Premium FootwearRecovered from a post-COVID revenue drop. A single test added €232,500/month. 25.3× ROI on the program.
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Partner since 2020
The short version
Giesswein is a €100M+ annual revenue premium wool shoe brand that experienced a significant revenue drop after the post-COVID e-commerce correction. With no clear diagnosis for the decline, DRIP's research showed that the first impression of quality was the top reason people bought. Over three years of testing, we generated €12.2M in additional revenue, including a single test that added €232,500/month.
The quality-perception roadmap generated €12.2M in additional revenue, with one test adding €232.5K per month.
Giesswein is an Austrian premium footwear brand known for its innovative use of Merino wool in shoe construction. With over €100M in annual revenue, the brand has a strong DTC presence across European markets, selling directly through their own online shop.
The brand's unique selling proposition, sustainable, high-quality wool shoes that combine comfort with eco-consciousness, resonated strongly during the COVID e-commerce boom. But when the post-COVID correction hit, Giesswein experienced a meaningful revenue decline with no clear understanding of why.
After the post-COVID e-commerce normalization, Giesswein's online revenue dropped significantly. The team didn't have a clear diagnosis: Was it a market shift? A product issue? A site experience problem? Without data-driven insights, they couldn't determine what had changed or how to fix it.
The brand was making decisions based on internal assumptions about what customers valued, but those assumptions hadn't been validated against actual customer behavior. The gap between what Giesswein thought customers cared about and what actually drove purchase decisions was unknown, and potentially large.
Our process
DRIP's method in three steps, and what each step looked like at Giesswein.
Step 1
Find the purchase driver behind the revenue drop
Step 2
Compound the quality mechanism across the journey
Step 3
Turn premium proof into controlled experiments
Step 1
Find the purchase driver behind the revenue drop
The CEP and feature analyses reframed the problem from broad post-COVID softness to a sharper issue: visitors needed stronger proof that the shoes justified premium expectations.
The main conversion lever was not more sustainability copy. It was immediate quality confidence.
Input
Identify why buyers enter the category and what they must believe.
Signal
Material, comfort, and durability carried more conversion weight.
Hypothesis
Place quality proof close to purchase decisions.
Step 2
Compound the quality mechanism across the journey
Validated proof points fed the next roadmap. The program expanded from single PDP cues into a broader operating system for premium confidence.
The more consistently the shop made quality tangible, the easier it became to justify premium price.
Readout
Measure whether the quality cue changed revenue per user.
Promote
Move the proof mechanism to adjacent pages.
Baseline
Use learnings to lift the next starting point.
Step 3
Turn premium proof into controlled experiments
The testing roadmap converted the quality hypothesis into PDP badges, guarantee modules, comparison images, cart reassurance, videos, and PLP action tests.
The best tests made a premium product easier to trust without discounting it.
PDP
Surface wool and comfort cues earlier.
Cart
Add reassurance near commitment moments.
PLP
Let ready shoppers act without extra page loads.
DRIP's research showed that premium footwear conversion depended on comfort, service reliability, delivery, returns, durability, and origin transparency.
The product had to feel like an immediate comfort upgrade.
Premium purchase confidence depended on support and issue resolution.
Delivery reliability had to match the premium brand promise.
Returns determined whether trying premium shoes felt low risk.
Durability proof helped justify the price and material promise.
The page had to make premium wool visible before visitors compared prices.
Quality proof had to cover the product and the whole buying experience.
Premium positioning converted when the downside felt under control.
The material badge answered a core reason to buy, right on the product page.
The real control, variant and result screenshots behind each test.
Test 1 of 3
Added a prominent '100% Merino Wolle' badge directly on product detail pages. Rather than burying the material information in product descriptions, we made it immediately visible as a quality indicator, not an eco indicator. The badge spoke to the first impression of quality that the research had surfaced as the top reason to buy.
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Test 2 of 3
Created a dedicated section on product pages highlighting material properties and care instructions. This positioned Giesswein's wool as a premium, long-lasting material, reinforcing quality perception and addressing durability concerns that prevent purchase.
Test 3 of 3
Added an 'In den Warenkorb' (Add to Cart) button directly beneath each product tile on the product listing page, enabling one-click add without visiting the product detail page. This leveraged cognitive ease, decision simplification, and action bias, reducing friction between browsing and buying by eliminating an entire page load from the purchase path.
Over three years, the optimization program generated €12.2M in additional revenue for Giesswein, a 25.3x ROI on the engagement.
The biggest single impact came from the Value Perception badge test, which alone added €232,500 per month in additional revenue. This single test demonstrates how finding the right psychological driver and amplifying it can have outsized impact.
Beyond the revenue numbers, the CEP analysis fundamentally shifted Giesswein's understanding of their own brand positioning. The insight that quality perception, not sustainability, was the primary purchase driver informed not just CRO but broader marketing and positioning decisions.
The Giesswein case illustrates a common and costly mistake: brands often optimize for what they think customers care about, not what actually drives purchase decisions. Giesswein was emphasizing sustainability when customers were buying for quality. That misalignment meant the site was underselling its strongest value proposition.
The €232,500/month badge test is a perfect example of how small, specific changes grounded in real psychological research can have enormous impact. It wasn't a redesign. It wasn't a new feature. It was a badge, positioned correctly because the research told us exactly what mattered.
For premium brands experiencing post-COVID corrections: the fix often isn't to discount or diversify. It's to understand, with data, what your customers actually value, and make that value impossible to miss.
Working with DRIP ensures a continuous, data-driven approach to online shop development. Their optimization helps us focus on real value, combining internal and external ideas. As a German-speaking agency, they understand our audience better, and we appreciate their flexibility, collaboration, and quick response times.
Markus Kapferer
Head of E-Commerce, Giesswein
Book a call with the team and tell us about your shop. We'll talk through where it stands, where you want it to go, and how we'd get you there. If working with us isn't the best return on your money, we'd tell you rather than take it.
30 minutes, and you'll know exactly where your shop stands.
