Godiva

How Godiva Raised Paid Social Revenue 52% After Extending Its Rebrand to Shopify

↑16%

Paid search revenue

↑12%

Site traffic

↓95%

Desktop load time

A chef dips a strawberry into a white bowl of melted chocolate, with chocolate-covered strawberries on a plate nearby.

Challenge

Godiva has been a revered name in luxury chocolate since 1926. Shoppers wanted a website as premium as the brand, with clearer navigation, an easier path to the cart, and a smoother way to buy.

Objectives

  • Express Godiva’s premium, luxury brand on every page
  • Make the new store a stronger destination for paid media
  • Improve site speed and deliver a mobile-first flagship store

Business Impact

829 Studios grounded the work in shopper testing and benchmarking, extended Godiva’s rebrand to digital with its brand team, then designed, built, and launched a mobile-first Shopify storefront in September 2025.

Against pre-launch benchmarks, desktop load time fell 95%. In the store’s first holiday season, with paid media tracking rebuilt around it, paid social revenue rose 52% and paid search revenue 16% year over year.

From January to May 2026, site traffic rose 12% and average order value 10% year over year. 829 continues to support campaigns, including a new holiday navigation, and is planning user testing to guide further optimization.

Godiva logo.

Industry

E-Commerce
Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)
Food & Beverage

Services

Brand Strategy & Identity
Web Design & Development
User Experience Strategy
Conversion Rate Optimization
Paid Search
Paid & Organic Social

Platforms

Shopify
GA4
Google Ads
Meta

Crafting a storefront worthy of the brand

  • Shopper insight: Grounded every design decision in usability testing across three markets and benchmarks against 10 chocolate and 10 luxury brands
  • Digital brand: Extended Godiva’s rebrand online with its brand team, using color, type, icons, and brand elements to express its luxury positioning
  • Design to launch: Turned a premium, mobile-first playbook into sitemap, wireframes, and final design, launching on Shopify in September 2025
The Godiva Shopify homepage on desktop and mobile, with a Mother's Day hero and collections of gold boxes and truffles.

Keeping every campaign on-brand

  • Holiday readiness: Launched a full holiday navigation in October 2026, alongside promotional functionality and gift and shipping messaging
  • Product experience: Refined product detail pages, fixed badge and image display issues, and delivered accessibility updates
  • Release process: Defined a check, coordinate, approve, and communicate process, including a content freeze before each release
A Godiva product page for the Assorted Chocolate Gold Gift Box, with add to cart buttons and recommended gift boxes below.

Turning holiday demand into revenue

  • Paid social reform: Restructured Meta campaigns and tracking around the new store, growing Q4 paid social revenue 52% year over year
  • Peak-season search: Managed Black Friday and Cyber Monday bids in real time, beating the December return on ad spend goal by 7%
  • Evergreen gifting: Ran a gifting Performance Max campaign all quarter, the top driver of Q4 search sales
A Godiva Masterpieces landing page with a broken dark chocolate hero and three Masterpieces chocolate bags.

Results

↑16% Paid search revenue

↑12% Site traffic

↓95% Desktop load time

Our leadership team is quite impressed with 829, the talent brought to the table, and the work done so far. They feel they can trust 829 to lead the project and deliver a great site. I feel the same way. All teams are amazing.

Head of Digital
Godiva

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