Shop and Beyond
207% order growth. 11x ROAS. 28% lower CAC. In 12 months
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SUMMARY
Shop and Beyond is a Lebanese DTC fragrance brand competing on affordability without compromising quality. Early growth was strong. Then acquisition costs climbed, return rates drifted upward, and ROAS collapsed to 1.6x. Morph rebuilt the acquisition, conversion, and retention system. Twelve months later, orders had grown 207%, ROAS reached 17.6x, and acquisition cost fell 28%
The Plateau
Orders were not scaling with ad spend. At a 1.6x ROAS and 18% return rate, the brand was operating near break-even on paid acquisition. More budget was not the answer. The economics were broken at the structural level.
Structural Diagnosis
The fragrance DTC category has specific economics that were not being managed. Repeat purchase cadence is high if triggered correctly, but the brand had no retention infrastructure. A product return rate of 18% indicated a gap between ad creative and product delivery expectations, a common DTC fragrance problem when aspirational ad creative oversells and product experience undersells. Checkout friction was compounding the conversion problem on a website not built for mobile-first purchase behaviour.
–Acquisition was broad-reach without intent segmentation, driving high traffic and low conversion
–No lifecycle email or SMS flows meant first purchases had no repeat purchase prompt
–18% return rate signalled creative-to-product messaging misalignment, not product quality issues
–Checkout flow was not optimised for mobile, where the majority of DTC fragrance purchases originate
–No cart recovery mechanism to recapture high-intent abandoned sessions
What Changed
Acquisition
Campaigns restructured around purchase-intent segmentation rather than broad reach
Creative strategy aligned to realistic product outcomes, closing the expectation gap driving returns
Media buying optimised for CAC efficiency with clear ROAS thresholds per audience segment
Conversion
Website navigation rebuilt end-to-end with mobile checkout as the primary experience
Cart abandonment recovery flows introduced at key drop-off points
Trust signals integrated throughout: reviews, guarantees, and fragrance descriptor clarity
Conversion
Post-purchase email sequence introduced to drive repeat purchase within the first 30 days
Retargeting flows built for lapsed customers segmented by purchase history and return behaviour
Results at a Glance
Metric
Result
Order growth YoY (2023 to 2024)
+207%
ROAS (1.6x baseline to peak)
17.6x
Customer acquisition cost reduction
-28%
Product return rate (baseline — diagnostic signal)
18%
Returning customer rate improvement
+22.2%
Ad spend as percentage of total revenue
6.7%
Total orders across both years
6,280
INTERNAL — Metrics Source Log (not for web display)
Metric
Source
Date Range
Calculation Note
Order growth +207%
Platform order data
2023 vs 2024 full year
Direct year-on-year comparison from Shopify/platform reporting
ROAS 17.6x
Ad platform + revenue data
2024 campaign period
Revenue attributed to paid / total paid spend in period
CAC -28%
Ad platform + orders
2023 baseline vs 2024
Total spend / orders in each year
Returning customer rate +22.2%
Platform data
2023 vs 2024
Returning customer % as reported by platform — distinct from product return rate (18% baseline, a cost/creative issue flagged separately)
Ad spend 6.7% of revenue
Platform + financials
2024 full year
Total ad spend / total reported revenue
Strategic Takeaway
In DTC fragrance, the return rate is the diagnostic signal most brands ignore. It surfaces the gap between what the ad promises and what the product delivers. Closing that gap through creative honesty improved both returns and CAC simultaneously, because buyers acquired on realistic expectations convert better and churn less. The acquisition system improvement was real, but retention mechanics turning first buyers into repeat buyers is what made the economics sustainable at scale.
How long did it take to see results?
Meaningful performance improvement appeared within the first 90-day cycle. The full 207% order growth was measured across the 12-month engagement period.
The first cycle focused on conversion system rebuilding and acquisition restructuring. ROAS improvement was visible within the first 60 days of campaign activation. Retention mechanics compounded the results over the following two cycles.
Was the improvement primarily from ads or from CRO?
Both were essential and neither would have produced this result in isolation. ROAS at 17.6x reflects a conversion system, not just media buying efficiency.
Reducing CAC requires improving both the quality of traffic arriving and the rate at which that traffic converts. The acquisition restructure improved traffic quality. The website rebuild and cart recovery improved conversion. The retention layer improved LTV. All three operated together.
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