Case Study: Faribault Woolen Mill
Proving the Value of Ecommerce
Client Overview
Faribault Woolen Mill endures as one of the last vertical woolen mills in America
Here, fifth generation craftspeople take raw wool and create blankets, throws, scarves and accessories of remarkable comfort and quality. Irreplaceable century-old machinery stands side by side with modern technology in their “new” mill, which was built in 1892.
We were initially hired to take over an ailing paid search program, which quickly uncovered issues in analytics measurement. Our efforts refocused around a fresh implementation and setup of Google Analytics to build confidence in data accuracy for internal stakeholders. With faribaultmill.com transitioning e-commerce platforms to Shopify – a platform notorious for causing attribution issues – it was critical that we worked collaboratively with the development team to ensure the platform would be set up for long-term success.
Services:
- Analytics & Measurement
- Paid Media
Client Segments:
- Ecommerce
- Retail
Project Goal
Guide a 150 year-old traditional brand into the digital present by establishing accurate ecommerce measurement
Challenges
Faribault Woolen Mill had identified Shopify as the best single solution to manage ecommerce and a POS system at the mill. For our purposes, the chosen Shopify solution limited our ability to gain 100% visibility into checkout data because Shopify houses the checkout process on their domain.
Opportunities
Our initial engagement was to take over management of paid search, but doing so led us to uncover analytics implementation issues, skewing valuable metrics and eroding internal confidence in marketing data. In addition, FWM was planning to integrate ecommerce with their POS system through Shopify.
- Improve visibility into channel performance with a high degree of confidence in data collection.
- Improve internal confidence in Google Analytics data.
- Connect physical store and digital store.
Our Approach
Having worked with Shopify analytics installations in the past, we understood certain limitations of FWM’s version. Before implementation, we spent time clearly defining data that would be accurate and data that would have holes. By spending time up front to identify future blind spots in analytics data, we were able to instill future confidence in the accuracy of the data we knew would be correct.
We utilized Google Tag Manager to test and fine-tune the Google Analytics implementation.
Results & Insights
We uncovered opportunities to increase paid media spend by 500% while still maintaining ROAS goals during the lowest performing half of the year.
Through a more accurate installation of Google Analytics we were able to confidently share results to C-level stakeholders. We removed significant erroneous data, creating a platform from which leadership can make sound business decisions.
We saved FWM thousands in annual Shopify fees by enabling them to get the data they need through a more cost-effective version of the platform while eliminating the need to consistently leverage external development resources by implementing Google Tag Manager.
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