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Url: surfdeal.ch
Type: E-commerce (Shopware 6)
Business Model: B2C
Industry: Watersports
Country: Switzerland + Europe

Surfdeal increases the amount of sales by 272% in the first year after we took over the account.

The Challenge

In 2018, Surfdeal was a two-year-old webshop with around 100 products and a small offline store. A freelancer had set up a Google Ads account, but it underperformed. The shop generated a modest five-digit revenue, insufficient to cover costs. Competing in a niche dominated by long-established retailers proved challenging. The client, aiming to grow and scale into one of the leading shops in the niche, found us online and handed over the account.

Over the past year, e-commerce has evolved significantly. Together with the client, we navigated new challenges: the rise of D2C brands bypassing middlemen, competition from powerful marketplaces, and a customer shift toward mobile and social media.

The Approach

Wolf+Bär restructured the Google Ads account, implementing search, shopping, remarketing, and P-Max campaigns on a highly segmented level. We calculated profit margins with the client to set ROI targets and continuously optimized ad spend for maximum ROAS, dynamically increasing budgets based on performance.

To support growth, we connected supplier APIs to the webshop for dropshipping and integrated the product feeds into Google Merchant Centre, expanding the catalog from 100 to over 100,000 products. We also supported the migration from WooCommerce to Shopware 6 for scalability.

Once profitability was stable, we launched social media push marketing. After the client introduced their own brand, we implemented targeted measures to promote it, leading to significant sales growth. The webshop now generates seven-digit revenue, with stable margins and a large share of sales from the client’s private-label products.

What's next

Surfdeal aims to remain a leading retailer in its niche and a go-to destination for consumers seeking watersports gear. Wolf+Bär's digital marketing continues to be a key tool in staying competitive and profitable, even against aggressive online competition from large retailers like Decathlon and dominant marketplaces.