Gross Demand Plan
After substantial work over the summer, the bespoke Aran Woollen Mills (AWM) website launched in September of 2022, which perfectly coincided with their scheduled Gross Demand Plan. Within those four months, we had put together an initial demand plan alongside AWM.
AWM rightfully believed in the quality of their product, and had set themselves the goal of making 7 figures on their website. However, they needed a roadmap that would navigate them through the twists and turns of how to get there. We, similarly, believed in the power of our Gross Demand Plan (GDP) offering and knew that this would be the ticket to take AWM to where they wanted to be.
The Challenge
The GDP that we produced, created this path towards AWM reaching their 7 figure goal. This initial plan laid out what major considerations they would need to make, including stock purchasing, customer modelling, and variable cost modelling, and the targets they would need to hit when it came to the major eCommerce metrics and cashflow.
AWM needed insights into the marketing channels that we had established would be required for launch, as well as optimal utilisation of these channels, and transparency of the associated costs for each channel. Similarly, as they would be launching worldwide, they needed to factor in, and understand, the cost implications of launching in the priority markets of North America, Europe, and the UK, which included shipping, marketing, and tax relief.
As each territory comes with its own variable costs and tax considerations, we actually created “mini GDPs” for each territory. Doing this allowed us to model proportionate sales for these three key markets. Similarly, this gave us insight on how we could leverage sales in Europe to subsidise the cost of selling in North America, which was initially very high due to high shipping rates on lower order values, as a result of low brand awareness.
The full scope of the project was made up of two parts: A GDP for their first online quarter, which was from October through to December of 2022, and a second plan for the full calendar year that followed, with this 15-month trajectory allowing us to utilise real trends. Similarly, using the first three months as a testing period, as the company had no online data to pull from, we were able to create a more accurate forecast for the 2023 calendar year and create a more tailored plan as a result.
- Social media management
- Performance marketing
- Search engine optimisation
The Solution
Data driven decisions like this require buy-in across the whole business; it’s no good if just one individual thinks they are a good idea. For AWM, the roadmap provided by the GDP was the final push that the directors needed to buy into the marketing plan. It made the allocation of budgets clear and helped to explain the eCommerce landscape, as it showed exactly how much traffic would be needed from each of the marketing channels for AWM to reach their goals. This made it much easier for the business to internally justify expenses like Meta Ad spend, which can seem like a lot of money for what you get if you aren’t experienced with them.
We only set moderate expectations during the first quarter post website launch, which allowed us to truly learn from the data and ensure that we smashed 2023 out of the park. However, that is not to say that this first quarter was unsuccessful, as we saw a significant appetite for AWM’s product in the aran sweater market. Additionally, we saw strong conversion rates, engaged traffic and positive customer reactions, but crucially we got some vital information in the form of CAC, areas for CRO improvements, and channel progression.
The Outcome
The information garnered from the first quarter’s GDP enabled us to construct a more data-driven GDP for 2023, which demonstrated how AWM could, and would, achieve 7 figures within the following 12 months. Through meticulously planning marketing activities for the upcoming 52 weeks, including the expected seasonal market curve, we were able to map out transparent cash flow expectations and gain the approval of stakeholders for the full, 12-month plan. In any large scale project like this, having an alignment of goals among all parties is crucial for it to succeed.
Every great relationship starts with a conversation. We’d love to talk with you about your next project and answer any questions you might have about Shopify. But be warned… once we get talking about this stuff, it’s hard to shut us up!
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