Leading handbag, luggage, and travel accessories retailer, Strand is working with e-commerce and marketplace accelerator, Pattern to enhance online revenue and expand its customer base.
Leveraging AI technologies and Pattern’s specialist digital marketing services, Strand experienced a 37% increase in online revenue year-on-year across targeted e-commerce channels.
With over 300 retail locations and an online presence, Strand aimed to engage new audiences to maintain market relevance and accelerate growth. Pattern has helped Strand achieve these goals by driving growth through the strategic management of paid search, paid social, and organic search channels.
Strand marketing and digital director, Prue Thomas said, “Our long-term partnership with Pattern has enabled us to reach new levels of online growth. Their extensive digital marketing experience and custom AI tools have not only increased our online revenue but also allowed us to connect with digital shoppers in a more personalised way. The ability to optimise our product offerings at scale has been a game-changer in staying competitive and relevant in a challenging market.”
The custom-built software being utilised by Strand optimises product feeds at scale. Pattern uses AI and machine learning to dynamically update critical product attributes such as titles, descriptions, and specifications across approximately 1,600 Strand products.
Pattern managing director, Merline McGregor said, “In the past, optimising product feeds of Strand’s scale would require over 100 hours of manual work. However, by implementing Pattern’s proprietary AI tools, this process was streamlined significantly, enhancing performance and allowing for rapid scalability.”
Unlike standard product feed automation tools, Pattern’s AI tool tailors each attribute to align with industry best practices and Strand’s unique brand voice, allowing for enhanced searchability. Through this technology, product titles were extended by an average of 70 characters and descriptions by 2,103 characters, boosting content depth, quality and relevance across both free and paid search environments.
“The strength of our proprietary AI software lies in its ability to customise at scale, empowering Strand to connect with customers more effectively. With AI, we’ve taken a manual, time-consuming process and turned it into an efficient, data-driven system that provides Strand with a significant competitive advantage. It’s a partnership grounded in innovation, and the results speak for themselves,” McGregor added.
In the past 12 months, Strand has seen their return on ad spend (ROAS) improve by 11%, with over 2,300 new customers acquired through targeted campaigns. In addition to optimising product listings, Pattern has deployed a comprehensive Google Ads strategy incorporating YouTube, Demand Gen, Performance Max, and Search for Strand. The result has been a 41% increase in impressions, a 10% reduction in cost-per-click, and improved ad spend efficiency.
Looking ahead, Strand and Pattern are expanding their collaboration, with Strand’s international growth into the UK and the redevelopment of its loyalty program both a focus.