketing analytics visibility
📊 Performance-driven tactics improved marketing spend efficiency by 31%
35%
Improved onboarding process
25%
Increase in user retention
84%
Increase in time spent on website
Process
Paid Social Optimization:
We led the rebuild of their Facebook and Instagram campaigns, including:
Strategic retargeting to re-engage former customers
Custom lookalikes based on high-value historical data
New creative angles tied to seasonal and aspirational fashion behavior
Our tests consistently beat legacy ads, and budget reallocation toward winning audiences led to a steady ROAS increase—ultimately averaging 14x across six months.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
While we didn’t own development directly, we conducted CRO audits and shared actionable insights that were implemented by the client’s team. This led to:
Cleaner UX across product and cart pages
Stronger CTA hierarchy and mobile performance
A 95% increase in visibility and reliability of marketing analytics
These changes made campaign analysis more accurate and elevated on-site conversion rates across traffic sources.
Email Marketing via Mailchimp
Though SMS wasn’t a part of the strategy, we leveraged Mailchimp to:
Rebuild and automate high-performing flows (abandon cart, welcome series, VIP re-engagement)
Align email themes with paid campaigns to create full-funnel continuity
Re-engage lapsed buyers with segmentation and personalized value
Within 90 days, email revenue jumped from 16% to 35% of total revenue, proving the power of consistent lifecycle marketing.
Usability Testing: We conducted usability tests with a diverse group of users to validate the design and identify areas for improvement. Based on the feedback, we made necessary adjustments to the design.
Visual Design & Style Guide: We developed a cohesive visual language, including color schemes, typography, and iconography, ensuring consistency throughout the app. We also created a style guide to maintain design consistency in future updates.
“ With our new visual branding and language in place, the new Shopify brand clearly captures the essence of our current and target customer base, our employees, and our values. ”
Tobias Lütke
CEO, Co-founder | Shopify
Conclusion
This case study highlights how a recovery-focused strategy, powered by the CONNECT Framework™, can transform post-iOS turbulence into stable, scalable performance. With just $36,000 in paid ad spend over six months, this women’s boutique generated over $504,000 in revenue—while also increasing retention and clarity across their entire marketing system.
By realigning paid media, refining conversion paths, and strengthening email flows, we helped lay the foundation for long-term growth.