Barcel USA
How the maker of Takis, increased sales on Walmart.com by 113x in 6 months
"From the time we started operating on the Walmart platform to now, Takis has gone from 0 to 30% share of voice. We are #1 for salty snacks now, and that’s all because of the partnership with Acadia."
Colette Richards, Alternative Channels Senior Director of Sales,
Challenges
Growing sales profitably on Walmart.com
When Walmart asked Barcel USA, the makers of Takis, to invest in their online platform, the brand was keen to leverage the new channel. Colette Richards is the alternative channels senior director of sales. She was leading their efforts for ecommerce growth.
Although her team was already operating on Amazon, they weren’t sure whether their primary marketing agency had the necessary expertise for Walmart.com. They were focused on brick-and-mortar partnerships. Colette’s team attempted to work with the agency to start advertising on Walmart.com, but the results weren’t what she hoped.
“We spent nearly half a million dollars, but we weren’t able to see a return in sales. There was a lot of awareness, but without conversions, it wasn’t worth the investment.”
In search of an online platform expert to help improve the returns, Colette reached out to Acadia. The Acadia team had been assisting her with growing Barcel USA’s Amazon account.
Solution
Elite guidance from certified Walmart.com partners
As one of only a dozen official Walmart marketplace partners, Acadia brought an outstanding level of insight into Walmart’s ecommerce platform. They helped the Barcel USA team quickly understand what was missing from their initial approach and laid out changes that would help them realize exciting growth.
1. Full-funnel strategy to optimize the customer journey
One of the key elements of Acadia's strategy was to take a full-channel perspective. They organized Barcel USA’s efforts to maximize returns and drive their ultimate priority: more sales. The plan began with optimizing product keywords on the platform to make them more search-friendly.
2. High-efficiency ads targeting
The next step was to initiate a strategic sequence of paid search ads that would build Barcel USA’s authority for key search terms, while keeping ad spend in check.
First, the Acadia team focused on shoppers already looking for branded terms like Takis, Chicharrones, and Coronado. Then, they began targeting competitors bidding on their brand terms. And finally, they leaned into driving awareness of the brand and products
3. Marrying promotions to inventory levels
Another unique approach that Acadia delivered was an inventory-aware promotion schedule.
Although it required a little more work upfront, it paid off by reducing wasted ad spend and growing revenue effectively.
4. Outstanding collaboration
On top of the thrilling results that Acadia drove in share-of-voice, sales, and ads efficiency, Colette was delighted with their collaborative relationship.
From angling the digital strategy to support in-store growth, to always being available to answer questions over Slack, the Acadia team consistently made her feel like they truly cared about her brand’s success.
Results
0x
Increase in sales0%
Increase in ROAS#1 SOV
In salty snacks
In just six months with Acadia, Barcel USA blew their old results on Walmart.com out of the water. Ad-attributed sales increased by a whopping 113x, and ROAS grew by 93%. Even more thrilling, Takis quickly achieved #1 share of voice for salty snacks.
They have since expanded from working together on Amazon and Walmart to also include Instacart and Target. With consistent results and outstanding communication, Colette says she has total trust in her collaboration with Acadia.
The team’s expertise and dedication has helped Barcel USA develop a sophisticated and successful ecommerce presence. “It’s truly a partnership. We’ve gained a lot of knowledge in working with the Acadia team and it’s moving our business forward," says Colette.
Client Testimonial
“We’ve kept growing the relationship because we realized the value. Our returns continue to be replicated, yet nuanced differently on each platform.”
Colette Richards, Alternative Channels Senior Director of Sales