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AllegroPLN 1.5m from Allegro Ads in 9 months – a stationery distributor’s success story
About the client
BAWI is a nationwide leader in Poland’s office supplies and services sector. The company runs a stationery shop with a very wide range – from school supplies to office products. Items with a low retail price, such as scissors and writing instruments, make up the bulk of it.
Working with a company that sells office supplies was an interesting challenge for us. On top of fierce competition from other sellers, we also had to contend with a second account run by the client itself.
What you’ll find in the BAWI range
| Category | Example products |
|---|---|
| Paper products and notebooks | notebooks, pads, office paper |
| Writing instruments | ballpoint pens, highlighters, felt-tip pens |
| Art supplies | colouring pencils, paints, glue |
| Office accessories and equipment | hole punches, staplers, calculators, tape, labels |
| Back-to-school kit | backpacks, pencil cases |
The office supplies market on online marketplaces
Stationery and office supplies are among the most seasonal categories in e-commerce. Sales peak as the summer holidays end and the new school year begins, when individual customers – as well as schools and offices – stock up for the year ahead. Outside this period, sales can slow down sharply, which is one of the main challenges facing any stationery and office supplies distributor looking to grow by selling on Allegro. Add to that a huge number of low-margin SKUs and price pressure from brick-and-mortar chains and other online sellers – in conditions like these, the edge comes not only from price but, above all, from the way advertising campaigns are run.
The client’s challenges
After BAWI ended its partnership with the agency that had been supporting it on the platform, the company’s management faced a number of challenges:
Tailoring the right sales strategy to Allegro,
A lack of in-house knowledge of how to optimise Allegro Ads,
Inefficient use of the Allegro Ads budget,
Weak sales, despite a competitively priced range in the office supplies category,
Calculating sales profitability correctly,
Maintaining account quality and meeting all of the platform’s requirements.
What we did
Allegro account audit
We began our partnership with BAWI by carrying out a thorough audit of its Allegro seller account. With such a wide product range, the key question was how to manage a large number of low-margin SKUs in online sales – this was the area that needed the most attention when planning the strategy going forward. As a stationery distributor, the client had a distinctive order structure that had to be taken into account right from the account analysis stage. By analysing all the key areas of sales, we identified the account’s strengths as well as the areas that needed improvement.
On this basis, we planned a strategy and a work schedule aimed at improving product rankings and increasing sales profitability on the platform.
Allegro Ads management – strategy and solutions
The company only wanted our help with running its Allegro Ads campaigns. It decided to handle in-house the other changes the audit had deemed necessary.
Although each of these elements works hand in hand with advertising, we took up the challenge, leaving the listing content to the client.
Visibility
The key area we worked on was promoting the range and increasing its visibility. To do this, we used the two most important forms of promotion:
- Allegro Ads campaigns,
- featured listings.
Allegro Ads campaign
After setting a target (PLN 1 million in sales from ads for the year) and agreeing on a strategy, we moved on to the analysis needed to build a well-structured advertising campaign. Using historical sales data and an analysis of sales categories and competitors, we took the following steps:
- We built the campaign structure around key categories,
- We selected the right keywords with the help of the Campaign Planner,
- We worked out the budget and CPC bids, tailoring them to specific ad groups.
Many rivals in the office supplies sector compete mainly on price, so we wanted the campaign to promote BAWI’s range even where the client couldn’t rely on product price alone.
Advertising strategy
Once sales from CPC ads started growing at a healthy pace, we decided to add display ads. They are not only a way to promote products visually, but also an opportunity to appear on competitors’ listings.
After the base prices were raised and CPC ads also slowed down slightly, display ads had more room for manoeuvre and steadily made up for the drop in sales value.
Display ads
| April 2023 | 0 |
|---|---|
| May 2023 | 0 |
| June 2023 | 1,680 |
| July 2023 | 1,790 |
| August 2023 | 2,380 |
| September 2023 | 12,930 |
| October 2023 | 20,640 |
| November 2023 | 31,680 |
| December 2023 | 22,250 |
CPC campaigns
The CPC campaign launched on 13 April 2023 and, after just a few days of bid adjustments, started to turn a profit, ending the year with a sales value of PLN 1,451,622.61.
The key to success was preparing the campaign properly and taking a strategic approach to CPC bids on the promoted listings.
Results
Campaign results
The two campaigns (CPC and display) together generated sales of PLN 1,580,667, exceeding the advertising target set for 2023 by more than 58%.
CPC ad results
| Metric | All campaigns |
|---|---|
| Clicks | 322,856 |
| Impressions | 18,664,199 |
| CTR | 1.73% |
| Average CPC | PLN 0.70 |
| Cost | PLN 225,376.69 |
| Return on ad spend (ROAS) | 6.44 |
| Interest | 50,761 |
| Units sold | 88,473 |
| Sales value | PLN 1,451,622.61 |
Display ad results
| Metric | All campaigns |
|---|---|
| Clicks | 1,497 |
| Impressions | 186,226 |
| CTR | 0.80% |
| Average CPM | PLN 15.81 |
| Cost | PLN 2,943.32 |
| Return on ad spend (ROAS) | 43.84 |
| Reach | 109,870 |
| Interest | 2,421 |
| Assisted sales | PLN 64,884.52 |
| Units sold | 3,388 |
| Sales value | PLN 129,046.18 |
Totals from the Allegro Ads panel for all campaigns in the reporting period; the ‘Display ads’ chart shows Apr–Dec 2023.
The results of our work
Once the partnership was under way and the strategy was being rolled out step by step, the expected cycle of sales growth began – especially at the peak of the season, which in the school supplies category falls in August.
After an excellent August, in September the company decided to raise its selling prices sharply (30–40%), which led to a significant drop in sales in October. In the end, 2023 closed with sales of PLN 7,293,440.88, an increase of 110% compared with 2022 (PLN 3,460,520.10).
It is also worth noting that Allegro Ads generated 20% of sales value, which means it directly increased sales by 22%.
Summary
Our partnership with the company is ongoing, so we keep adapting and optimising every promotional element to the constantly changing conditions for sellers on the Allegro marketplace. The BAWI case clearly shows that successfully selling stationery and office supplies online takes not only a wide range, but also continuous campaign optimisation tailored to the seasonality of the office supplies sector.
We believe that working together will bring measurable benefits to our clients.
Thank you for your trust!
Selling office supplies and want to achieve similar results for your business?
We specialise in supporting office supplies manufacturers and distributors on Allegro and other marketplaces. For many years, we have been helping stationery businesses increase the visibility of their listings, improve conversion rates and scale their online sales.
If you’re wondering whether your business has the potential to grow on marketplaces – let’s talk. We’ll analyse your situation and tell you honestly whether, and how, we can increase your profits.
- +58%above the Allegro Ads
sales target for 2023 - PLN 7.29min sales
in 2023
Let's talk about growing your sales across marketplaces!
