How Bever achieved incremental sales with Criteo

As digital marketing becomes more competitive than ever, retailers are searching for sophisticated solutions that can meet their precise business needs.

Bever, an outdoors retailer with 40 physical stores in the Netherlands, needed an efficient strategy that would match their aspirational vision, ‘outside starts with Bever’.

“It is our mission to inspire everyone to go outside,” says Yolanda Burghouwt, online marketer for Bever.

“Sometimes it feels like being outdoors is something that’s only for semi-professional athletes or backpackers,” says Yolanda, “Often the outdoors are enjoyed best when you’re simply cycling to work or if you are going to walk with your dog.”

Bringing omnichannel outdoors

Expertise and service are at the heart of Bever’s strategy. And that means understanding that that journey outside often begins online. That’s why last year Bever was named the best omnichannel retailer in Europe by Google.

“Service is very important to us, so our customers can go [both] online and in a physical store for ordering, returns, or other questions,” says Yolanda “Our expertise is also very important. Everybody who works at Bever has a passion for outdoor activities and can therefore give the right product advice to shoppers, whether it’s your first time going to do an activity outdoors or if the outdoors are already like a second home to you.”

Bever’s target audience is made up of two key segments. There are legacy customers, who have been coming to Bever for decades. But Bever has also seen an influx of new customers due to growing interest in embracing the outdoors as a part of daily life.

“We respond to this trend with our personalized campaigns, both online and offline,” says Yolanda.

Finding the added value of retargeting ads

To find the partner that would deliver the best Return on Ad Spend, Bever performed tests with Criteo and other retargeting partners.

“We tested with various other retargeting partners, but the best results were obtained with Criteo,” says Yolanda.

From there, Bever had another question: “What is the added value of retargeting ads on our online results?”.

“We were focusing on return on ad spend, but it doesn’t give the insights which are needed to determine the effectiveness of our retargeting efforts, and the amount of budget we should dedicate to running retargeting campaigns,” says Yolanda.

That’s why Bever did the incrementality test with Criteo. A 50/50 cookie split was done to test sales between one group who saw Criteo ads, and one group that didn’t see the ads. They saw an uplift in revenue per user.

Thanks to the incrementality test, Bever is sure that their marketing euros are being used for a tactic that has a real and proven impact.

“The incrementality test helped us understand the effectiveness of retargeting ads,” says Yolanda. “Which ultimately helped us with gaining more budget to invest in retargeting ads.”

Ready to maximize the return on your ad spend? Get started with Criteo.