How We Monetized A Shopify Store For A 100-Year Old Garden Center
SHOPIFY - FACEBOOK ADS - GOOGLE ADS - SEO
The Massachusetts based garden and landscape retailer and wholesaler has been in business since 1923. But, like nearly all of their competitors, were reluctant to adapt to today's digital-first world. Their reluctance quickly evolved into readiness once the pandemic hit, and they realized that keeping a 100-year legacy alive meant aligning their business with the needs and expectations of the modern consumer.
Weston Nurseries partnered with Above Average to construct their entire eCommerce strategy, from Shopify store development to marketing.
Our job was to design Weston Nurseries eCommerce model, website and marketing strategy from the ground-up while working with the executive team to build out their tech stack to streamline internal operations.
Main Challenges
Limited budget allocated to digital marketing
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Executive team was too comfortable with traditional forms of marketing: direct mail, magazine ads, radio slots, etc.
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Did not see the need for a digital strategy until the pandemic forced operations online and amplified consumer demand for eCommerce.
PPC campaigns were costly and not driving desired results
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Thousands were spent on Google Ads every month but were not generating enough measurable results.
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We quickly learned there were no clearly defined KPIs or strategic planning involved in the ad development process.
Our Approach
Facebook Dynamic Ads
To expand Weston Nurseries retail customer base beyond their brick and mortar garden centers, we utilized dynamic ads for broad audiences, and created multiple ad sets with a catalog of each in-season plant product. This enabled us to automatically target people who expressed interest in Weston's products or products similar to theirs.
Google Shopping Ads
Organized product groups by category, and created separate campaigns for seasons and best-selling products. By doing this, we've been able to concentrate targeting on less competitive, high-intent keywords and manage our bidding efficiently.
Within 4 weeks of launch, Weston Nurseries saw a 27% revenue increase directly from our Google Shopping and Product Listing Ads (PLAs) program, as well as 616 new customer orders.
Shopify Design and Dev
Combining sleek user-interface (UI) design with mobile responsive functionality and a conversion maximizing funnel, we built a brand consistent Shopify storefront with dynamic functions able to handle thousands of ever-changing products from Weston's three different locations.
Results
4 weeks after launching Weston's Shopify store, we saw overall revenue increase by 27% compared to the previous month without an online store.
On top of that, we were able to acquire 3X more new customers online in 4 weeks than had been acquired over the past 9 months in-stores.
Finally, Weston's faith in Google and Facebook Ads has been restored after achieving a 403% ROI with Google PLA, and a 228% ROI with Facebook Dynamic Ads.
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27% revenue increase in 4 weeks
403% Google Ads ROI
228% Facebook Ads ROI
Decreased Google Ads CPA by 41%
3X new customer growth
