Case Study E-commerce

Reducing Acquisition Cost and Improving
Customer Value for an E-commerce Retailer

How a growing UK e-commerce business reduced paid acquisition cost by 39%, improved returning customer rates, and built the performance visibility that transformed how its leadership team managed growth investment.

Overview

The Brief

A UK-based e-commerce retailer had grown steadily through paid acquisition channels but had reached a point where the economics of that growth were under pressure. Customer acquisition costs were rising, average order values were not keeping pace, and a significant proportion of acquired customers were not returning.

The business was investing heavily in paid search and paid social but had limited visibility over which campaigns were generating customers who returned to purchase again versus one-time buyers who eroded acquisition profitability.

Better Stronger was engaged to review the full acquisition system, improve the commercial quality of customer acquisition, and build the performance infrastructure needed to make better investment decisions across paid channels.

SectorE-commerce Retail

MarketUK Direct-to-Consumer

EngagementPerformance Review and Enhancement Program

Channels reviewedPaid search, paid social, email, organic

TimelineCommercial improvement within 90 days

The Challenge

Three Commercial Pressures on Acquisition Economics

The core challenge was not generating traffic or initial purchases. It was the commercial quality of the customers being acquired and the inability to measure or improve that quality systematically.

Rising paid acquisition costs: CPC and CPM costs across paid channels had increased significantly. The business was paying more to reach the same audiences without a corresponding improvement in customer quality or lifetime value.

Poor customer retention: A high proportion of newly acquired customers did not return after their first purchase. The acquisition investment was not generating the long-term customer relationships that would justify the cost.

No performance visibility: Reporting was based on platform-native metrics: ROAS, clicks, and conversion rates at session level. There was no view of customer lifetime value, retention by acquisition channel, or the true commercial return on acquisition investment.

Better Stronger's Contribution

A Four-Phase Commercial Acquisition Improvement

Phase 01

Acquisition Review

A full performance review across all paid acquisition channels, including campaign structure, audience targeting, creative performance, and landing page conversion rates. This established which channels and campaigns were generating the most commercially valuable customers.

Phase 02

ii.

Customer Value Segmentation

An analysis of existing customer data to identify the acquisition sources, product categories, and customer behaviours most strongly associated with repeat purchase and higher lifetime value. This informed a fundamental shift in how acquisition investment was targeted.

Phase 03

iii.

Campaign and Conversion Restructure

Campaigns were restructured around customer value signals rather than volume metrics. Landing pages and post-purchase flows were optimised to improve the customer experience and increase the probability of a second purchase.

Phase 04

iv.

Commercial Performance Reporting

A reporting framework was introduced covering customer acquisition cost by channel, revenue per acquisition, retention rate by cohort, and estimated customer lifetime value. This gave the leadership team the commercial visibility to make significantly better allocation decisions.

Results and Impact

Acquisition Cost Down 39% and Returning Customer Rate Up 2.4x

The programme produced improvements across all three primary commercial metrics: acquisition cost, customer retention, and revenue per acquired customer. By focusing investment on the acquisition activity generating the most commercially valuable customers, the business improved returns without increasing spend.

The reporting infrastructure introduced during the engagement changed how the leadership team managed growth investment. Monthly commercial reviews replaced platform reporting as the primary decision-making tool, and investment allocation became evidence-based rather than intuition-led.

Paid acquisition cost per customer-39%

Returning customer rate+2.4x

Revenue per acquisition+52%

Customer lifetime value (cohort)+38%

"We were generating plenty of customers. The problem was the economics. Better Stronger helped us understand which acquisition activity was actually building the business and which was just generating one-time transactions. That distinction changed everything."

Founder, UK E-commerce Retailer

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