Klient:
case study
Family business successfully expands clientele, launches new products and celebrates 30 years of existence
631 %
that's how much e-shop sales grew month-on-month
CZK 1.2 million
of sales in one month
1 product
made campaigns 3 times more effective
their story
HYDRAULIC HOSES AND HAND-STITCHED LEATHER GOODS
Custom design, installation, service and advice on hydraulic hoses. Isn’t that related to leather manufacturing? Only at first glance. In 1992, Martin and Roman Olshin’s father founded HAPS s.r.o., a company focused specifically on hydraulic lines. At that time, however, Roman Olšina was already negotiating with the Canadian owner of the Wildskin brand to import their leather products to the then booming Czechoslovak market.
The word was given and after a short time Wildskin products started to be produced directly in Odry near Nový Jičín. The brand quickly established itself on the Czech market thanks to its quality, wide assortment, pro-customer approach and very pleasant prices. After a relatively short period of time, it eventually took over the position of the “driving force” of HAPS business activities.
For a long time, Roman and his brother Martin, who joined later, focused mainly on the B2B, i.e. wholesale sector. The core of their clients were, and still are, mainly fashion stores or companies selling goods to other customers. Often these are very well-known and also very expensive brands, for which you would be quite surprised that Wildskin produces their products. Wholesale buyers also include institutions such as municipal or state police, customs or fire departments.
However, the Olshin brothers were aware that the loss of even one large client could cause the company considerable difficulties in sales. That is why they wanted to expand their business towards end customers.
their goal
MORE EMPHASIS ON RETAIL, DIVERSIFICATION OF BUSINESS
Four Bros’ cooperation with Wildskin dates back to 2019 and was primarily aimed at increasing the volume of retail orders, which had been rather neglected until then, and thus fully establishing itself in this part of the market.
However, the wholesale sector was not left aside, which the company continues to focus on – the plan was to approach additional clients. Last but not least, the Olshin brothers also wanted to improve their financial situation, which had been stagnating or even deteriorating for the last few years before the start of the cooperation.
our solution
NEW PRICES, PERFORMANCE CAMPAIGNS, WIDER OFFER
Wildskin products were not unknown to us even before we started working together. We and our parents have been using them to our full satisfaction for decades. We appreciate their quality and design, and the level of service has also appealed to us. If we needed to adjust the length of a belt, for example, the company was very helpful and very quick.
From the beginning, we knew that helping the Olshin brothers with their business made real sense and we were eager to get to work.
1
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AND NEW PRICING
The first thing we focused on by mutual agreement was an analysis of the state of the company’s finances. After checking the financial statements for the last 5 years, we soon discovered that the margin was gradually decreasing and with it the profit.
This was mainly due to the increasing pressure from wholesale customers for lower prices, which is quite common not only in this business. So the owners of the company actually sold products with lower margins, even though it was less and less profitable for them.
So the first thing that came up was a new price setting. Together, we carefully calculated everything so that the goods would remain attractive for wholesale customers, but at the same time bring Wildskin the required profit.
Along with this step, we also devised a tactic to communicate the price increase to our customers. We agreed with the Olshin brothers that we would inform our clients not in bulk, but one by one. This will give us time and space to address any problems. We then tried to contact smaller companies first, whose possible outage would not cause Wildskin any serious problems.
This method proved successful in the end. Almost all of the companies contacted accepted the new wholesale prices without difficulty and with understanding. On further financial analysis the following year, the figures were much more optimistic.
2
PERFORMANCE CAMPAIGNS AIMED AT RETAIL
After all the wholesale issues were resolved, we also turned our efforts in the retail direction. Since end customers had been a very small part of Wildskin’s clientele up to that point, there was a lot of potential here.
After a lot of calculations, preparation and setting up KPIs, we launched performance campaigns through Google Ads and Sklik. We also paid attention to Facebook and Instagram. We promoted not only specific products, but also the Wildskin brand as a whole.
However, after evaluating the first results, we found that the performance of these campaigns fell short of expectations. This was mainly due to the fact that the brand had not built a very strong brand among its retail clientele. In other words, its awareness was not high enough to be able to reach a wider range of shoppers. So we temporarily toned down the campaigns and moved them into a maintenance phase.
3
EXPANSION OF THE OFFER
To attract the attention of more shoppers, it was also necessary to enrich the offer with new products. First of all, we recommended the Olshin brothers to put together several kinds of gift sets for women and men. Practically put together sets always consist of several products that are otherwise offered separately. Packing them in a designer cardboard box makes them an exclusive gift for Christmas or birthdays, for example.
This was a step in the right direction and customers immediately showed interest in the sets. In addition, the kits also fitted perfectly into the campaigns, as they increased the average order value and thus the effectiveness of the ads.
4
DESIGNING A PRODUCT THAT IS MISSING ON THE MARKET
Along with that, we started working on a completely new product, which was missing on the market until then. At the same time, we saw quite extraordinary potential in it. Since we have been interested in hunting for many years, we knew that there was a great demand for seals, which hunters used to carry in ordinary bags or in their pockets.
We developed the product from scratch in collaboration with Wildskin. We designed everything, had the first prototypes made and tested them straight away. Based on our personal knowledge, we further improved the product, making us 100% sure that it was indeed fully functional. At the same time, after many calculations and analyses, we priced the product. We then tactically timed its launch for the turn of October and November, when the main hunting season starts.
This time we did not hit the centre of the imaginary target with one bullet, but with the whole magazine. Already in mid-November we had to stop the performance campaigns promoting this novelty. The number of orders was growing at such a dizzying pace that the workshop in Odry was no longer able to keep up with production and the order processing was in danger of stopping altogether. In terms of numbers, this meant a month-on-month increase in e-shop sales from around CZK 190,000 to more than CZK 1.2 million.
It fully demonstrated that we had managed to discover a hole in the market that we were happy to fill. The advertising campaigns were also successful, with their PNO dropping to a fantastic 13%. While in most cases the effectiveness of campaigns tends to decrease with sales volume, here it was the opposite.
common success
The mutual trust combined with our ability to cover marketing comprehensively and to the last detail is fully reflected in the results. Wildskin has been successful in attracting new retail and wholesale clients and is profiting from its products.
As the company has decided to continue to specialize primarily as a supplier to wholesale customers, we have temporarily curtailed our cooperation by agreement. However, the future remains open. We certainly have plenty of ideas on what to do and how to do it.
Roman Olšina, owner & founder
The brothers and sisters from 4Bros demonstrated a very understanding and proactive approach from our first meeting, addressing the optimization of our existing e-shop, its restructuring, identifying and developing new products, documenting them with photographs, and, last but not least, helping with the pricing of all our products. Some of the recommended new items immediately became bestsellers, driving the overall sales of the e-shop. Their perspective, experience, creativity, individual approach, ability to understand the client’s mindset and needs, along with their willingness to engage both online and in person, are qualities you don’t encounter every day.
