The Brand
Established in 1838, David Jones is Australia’s oldest and most iconic department store, offering a premium selection of local and international brands across fashion, beauty, home, and more. With 39 stores nationwide and a robust ecommerce presence, David Jones delivers seamless, high-quality shopping experiences both in-store and online.
Managing such a complex ecommerce ecosystem requires a stable platform that blends a combination of technology, streamlined processes, and strong cross-functional collaboration to maintain efficiency and deliver a seamless customer experience. Until recently, that foundation was missing.
The Challenges
David Jones faced a range of challenges that were holding back their online performance—from limited SKU visibility and excessive filter use to a high volume of disapprovals in Google Merchant Center (GMC). The previous platform was slow, clunky, and overly complex, with minimal support and poor integration with the Google ecosystem. With only basic feed attributes in play and little ability to self-serve, the team was stuck relying on vendors for updates, making agility and optimization nearly impossible.
The Solution
David Jones partnered with Athos Commerce to unlock the full potential of their product feeds and significantly elevate campaign performance with Intelligent Reach solutions. By removing restrictive filters inherited from their previous provider, over 60% of SKUs were instantly reactivated, opening the door to new revenue opportunities. This optimisation led to increased sales, reduced advertising costs, and a substantial drop in Google Merchant Centre disapprovals. Beyond the performance gains, the partnership also freed up valuable time for the in-house team, driving greater efficiency and allowing them to focus on strategic growth.
Alex Carter
The Results
David Jones adopted Athos Commerce’s Managed Services, along with key Intelligent Reach modules including Unlimited Feeds, the Google Ads Data Connector, and the Experiments module. The results were immediate performance improvements across their digital channels.
🎯Expanded Platform Capabilities: After onboarding, David Jones quickly took advantage of the Unlimited Feeds module to scale their digital reach across multiple channels. This allowed the team to effortlessly activate and optimize additional product feeds for platforms like Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, and Impact, without needing to rely on internal resources. By tailoring and optimizing product data for each channel’s unique requirements and audience behaviors, David Jones was able to drive more consistent performance and relevance across the funnel. The flexibility and speed of feed deployment empowered their team to test, adapt, and grow their omnichannel presence with ease.
🎯Experiments: The Experiments module enabled David Jones to test and validate changes to product titles, descriptions, and attributes in a controlled and data-driven way. This experimentation capability allowed the team to identify what resonates best with customers across Google Shopping and other paid media platforms. For example, testing keyword-rich product titles helped improve visibility for high-intent search queries, while refining attributes like color or category boosted relevance and click-through rates.
By continuously optimizing based on real-time performance insights, David Jones has improved ad efficiency, increased product discoverability, and ultimately strengthened their overall ecommerce presence.
Below are results of a 30-day experiment that was carried out in April.
There was a 66% uplift in performance of the test group compared to the control group. With results throughout the 30 days showing an overwhelmingly positive impact, the winning variation was locked in with a scheduled rule set to continue through Mother’s Day to maximize seasonal performance.
🎯Campaign Management Improvements: A significant change involved shifting campaign management from product type to custom labels, leading to a massive performance lift and allowing for regular product type optimization without impacting campaign structure.
🎯Addressing Challenges and Unlocking Benefits: Before integrating with the Intelligent Reach platform, challenges included limited SKU visibility and a disconnect with the Google ecosystem. The lack of custom tags was also a major limitation, requiring significant investment and technical processes to overcome.
🎯Local Support and Issue Handling: The Intelligent Reach platform offers a user-friendly dashboard backed by exceptional local support, delivering faster response times than David Jones’ previous provider. Regular newsletters and updates keep them informed about new features and platform improvements. Since onboarding 12 months ago with Athos Commerce, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive, with just one instance of a pricing mismatch. The Athos Commerce team monitors the feeds daily and proactively resolves issues before they can impact performance.
🎯Collaboration and Positive Relationships: The integration with Athos Commerce fostered collaboration between all parties (The David Jones team, Resolution Agency, and Athos Commerce), resulting in improved communication, optimization strategies, and experimentation with upcoming campaigns.
Gazal Arora
As part of their optimization efforts, Athos Commerce and Resolution worked together to activate Merchant Sponsored Shopping (MSS) campaigns, focusing on improved feed performance and visibility and the results showed a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 23x.
This means that for every $1 invested in the campaign, David Jones saw a return of $23 in revenue, demonstrating the power of a well-structured feed and targeted product discovery strategy.
Overall, David Jones saw significant year-over-year improvements in paid digital campaigns, with investment increasing by 97% and resulting in an impressive 110% uplift in revenue. Despite nearly doubling spend, ROAS improved by 6%, reflecting more efficient and effective campaign execution.
This strategic use of MSS campaigns enabled budget expansion specifically focused on revenue growth without compromising ROAS. This empowered David Jones to scale investment confidently while maintaining efficiency.
The success of the campaign underscores the value of clean, optimized product data, combined with a strong campaign strategy and smart technology enablement.
Through our collaboration with Athos Commerce, we have conducted essential A/B testing during key seasonal events, such as the mid-season sale, after payday sales, and Mother’s Day. These initiatives have not only driven stronger performance but also provided valuable insights that will guide our strategies for critical periods in FY26—including Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM)—which are vital for achieving our aggressive revenue goals.
We look forward to strengthening our partnership as we move into FY26, leveraging their expertise to optimize our product feed and successfully achieve our business outcomes.
Jamie Foster
Next Steps
Looking ahead, David Jones is gearing up for the next phase of innovation. Plans include upgrading the source feed and transitioning to faster and more reliable API-based connections. By enabling the Google Content API and implementing Google Local Inventory, they’ll be able to deliver even more accurate, real-time product data—both online and in-store.
On top of that, accelerating A/B testing capabilities within the platform will unlock smarter optimisation, helping the team fine-tune performance and drive even stronger results. With these future-focused enhancements, David Jones is set to take their ecommerce experience to the next level.
Partner with Athos Commerce to transform your ecommerce store. With proven tools and expertise in search and merchandising, we empower businesses to achieve measurable growth. Contact us today to start optimizing your store for success.
