Going all in with online strategy

Overstock Garden is a Belgian outdoor furniture retailer. The in-store experience and the possibility to browse, test and ask for advice directly are important for Overstock Garden. In March 2020, we faced the challenge of transforming the strategy to 100% online-focused. And while most advertisers started reducing their media budgets since the beginning of the crisis, Overstock Garden invested even more, booking 329% growth in online revenue.

case-overstock-table3-5e8605f14868f.jpeg

Case and results in a nutshell

  • We reacted to changing circumstances in a flexible way that helped us create new opportunities and stimulate growth within 16 days
  • We transformed our content strategy to make it relevant to clients in new circumstances and invested a lot more budget in online communication.
  • We put more than 18 garden furniture specialists from the shops to work in a 7/7 online chat service and an online call center.
  • We adapted the delivery service: cost-free and respecting safety regulations.
  • We saw 329% growth in online revenue compared to the same period last year

Reframing our online strategy for Overstock Garden is a great example of how to successfully manage the unexpected change on both budgeting and communication level. Adapting is crucial not only to keep your head above water - this case proves that boosting the revenue is very realistic, too. 

case-overstock-graph-5e86088ad6391.png

Reacting to the closure of physical shops by maximizing the online communication budgets and going all-in for online service, brought an impressive growth in revenue.

At first, shops were only announced to close in the weekends (March 13), which triggered the need for first adaptations. For us, it meant testing how online marketing could ‘fill in’ the gap created during closing by investing additional budgets. By the time physical shops had to close completely (March 18), we decided to make a full shift towards online strategy, which consisted of maximizing the online advertising budgets (augmented 2,7 times) and restructuring the content plan (no more focus on physical shopping). It took two weeks of close observations, brainstorms and agile cooperation with the client to bring about the change.

“Circumstances gave our digital strategy a significant push. We needed to urgently adapt and ‘digitalize’ all our offline know-how and expertise. And since our service stems from the principle of offering personal advice, we didn’t want any compromises. Next to reinforcing our chat services, we also managed to set up an online call center within one week.”

Kenneth Tallir

E-Commerce & Digital Marketing Manager

Boosting online services


To maximally bridge the lack of offline experience, we boosted the existing online services by turning the website and Facebook Messenger chats into a 7/7 helpdesk, available from 10:00 to 20:00. We rolled out a set of assets that encouraged the customers to interact with Overstock Garden. Advisors can also be reached via phone and email. On top of that, we launched free home delivery.

The decision to invest more budget in media was going against the general trend: while most advertisers were diminishing their budgets, we decided to maximize them. 

The results achieved within the first 20 days have confirmed the relevance of online service and e-commerce; a trend boosted by the crisis will most likely continue to grow in the future. Why? It didn’t only attract the regular and sporadic online buyers, but also activated a whole new group of online shoppers, who up until now preferred the offline experience. This is the moment to convince them about the equal validity of e-commerce.