The Brand

River Island is a UK-based fashion retailer known for trend-led apparel and accessories for women, men and youth. The brand operates hundreds of stores and a strong ecommerce presence, and relies on online performance alongside its high-street estate.

Effective use of digital channels and data-driven merchandising is critical for the business to maintain growth and customer engagement in a competitive fast-fashion market.  

The Challenge

Before engaging with Athos Commerce, River Island had no way to quickly launch product listings on offsite channels such as Google Shopping. Specific obstacles included:

• Lack of capability to build a high-quality product data feed that met channel requirements.
  
• Limited insight into product-level KPIs for offsite campaigns.
  
• Missed opportunities in search-driven selling due to absence of feed infrastructure.

These gaps restricted their ability to exploit paid search and shopping channels during peak trading periods.

The Solution

Athos Commerce implemented a streamlined product feed build-and-optimisation process for River Island to meet channel specifications and to enable rapid launch. Core elements:

• Creation of a fully optimised product–data feed for Google Shopping to maximise product visibility.
  
• Deployment of product-level insights and item-level bidding control to optimise relevance, performance and margin.
  
• Support for major trading periods via feed and bidding readiness, enabling better exposure during high-volume windows.

With Athos Commerce in place, River Island achieved faster time-to-market for new products and improved conversion potential on offsite channels.   

The Results

The feed optimisation and channel activation delivered immediate positive outcomes:

• Clicks rose by 35%, showing better visibility and engagement.
  
• Orders grew by 42%, demonstrating improved conversion from the feed launch.
  
• Revenue increased by 49%, reflecting the combined effect of increased exposure and better matching of product to intent.

These gains highlight that the improved product feed and bidding controls delivered tangible business value for River Island.

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.