Venture Beyond originally partnered with Delsey in 2023 & what followed was nothing short of extraordinary.
Delsey achieved a 30% increase in revenue and a 14% growth in contribution margin compared to the previous year.
This culminated in the two highest sales dates in the brand's history with a staggering $267,861 and $215,222 in revenue before tax.
Before working with Venture Beyond, Delsey had several agency partnerships. These agencies collectively struggled to create a fully integrated marketing strategy that maximized Delsey's growth potential.
Established brands looking to shift from traditional retail to direct-to-consumer (D2C) online sales often struggle to find a single agency with the right combination of skills in creative and growth strategy.
In spite of this, Venture Beyond succeeded in rapidly growing Delsey's U.S. e-commerce presence, and we achieved 13.92% higher sales revenue than our targets for Q2 & Q3.
We accomplished this by leveraging a full-funnel strategy: this involved increasing the diversity of creative concepts, high-volume creative testing, and data-driven media buying. As a result our growth & creative strategies led to record-breaking sales in 2023.
Delsey's gross sales soared to $6,825,300, with a net sales figure of $5,652,574. This allowed Delsey to set ambitious revenue targets for 2024, aiming for $9,817,000 from January to November.
This graph shows how our eCommerce growth processes generated a 30% increase in revenue:
Delsey is a brand with a rich brand history spanning over 70 years - they are a well-established name in the luxury luggage industry & the brand has a global reputation for crafting high-quality, stylish, and innovative products.
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Despite a documented history of retail success, Delsey knew they had the opportunity to increase and diversify sales in the D2C e-commerce market and their current agencies weren't reaching the goals they wanted to see.
That's why we made our objectives clear from the start:
Drive online sales
Position Delsey as a leader in the U.S. D2C e-commerce space
Increase brand awareness
Our strategy was supported by three pillars, and we'll break them down one at a time:
Creative Strategy
Growth Strategy
Complete Full-Funnel Strategy
We quickly identified a need for greater diversity of creative concepts on Meta. The brand's creative production required a more data-driven approach to effectively engage and convert Delsey’s target audience.
Prior to our partnership, Delsey had allocated a significant amount of ad spend and resources to brand awareness campaigns, which was failing to convert new customers.
We emphasised the importance of brand awareness but prioritised creating performance-driven campaigns focused on boosting sales to meet our revenue goals.
Prior to our partnership, Delsey's creative concepts were primarily limited to static images, which were not engaging potential customers and performing at target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend).
This lack of creative diversity (no short-form product videos, lifestyle GIFs, or interactive carousel ads) meant that Delsey was failing to engage the Meta users within their prospecting audience.
Moreover these same creatives were failing to connect with customers at different stages of the marketing funnel. For example: Delsey never incorporated popular holiday locations or targeted key sales periods like Memorial Day. As a result, there was a noticeable disconnect between the brand’s messaging and the customer’s journey from awareness to purchase, which significantly impacted their revenue.
These are a handful of Delsey’s best creatives before we took over, all of which were product shots with simple discount badges:
We developed a content strategy that aligned with each stage of the customer journey, ensuring that Delsey's messaging resonated with consumers at every touchpoint.
At the top of the funnel, we produced content focused on capturing the attention of new audiences and introducing them to the Delsey brand:
At the middle of the funnel, we produced content that showcased the unique features and benefits of Delsey products. These ads spotlighted the USPs of the Delsey brand and how their products can enhance travel experience:
At the bottom of the funnel, we curated content that was specifically tailored to drive conversions and sales, utilising compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) and promotional offers.
Additionally, we further enhanced Delsey's creative content by incorporating user-generated content (UGC) and influencer partnerships:
After this creation stage, we then implemented our creative testing method to boost the performance of Delsey’s direct response campaigns. Here's how our testing process worked:
Firstly, we launched iterations of our winning creatives and closely monitored their performance. This allowed us to identify the top-performing creatives and scale them to maximise ROAS.
At this point we found that retargeting campaigns were essential for encouraging people to buy Delsey's more expensive products, which have an average order value (AOV) of $230.
So, to continually chase down prospective customers, we further optimised creatives to the point that they became "ultra-personalised." These ads had a much higher likelihood to succeed because they showcased products to users who had shown prior interest. We then offered these users targeted incentives to encourage them to complete their purchase(s):
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To help continually facilitate our successful testing process, we felt it was a necessary to increasing Delsey's content output. This involved producing around 15 videos per month. During the Black Friday sales period, we ramped up production to 180 assets, leading to record breaking sales figures:
We worked hand-in-hand with Delsey's content creation team to ensure creative cohesion across this sales period. This day-to-day collaboration went all the way from the initial planning stages to the final execution.
This included photoshoots in Paris and Lanzarote, where the Venture Beyond team provided creative direction on set to ensure the content shot aligned with the intended final ads.
