How an Ecommerce Activewear Brand is Growing with AdRoll’s Shopify Integration

Yoga is about more than downward-facing dog and triangle pose. It’s a lifestyle focused on mental health, holding space for oneself and others, and a harmony between the outer world and the inner world.

I founded Yoga Democracy six years ago as a completely sustainable activewear brand focused on giving back and creating an inclusive community. Our business philosophy rests on supporting artists and bringing manufacturing and sustainability back to America. We manufacture everything under one roof, and our factory is a zero-waste facility. 

Our fabrics are made from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles and fishing nets, and we use a no-water dyeing process that cuts down on waste. Yoga Democracy also donates clothing to local shelters and is a member of 1% for the Planet. The company contributes one percent of our gross sales every year to non-profit organizations making a difference in communities around the world. Yoga Democracy is a win-win for people and the environment.

From Humble Beginnings

In the early days, we grew Yoga Democracy through personal interactions, word of mouth, and in-store community events. It was a grassroots approach that reflected our values, and when I sat down with a customer as our founder and CEO, it was easy to tell our brand story and share my excitement with others.

Beyond that first step, however, things dropped off our radar. We didn't even have a website, much less a cohesive brand awareness strategy to reach and retain customers. Our only contact with existing customers was email, so we couldn't track and hold on to them across the web. And we could only go so far with recurring grassroots events in brick-and-mortar shops. 

We had an excellent product and a loyal community of users who shared our passion for yoga and sustainability, but we knew we had to invest in digital marketing to attain our next level of growth.

We built a website and I plunged into the ecommerce world, teaching myself everything I could. I learned that the best way to gain and grow website traffic was to entice customers who had already visited your website or purchased products to come back. 

I discovered that people continue to see ads for a product for months after they visit a website due to a behavioral type of advertising that serves people ads based on their previous online actions. I thought this method, known as retargeting, would be the best way to grow Yoga Democracy. I began to dissect the ad activity I saw online and think about having our customers see our products again.

I started to explore platforms that created and managed ads and also integrated with social networks. That's how I discovered AdRoll. After talking to some other AdRoll customers, seeing how user friendly the platform was, and having the opportunity to expand our footprint beyond ads in the future, I decided to give it a try. Our first campaigns succeeded beyond our expectations, and we've never looked back. 

Seamless Shopify Integration

We'd gone through several iterations of our website, building successive versions on WordPress and Square eCommerce because they were the ones I saw advertised most. When I came across Shopify, I was impressed by how well it was built and the sheer number of integrations it facilitated. If we wanted to add a feature or functionality to our website, we could do it with minimal barriers.

Once we built our Shopify store, we worked to integrate the apps that we wanted to take advantage of and AdRoll was at the top of the list. For somebody who’s not very tech-savvy, AdRoll’s Shopify integration was extremely easy to implement. With just a few clicks, we connected our Shopify site to AdRoll and unlocked immediate benefits.

With the integration, our product feed was automatically imported to generate dynamic ads with dozens of template options. AdRoll also analyzed our historical store trends and shopper behavior to personalize campaign setup and auto-optimize performance. 

Personalized Experiences with Top Performing Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads have always been our best performers. One of the main reasons we like AdRoll is their ability to help us create high-quality, interactive ads that attract a lot of attention, and get those ads seen across the internet. Because we have so many products on our website, it’s important to show the right products that someone would be interested in. One of the best things about AdRoll's Shopify integration is that their product recommendations engine automatically synchronizes our product feed, which allows us to build dynamic ads that feature personalized recommendations for no extra charge.

Another way we create personalized experiences for our customers is through AdRoll’s AI-driven product recommendations. Instead of seeing random products when visitors come back to our e-commerce site, they see relevant recommendations based on their past purchases, previously viewed products, and even highly rated products that other customers love. The items we feature on our product carousel are the items that customers purchase more of—and it’s often what attracts them to our website in the first place.

We upload our images and product information to Shopify, and AdRoll converts everything into visually arresting ads that consistently rank among our top performers. You don't have to be tech-savvy or wrap your head around the process. AdRoll does most of the work for you. 

Enhanced Conversion Tracking

Another area where we’ve seen success is customer segmentation through enhanced conversion tracking. We can separate audiences based on what we want them to see or even what we don't want them to see. Let me give you a few examples. 

We run campaigns that retarget high-intention consumers who abandon their shopping carts without making a purchase. We also go after audiences who view specific products or pages on our website, making sure we retarget them with those product recommendations. These are two ways of ensuring customers see what we want them to see. 

We also use enhanced conversion tracking to exclude some of our customers from ads and emails. For example, if you bought a pair of leggings at full price last week, and we discounted/discontinued them today, you won't see an ad or receive an email about the offer because that might devalue the product or our brand. Automatic accessibility to these targetable audiences through the Shopify integration has been a huge enabler for creating a cohesive and delightful experience across the entire customer journey. 

Stellar Results with an Intuitive UI

AdRoll generates more than 5% of our website impressions, and our average cost per acquisition is next to nothing. We've seen a tremendous return on our AdRoll spend with a 100% uptick in conversions and a 50% decrease in our cost per acquisition (CPA) in the first month of 2021. The platform has driven the vast majority of our new customer acquisition since we began our partnership four-and-a-half years ago, and about 19% of our overall revenue can be attributed to AdRoll. 

We’ve had a lot of success, and that’s even without all of AdRoll’s available resources. AdRoll is so easy to use that I run the campaigns myself, without an account manager or relying on AdRoll's customer success team. The dashboards are clear and intuitive so I can create ads and plan campaigns in no time, and then track results and tweak specific elements as necessary. The platform has automated the bulk of our marketing activities and given me impactful and actionable insights into customer behavior through their attribution dashboard. 

AdRoll continues to innovate beyond their retargeting roots by rolling out exciting new features. Most recently, they introduced a Cart Recovery solution which targets shoppers with both ads and email across the web. As Yoga Democracy continues to grow, it’s refreshing to have a partner that grows with us.

Staying True to Our Roots

When you bootstrap a company, labor is your lowest cost because you’re doing everything yourself. That was the case when I started Yoga Democracy. But as you build your business, you learn to focus your time and energy on growth, hiring people, and automating processes to handle everything else. Several years into the business, I know how to leverage partners like AdRoll and where we can focus our efforts to best spread our message.

Now, Yoga Democracy attracts customers and builds lasting and meaningful relationships with our global community. By doing so, we continue to serve the company vision to create high-quality, sustainable garments that support people, the planet, and all of the aspects of the yoga lifestyle.