Scaling a Legacy Fashion Brand Through Strategic Ecommerce Growth in the Digital Age

Company Overview

This client is a legacy fashion brand known for its elegant occasion wear, with decades of recognition among formalwear shoppers across the United States. From proms and galas to weddings and red carpet events, the brand has long been a go-to name in the evening gown space—particularly for customers seeking style, quality, and prestige. With a robust retail footprint and loyal multigenerational customer base, the client historically commanded strong market share both in-store and online.

However, the landscape changed. As consumer behaviors evolved and shopping habits migrated online, they faced increasing pressure from newer, digital-native competitors who moved with speed, creativity, and precision. The formalwear category itself remained largely flat, and rising ad costs, fragmented channels, and shifting brand preferences began to chip away at the client’s digital presence.

To meet this challenge, the client engaged AdVenture Media’s growth marketing team to develop a full-funnel transformation strategy. The objective was clear: win back market share, modernize the brand’s perception for a new generation of shoppers, and build scalable, sustainable performance in a crowded e-commerce landscape.

Challenges

Declining Share of Search = Declining Brand Equity

Although more people are searching for formalwear overall, the client’s share of voice in digital channels was rapidly declining. From Q2 2021 to mid-2023, their Share of Search dropped from 25% to under 15%, indicating a steep erosion in top-of-funnel brand visibility. In competitive markets like New York—where the client had historically led—interest in a key competitor surged past them by 40%. This data highlighted a deeper problem: the brand was losing cultural relevance online, even among loyal audiences. A lack of brand-first advertising efforts meant that challenger brands were not only catching up—they were pulling ahead.

Over-Reliance on Branded Search

The client’s paid search efforts were heavily weighted toward branded terms, relying on customers who were already familiar with the brand. While this drove solid return on ad spend (ROAS), it created a dangerous ceiling for growth. There was minimal investment in prospecting new audiences via non-branded, high-intent searches like “mother of the groom dresses” or “formal gowns for petite women.” As a result, the brand was invisible to in-market shoppers with no prior exposure—and was effectively ceding valuable ground to competitors who were targeting those very queries with precision and empathy.

Weak Mobile Experience + Conversion Drop-off

More than 70% of traffic to the client’s site came from mobile devices, yet the mobile experience was cluttered, confusing, and outdated. Overlays, pop-ups, and badge clutter overwhelmed the homepage. Cart elements were hidden far below the fold, and the product discovery experience lacked fluidity. This created a significant barrier at a critical touchpoint. Despite the client’s high average order value and strong product-market fit, users were abandoning the funnel before converting—especially first-time visitors who lacked brand loyalty. With virtually 95% of customer lifetime value captured in the first 30 days, poor UX directly translated to lost revenue.

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Misaligned Retargeting Strategy

Internal analysis revealed that over 80% of purchases occurred within one week of a user’s first visit. However, the client’s remarketing strategy did not reflect this short window of intent. Ads were not optimized to reach users quickly enough during their peak consideration period, and the creative was generic rather than personalized. This caused the brand to miss a high-leverage opportunity: re-engaging high-intent visitors with urgency, tailored messaging, and social proof when they were closest to converting.

Stagnant Customer Value & Limited Retention Infrastructure

The client’s loyal shoppers had high intent, but very little incentive to return after their first purchase. Despite strong initial conversion rates, repeat revenue was low, and lifetime value plateaued at just over $2.00 per user. With 95% of revenue earned in the first 30 days, there was minimal infrastructure in place to retain customers, re-engage them post-purchase, or build an ongoing relationship through perks or community. This left significant value on the table, especially considering the brand’s aspirational status and the emotional nature of occasionwear shopping.

Strategies

Rebuilding Brand Equity through TOF Campaigns

To counteract declining Share of Search and waning top-of-funnel awareness, the team realigned the client’s paid media strategy to emphasize upper-funnel branding efforts. The focus shifted from transactional, direct-response campaigns to storytelling-led initiatives that resonated emotionally with the target audience. Google and Meta platforms were used not just for conversions, but also to introduce the brand to net-new audiences through non-branded search and interest-based targeting. “Share of Search” was adopted as a primary brand health metric, enabling proactive adjustments and benchmarking progress against both competitors and broader industry trends. This approach positioned the brand to reclaim cultural relevance and visibility within a category where legacy status alone was no longer enough to win.