We also worked with a plethora of Delsey's brand ambassadors and integrated their work into our UGC campaigns. This helped to create more relatable and engaging Meta creatives.
This approach was particularly effective for the brand's partnership with Benetton, as it allowed Delsey to tap into Benetton’s vibrant brand image and connect with a wider audience as a result.
Before our partnership, Delsey faced significant challenges in meeting its DTC revenue targets.
We noticed the company's media buying strategies did effectively engage and convert potential customers, but this strategy did not consistently reach desired revenue goals:
To establish a stronger foundation for growth, we decided to supplement existing conversion campaigns with new brand awareness campaigns that would increase brand equity and recall lift.
We developed creative content that specifically resonated with American consumers, showcasing how the brand's products could enhance their travel experiences with an element of European allure. We did this by firstly testing new concepts closer to home...
In France, we leveraged Delsey's existing assets and leaned into the brand's proud French heritage:
By incorporating iconic French elements into the creative strategy, we were able to capitalise on the sophistication associated with French culture. From our creative testing learnings, we found that videos that feature distinguishable landmarks generated cheaper ad recall lift:
We also collaborated with the famous car brand Peugeot to create compelling campaigns that showcased the brand's roots and appealed to local consumers:
From there it was a simple matter of transferring these learnings over to a U.S. audience. This strategy was especially effective during the Benneton x Delsey campaigns:
We took a comprehensive approach to Delsey's profitability, focusing on margin analysis, unit economics, product bundling, offers, and direct-to-consumer sales forecasting.
Our strategies led to significant improvements in Delsey's financial performance in 2023:
We achieved an impressive 35.21% operating profit margin ($2.4M) from January to December 2023.
The contribution margin peaked at $660K (43.90% of total sales) in November 2023.
These results are especially impressive given that we cut brand awareness spending from around $1 million last year to $300,000 in 2023.
We did this by conducting in depth analyses of Delsey's shipping costs, identifying areas where the company could optimise its logistics to improve profit per order from our ads. This allowed us to focus on high-converting stock-keeping units (SKUs), specifically on price and offers. We analysed past sales data and customer behaviour to identify the products and bundles most likely to boost conversions and revenue.
Along with SKU optimization, we focused on maximizing total profit instead of just profit margins. To drive sustainable growth, we saw the need for Delsey to balance maintaining good margins with increasing overall sales.
By implementing strategic pricing and promotional strategies Delsey was able to achieve this balance and improve its bottom line. We focused on products with a high AOV and above-average conversion rates. This helped us optimise marketing spend and improve ROAS:
This collaborative approach to managing unit economics helped us identify the most profitable SKUs and bundles.
Throughout the process, we worked closely with Delsey's team to ensure that all stakeholders were aligned on the key metrics and goals involved. We provided regular updates and insights on the brand's performance via our weekly Performance Calls, allowing the brand stakeholders to be constantly informed on the account performance.
We recognised that increasing Delsey's average order value (AOV) was crucial to driving revenue growth and improving overall profitability. This strategy was three-fold:
We studied the sales data & determined that selling more luggage sets would increase the average order value (AOV).
Based on this insight, we proposed new luggage sets and created set-specific offers to encourage their purchase.
We then implemented various upselling techniques designed to encourage customers to purchase these higher-value luggage sets and complementary products.
The results of this strategy were significant:
We increased the overall share of revenue from luggage sets to 21%, up from 10%.
This focus on sets, exemplified by products like the "CHATELET AIR 2.0 - 2 Piece Set (CO Plus/L)," generated revenue of $29,999.44, with an impressive AOV of $535.70 for this particular set.
Overall, our strategy resulted in a 4% increase in AOV across all products.
We developed clear value propositions for these sets, highlighting the benefits of purchasing multiple pieces together, such as cost savings, improved organisation, and enhanced travel convenience:
To drive AOV growth, we recommended the implementation of upselling modules at multiple stages of the customer journey. This prompted Delsey to integrate a series of upselling techniques:
In-cart upsell to sets with clear value proposition to buy: When customers added an individual luggage piece to their cart, a label displayed a compelling offer to upgrade to a luggage set, emphasising the additional value and savings they would receive.
In-cart upsell with relevant related products (continuously tested): Delsey experimented with offering complementary products like packing cubes or travel accessories as upsells during checkout. These items were carefully selected based on their relevance to the customer's initial purchase and were presented as a way to enhance their overall travel experience.
Post-purchase upsell with accessories: After a customer completed their purchase, our in-house email team created and sent targeted email campaigns offering additional accessories that would complement their recent purchase. These campaigns were personalised based on the customer's buying behaviour and preferences, increasing the likelihood of a successful upsell.
By recommending these upselling techniques and continuously testing and refining them, we were able to significantly increase Delsey's AOV and drive incremental revenue growth. Since then, Quarter to Date AOV is up 10% from $217 to $238.
