.svg)
.svg)
How a premium boot brand mapped the customer journey and boosted revenue and fewer returns
Results
Overview
A fast-growing men’s boot brand was attracting more shoppers than ever—but struggling to convert them. Despite a 25% increase in site traffic, conversion rates lagged the category average, cart abandonment was high, and quality concerns were surfacing via wholesale returns. Starlight was brought in to map the full customer journey and uncover the friction.
Challenge
Conversion rates held at just 1.8%—well below the 2.8% benchmark—while repeat purchases and wholesale return rates signaled deeper issues: inconsistent quality, unclear sizing, and a subpar checkout experience. The brand needed a full-funnel view of its customer journey across both direct and wholesale channels to prioritize improvements that would drive growth.
Solutions & Insights
Starlight integrated social listening, web analytics, shopper interviews, and wholesale partner audits to uncover key friction points. We found sizing confusion drove 45% of cart abandonments and 32% of returns. Checkout flow dropped 38% at the payment step. And an 8% wholesale return rate pointed to product-quality lapses. We mapped the end-to-end journey alongside priority actions to take.
Our recommendations to them prioritized three areas: improving fit confidence with a 3D sizing guide and video demos, streamlining checkout with guest options and digital wallets, and implementing tighter QC protocols for wholesale shipments. Adoption was swift: a cross-functional task force implemented 90% of recommendations within two sprints.
The impact: Online conversion rose from 1.8% to 2.7%, adding $2.3M in revenue in six months. Wholesale return rates dropped 3.5 points, saving $180K in operational costs—and the brand gained a unified, actionable view of its customer experience.
“Chris and Starlight uncovered pain points we didn’t know we had—and helped us focus efforts. Their journey mapping gave us a clear, actionable plan of action and they were relentless about the specific things we should prioritize.”
— Director of Digital Experience, Confidential Brand
Discover how we turn complex data into clear decisions.
More Case Studies
You shouldn’t have to make important business decisions blind