Aggressive Keyword Expansion

Recognizing that reliance on branded search traffic was limiting growth, a full-scale keyword expansion project was launched. Over 1,600 new non-branded, high-intent keywords were identified, tapping into an underutilized search landscape of more than 8 million monthly queries. These included terms related to specific occasions (“gala dresses,” “mother of the groom looks”), size inclusivity, and event-based intent signals. Conversion modeling based on historical performance and average order value projected $5–$10 million in untapped revenue opportunity annually. This expansion allowed Client to break out of its echo chamber and reach new shoppers actively in-market for formalwear but unaware of the brand.

Creative Repositioning

To better connect with today’s consumers, we underwent a messaging refresh that replaced broad, dated slogans with emotionally compelling narratives. Instead of speaking generically to “every occasion,” new creative centered around life moments, individual style, and the confidence that comes with finding the perfect look. Ads highlighted scenarios like a mother preparing for her child’s wedding, a student shopping for prom, or a guest attending a high-profile gala. The tone was elevated, personal, and emotionally resonant. The team utilized generative AI tools to create and test creative variations at scale, allowing rapid iterations on photography, copy, and visual design that would have previously taken months to develop.

Retargeting & Remarketing Alignment

Analysis showed that 80% of all conversions happened within the first week of a user’s initial site visit, yet previous remarketing efforts were misaligned with this narrow window of intent.

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To capitalize on this insight, the team rebuilt the entire retargeting strategy around a 1–3 week buying consideration timeline, ensuring users were re-engaged while their purchase intent was still high. Custom remarketing sequences were developed across Meta and Google Display, using dynamic product feeds, urgency messaging (e.g. “Only a few left in your size!”), and social proof. Return visitor behavior became a major priority. Users who returned to the site once were found to be 179% more likely to convert, while users who returned six or more times were 522% more likely to convert. The team crafted tailored creatives deployed based on user depth of engagement. For example, those who viewed a product multiple times were shown cart-recovery ads, while homepage visitors saw collection highlights and lifestyle storytelling.

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These efforts dramatically improved return session performance, with six-time returners converting at over 5x the rate of one-time visitors.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

A comprehensive audit of the website experience, especially on mobile devices, revealed several usability barriers that were impeding conversions. More than 70% of traffic came from mobile, yet the site was cluttered with chat plugins, trust badge overload, and disorganized layout—all of which contributed to friction and cart abandonment. The mobile homepage was redesigned for speed and clarity, featuring prominent navigation to bestsellers and new arrivals. The cart interface was optimized to display key details—like estimated shipping time, return policy, and size availability—above the fold. These changes not only improved mobile conversion rate but also elevated the overall perception of the brand as modern, intuitive, and premium.

Loyalty + Gamification Rollout‍

With first-month revenue capturing 95% of customer lifetime value, the client needed a long-term strategy to increase repeat purchase behavior. A new loyalty and engagement ecosystem was introduced to reframe the customer journey as an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time transaction. The program included tiered rewards based on spend and engagement, unlocking access to exclusive fashion styling sessions, early access to product drops, behind-the-scenes content, and invitations to both virtual and in-person fashion events. Customers could earn points for participating in style challenges, referring friends, and even co-creating future designs through interactive voting platforms. This system was designed to create emotional buy-in, reinforce brand loyalty, and double the lifetime value per customer to over $4.00 within 12 months. The initiative also turned transactional shoppers into active community members and advocates.

Platforms Leveraged

Google Ads
Meta (Facebook + Instagram)
Klaviyo (email/SMS)
Shopify
GA4 & Looker Studio (for attribution + modeling)

Services Rendered

Full-Funnel Paid Media Strategy
CRO & UX Redesign
Brand Messaging & Ad Creative
Loyalty & Rewards Strategy
Conversion Modeling & Forecasting

Results

10-Point improvement in Share of Search within 90 days
522% lift in conversion likelihood from users with 6+ sessions
Forecasted CPA reduction via $1.12 CPC non-branded queries
$5–$10M annual incremental revenue potential from keyword expansion
Mobile conversion optimization projected to drive 15–50% lift
Loyalty program expected to double revenue per user within 12 month

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For more on this, check out our full Growth Plan.