Delsey was able to achieve a significant breakthrough in their U.S. D2C e-commerce performance, culminating in the highest sales dates ever achieved by the brand during 2023's Black Friday & Cyber Monday.
On these two crucial shopping days, Delsey surpassed $250,000 in DTC revenue, marking a historic milestone for the brand, showcasing the effectiveness of our methodologies:
Delsey experienced a substantial 21% increase in DTC revenue from Q2 2023 (before Venture Beyond) to Q2 2024 (after Venture Beyond). They were also able to achieve overall consistent and sustainable revenue growth throughout the year, starting with a 21% increase between the first two months of 2023.
These successes showcase the long-term impact of our strategies and their ability to drive meaningful results for their brand.
Our strategic initiatives not only increased revenue but also boosted Delsey's total profit, resulting in an operating profit of $2,402,914 in 2023. By focusing on increasing sales volume and AOV, particularly by boosting the revenue from luggage sets from 12.2% to 20-25%, we were able to drive substantial growth - as shown in the report below (comparing our results after we took over the Delsey account):
We were able to maximise the impact of every dollar spent on advertising, and raise Delsey’s gross profit by 25% ($266K from $190K).
"We had worked with agencies before and they weren't on top of their stuff in terms of creative, so we had a call and you guys told us you'd take over the whole creative process which was a big weight off our shoulders. The rates were really reasonable so it just made sense."
Yassine Harraj, Desley Paris
As we expanded our work with Meta, Delsey asked us to also manage their Google and Pinterest accounts, both of which were previously handled by other agencies.
By regularly tracking and analysing performance data, we quickly made real-time adjustments and focused resources on the most effective initiatives across different channels:
This cross-channel strategy helped Delsey achieve a more balanced and effective marketing mix, maximising the brand's ROI & set the stage for long-term, sustainable growth in the U.S. market.
Contact Venture Beyond today to learn how our innovative strategies and expert team can help you achieve record-breaking results.
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We knew Delsey's previous approach of managing multiple single service agencies was leading to a lack of strategic alignment. This resulted in a disjointed customer journey, inconsistent messaging, and inconsistency in the creative branding.
We decided to consolidate all paid media channels and email marketing under one team. This allowed us to effectively align the direction, branding, and compliance of all future creatives and copy.
Our team of Creative Strategists analysed the data from the ad account to inform our production team on the direction of subsequent shoots. This improved our chances of producing winning creatives that scaled.
Our growth team revealed opportunities to make data-driven decisions that could improve the efficiency of our ad spend:
The glaring absence of standardised KPIs and a unified reporting structure across separate agencies made it challenging to assess the true impact of marketing initiatives on each channel against the overall MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)
The multi-agency structure also placed a significant communication burden on the organisation;
Continuously reissuing repeated directions to multiple vendors, each with their own processes.
The lack of strategic alignment across various marketing components led to inefficiencies and suboptimal results.
Venture Beyond’s content creation process focused on "closing the creative loop." This holistic methodology ensured that every aspect of the creative process, from ideation to post-production and media buying was seamlessly integrated and optimised.
By leveraging our multi-disciplined marketing team, we were able to ideate concepts, create and edit content, and then launch these ads consistently within 14 days!
When we took over Delsey’s email marketing from their prior agency, we drove a substantial revenue lift to up to $104,168 per flow in April, with a returning customer rate increase up to 18+%.
By developing a comprehensive email marketing strategy that aligned seamlessly with brand and performance campaigns, we were able to drive additional revenue from our paid media campaigns at every stage of the customer journey.
We leveraged our targeted email campaigns based on advanced customer segmentation and behavioural data. By looking at customer preferences, purchase history, and engagement patterns, we were able to craft highly personalised email content that resonated with each individual recipient.
To further optimise the performance of Delsey's email marketing initiatives, we conducted rigorous A/B testing across various elements, including subject lines, content, and CTAs:
By constantly improving our creative work using data-driven insights, we identified the best combinations of messaging and design, which maximized the revenue generated from each & every email.
We also managed Delsey's product launches and collaborations with iconic brands such as Peugeot, Jeep and Benetton among others:
Venture Beyond's comprehensive strategy transformed Delsey's U.S. D2C e-commerce presence, driving a 30% increase in revenue, optimising profitability, and setting new sales records.
Our combined efforts in creative content, growth tactics, and full-funnel marketing not only achieved but surpassed Delsey’s ambitious goals, setting the brand up for ongoing success in the competitive luggage market.
With proven results and a data-driven methodology, Venture Beyond stands ready to unlock similar potential for your brand in the e-commerce landscape.
"We had worked with agencies before and they weren't on top of their stuff in terms of creatives, so we had a call and you guys told us you'd take over the whole creative process which was a big weight off our shoulders. The rates were really reasonable so it just made sense."
Yassine Harraj, Desley Paris