Repackaging the catalogue to fix the margin
A newly launched specialty foods retailer needed both order value and conversion to rise, on a catalogue that arrived from the supplier in fixed packaging. Every merchandising change carried a fulfilment cost.
The brief
Preset packaging, and a margin that did not work
The client had recently launched as a direct-to-consumer retailer of high-end specialty foods. Leadership recognized early that both average order value and conversion rate needed to rise for the margin to support sustainable growth.
The constraint was physical. Product arrived from suppliers in preset packaging, so any change to how it was offered on the site meant manual repackaging before fulfilment. A merchandising idea that lifted order value but added handling time could easily cost more than it earned.
So every change had to be justified twice: once on customer demand, and once on what it did to the fulfilment floor.
What we did
Merchandise where the margin is, not where the traffic is
We prioritized by profit impact rather than popularity, then built the operating procedure to support each change before it went live.
- Identified which products would be most impactful on profit if their margin moved
- Reviewed processes and established a standard operating procedure for fulfilling the newly-offered product formats
- Increased available sizes on the most popular product by 300% without changing the supply chain
- Implemented upsells on newly-merchandised inventory to lift average order value
The numbers
After the merchandising changes landed
| Metric | Change | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| Average order value | +25% | Result |
| Conversion rate, new inventory | +50% | Result |
| Average profit margin per order | +17% | Result |
About Gild
Gild Group is a fractional ecommerce team for mid-market Shopify brands. Performance, retention and storefront operations run by one embedded group of senior operators on a fixed monthly retainer. Charleston, South Carolina, since 2014.