The Evans Apparel Story

Challenge

When global retail group City Chic Collective (ASX: CCX) acquired long-established UK fashion brand Evans from Arcadia Group in 2021, they immediately recognised the challenge: how could we quickly deliver value to the customer and business when the customer data had been neglected for years?

This was a high-profile acquisition in the retail world – it was essential to have a customer-first approach that provided rigour and confidence to the CCX leadership team and the Board.

Solution

Hexdon was appointed to support the Evans brand given our experience at the intersection of data, marketing and customer-centric outcomes. Our 6 Steps To Higher Customer Conversion Framework was the perfect approach to tackle the challenge head-on and leverage our core services.

Step 1

Understanding the CCX business was a critical first step. This allowed us to align Hexdon’s project outcomes to overall goals, ensuring optimal buy in at board level. In addition, to create the biggest impact, a firm understanding of the business and data culture ensured maximum success.

 

Step 2

This collective Hexdon x CCX partnership agreed that a fresh understanding of the Evans customer was required and this perfectly aligned with Step 2. Customer Insight was drawn from market panel research and surveying customers. And once the data discovery sprint was completed, the Hexdon team uncovered database stats and technology capability that fuelled the next step.

Step 3

With a clear understanding of the Evans customer, her attitudes, behaviours, preferences and needs, the Hexdon team built out the data strategy, firmly aligned to CCX business goals. With our focus on the end goal, we crafted the plan on exactly how to get there. The data strategy and the plan brought customer insight to the heart and helped prioritise work streams that improved customer experience and long-term value.

Hexdon was brilliant to work with. The team helped us to quickly turn our customer data challenge into meaningful business results.

We had difficulties validating our data after a large acquisition and struggled with the brands existing platform, but their strategic and operational approach was invaluable.

We validated and regained trust in the data, increased our database size by 49% in 5 months and added new campaigns that delivered 6 figure revenue increases.

Carley Turner (CMO, City Chic Collective)

Step 4

Evans’ customer data sat within the Bloomreach CDP, the world’s #1 Commerce Cloud Platform. Hexdon’s partnership with Bloomreach ensured that maximum utilisation and commercial results were identified. Omni-channel campaigns with integration cross CRM and Web ensured acquisition, engagement, retention and re-activation KPIs were be improved. In addition, the Bloomreach platform enabled dynamic creative optimisation, multi-variate testing of subject lines, creative variants and customer segments. And control groups control groups were implemented to measure success.

Step 5

From strategy to planning, to taking action with meaningful insight that fuels great CX and long-term engagement, Hexdon and CCX took decisive action to achieve the goals and outcomes we strived for. Acquisition campaigns were optimised thanks to creative testing and converting paid ad investment into database growth. Email open rates improved thanks to brilliant copywriting. And lifecycle campaigns were built out to operate alongside sales campaigns, balancing short and long-term objectives.

Step 6

Reporting and dashboards were built as part of the data discovery, strategy and planning phases, so results of short and long-term activities could be measured and optimised over time. Key areas included Campaign, Commercial, Customer, Weekly and Monthly perspectives.

In just a few weeks, the results started speaking for themselves. The Evans customer base grew by 49% in 5 months. Incremental revenue was attributed to specific activities. For example, the web layer Lightbox delivered an uplift of £307k in 10 weeks. And having studied the path to purchase, Trustpilot was identified as a key influencer, so we supported CCX to grow their Evans score from 1.2 to 4.2 in months.

Results

In just 5 months, Hexdon helped Evans and CCX to grow their customer base and put a focus on customer-first initiatives against the backdrop of global challenges in the retail space. We ended on a high, helping Carley and her team to scope out a global research project that tapped into the CCX customer across the USA, UK, Germany and Australia.

If you have any questions about this case study or would like to chat about how Hexdon can help you, contact us here.