How Popov Leather grew net revenue by 180% with Fondue

About

In 2013, Ryan Popoff purchased a leatherworking kit and some scrap leather to try crafting his own perfect wallet. Over a decade later, he runs Popov Leather: a small workshop based in Canada and staffed entirely by local artisans. Every single product Popov offers — from its flagship wallets and belts to journals and guitar straps — is made to order and handcrafted from scratch to last a lifetime. 

As countless DTC brands had to reevaluate their strategies in the midst of inflation, Popov partnered with Fondue to drive revenue while reducing reliance on coupons, which ate at profit margins. 

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“Since using Fondue, our overall discounting percentage is at 9% instead of 20%. We love that CashBack lets us offer greater rewards through store credit to incentivize even more future purchases.” - Ryan Popoff, Co-Founder & CEO of Popov Leather

Challenge

Discounts can incentivize signups — but at the cost of your net revenue

While Popov Leather enjoyed steady year-over-year growth, the brand had to navigate the economic reality of inflation and its impact on small businesses. The Popov team specifically hoped to achieve two goals to continue scaling: 

1. Growing Popov’s email and SMS signups
2. Reducing reliance on coupon codes to incentivize purchases

However, investing the time and cash to experiment on these fronts could mean a hit to their net revenue. These two objectives had to fall on the backburner — until Ryan Popoff, Co-Founder & CEO of Popov, reached out to his network for advice. Someone pointed Ryan to Fondue, and he was thrilled to see a potential one-stop solution to both of his objectives. 

“I was attracted to the prospect of not ‘giving away’ that initial slice of revenue through discount codes. Instead of every single customer taking a percentage off upfront, we use Fondue to put together a CashBack offer that they can redeem post-purchase.” 

Solution

CashBack helps brands offer larger incentives at zero extra cost

After deciding to trial Fondue, the Popov team ran an A/B test: Half of all website visitors saw the brand’s original 10% discount offer, while the other half saw a new offer for 20% CashBack. Ryan highlights how seamlessly the test and Fondue’s tech ran through Popov’s SMS and email campaigns, making it the ideal trial run. As for the results, he tells us: 

“After running that original test with Fondue, we quickly saw a dramatic lift across all metrics: newsletter signups, SMS signups, and conversion rates.” 

How did CashBack generate those numbers? It all came down to three realities of shopper psychology and profit per purchase: 

1. When Popov offered coupon codes, every upfront discount application meant a new list signup or conversion — but it also ate into the profit margin of that purchase. 

2. In comparison, when Popov offered CashBack (which is redeemed post-purchase), not every customer would actually claim their CashBack. 

3. As a result, Popov could reinvest those savings into offering even higher-value CashBack (i.e., 20% CashBack instead of just 10% off), which is even more likely to capture signups and inspire purchases. 

The results were ultimately so impressive, Popov decided to end the test period early and fully make the switch to Fondue. In fact, the team decided to swap out all of their existing offers in favor of the 20% CashBack incentive. Given the performance, Ryan knew it just made sense.

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Results

Fondue dramatically boosts Popov’s metrics: from CVR to net revenue

Since converting all of their offers to CashBack, the team at Popov has seen impressive results, including: 

• 161% increase in purchases
• 180% increase in net revenue
• 58% increase in conversion rate

With these numbers, Ryan and his team know they can rely on CashBack to convert new customers and to keep the revenue coming in — without having to place steep discounts on their high-value, handcrafted leather products. 

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