Enhancing Global Merchandising Strategy: A Partnership Between Dr. Martens and Fredhopper (A Crownpeak Solution)

We moved away from static pins and built a more dynamic PLP structure. Now our pages reflect what’s trending, what’s in stock, and what’s performing—while still allowing space for campaign messaging.

Niamh, Trading Manager EMEA

Dr. Martens is a globally recognized British footwear brand celebrated for its iconic boots and deep-rooted cultural heritage. With over 100 retail stores worldwide and a rapidly expanding eCommerce operation, Dr. Martens is committed to providing a frictionless, empowering experience across every channel.

Dr. Martens partnered with Fredhopper in the Americas and EMEA, implementing a scalable and personalized merchandising strategy that streamlined operations and enhanced the customer experience. This collaboration has positioned Dr. Martens for continued success in these key markets, ensuring that their unique brand ethos resonates with customers across both regions.

A person in a denim jacket and black skirt is mid-step, wearing black combat boots with yellow soles, against a bright yellow background.

The Challenge

With the management of ten sites across the EMEA region, Dr. Martens encountered the challenge of optimizing product visibility while striking the right balance between gendered and unisex offerings, all while ensuring merchandising resonated with local markets.

Regionalization & Data Gaps: While larger markets like UK and Germany had extensive data for informed decision-making, smaller markets had lower volume, making it difficult to rank products effectively. For instance, an emerging region such as Finland lacked high volumes of data creating challenges in ranking products effectively. Dr. Martens had to adopt a strategy that incorporated broader EMEA trends to inform rankings without overly relying on local sales data.

Gendered vs. Unisex Product Listings: Dr. Martens’ product range includes both gender-specific lines and unisex items. However, existing merchandising logic sometimes unintentionally skewed visibility, causing unisex products to be deprioritized or over-represented in gender-specific pages.
Adjustments were needed to ensure that unisex products appeared appropriately across all relevant product listing pages (PLPs), preventing a mismatch in customer expectations and search results.

Enhancing Search & Discoverability: Customers in emerging or smaller markets reported challenges locating specific items like limited seasonal collections. Feedback highlighted that less popular or niche styles often became difficult to discover through basic search and filter options.

Friday afternoons used to be spent tweaking merchandising manually. Now, we trust the strategy and can use that time elsewhere. We’re probably saving two hours per week.

Niamh, Trading Manager EMEA

The Solution

To tackle these challenges, Dr. Martens collaborated with Fredhopper to implement a series of strategic initiatives:

Regionalized Ranking Cocktails

Customized Algorithms: Tailored ranking algorithms were created to account for the unique needs of smaller markets while leveraging robust local data for larger ones. Dr Martens now incorporates a broader range of data to analyze smaller regions like Finland, using local data from the past 30 days across Nordic regions. This approach provides a more comprehensive and accurate view of trends while maintaining market-specific precision. In the UK, detailed local data continues to be utilized for precise targeting.

Integrated Metrics: Sales data, conversion rates, and unique purchases were used as primary factors for ranking. This helped ensure high-demand products surfaced appropriately in every region.

Localized Stock Visibility: Adjustments were made to prioritize products relevant to local climate and demand. For instance, winter boots were emphasized during colder months in Nordic regions, even with low sales data.

Enhanced Gendered Attributes & PLP Mix

Refined Product Data: Product attributes were updated and enriched to ensure accurate categorization and visibility across gendered and unisex PLPs. This ensured a balanced mix that reflected customer intent and browsing behavior.

Product Optimization: Key unisex items, such as the iconic 1460s boot, were carefully positioned to feature prominently in both men’s and women’s PLPs while also being prioritized for general unisex searches.

Stock Allocation Improvements: By expanding the data scope for smaller regions, Dr. Martens is now able to anticipate demand for unisex items more effectively. For markets like the Nordics, data is analyzed over a broader 30-day period across multiple regions to identify emerging trends and ensure accurate, market-specific stock allocation. This approach enhances product availability in smaller markets, reducing customer frustration from out-of-stock items while maintaining relevance to local demand patterns.

Localized Merchandising Adjustments

Market-Specific Campaigns: Regional campaigns were designed to cater to varying market maturities and preferences. For example, in more mature markets like the UK and Germany, campaigns focused on introducing new and trend-driven styles, which resonate strongly with these audiences. In contrast, less mature regions like Italy saw an emphasis on promoting core and carryover styles, ensuring the brand's foundational offerings established a strong foothold.

Enhanced Search & Filter Functionality

Improved Filter Precision: Search filters were enhanced to align with updated and enriched product attributes, making navigation more intuitive for customers.

Dynamic Search Algorithms: New algorithms prioritized seasonal collections and trending products, ensuring customers could easily find the most relevant styles based on current demand.

Two clogs, one blue and one pink, are suspended in mid-air, intertwined with a clear, swirling tube against a blue background.

The Results

The implementation of these solutions led to significant improvements:

Increased Efficiency:

Merchandisers are now saving approximately 2 hours per week by removing manual merchandising adjustments.

Processes for ranking updates and product placements have been significantly streamlined.

Enhanced Customer Experience:

The discoverability of relevant products has improved, leading to a more satisfying shopping experience and click through rates from PLP to product description pages

Personalization and localized visibility of products have been enhanced, tailoring offerings to meet customer needs more effectively whilst showcasing wider global trends

We [visual merchandisers] feel a lot more confident in our merch now we have revamped our strategy. We know that if we get questions from the business around the VM on PLPs, we are able to justify it as we have a strong strategy in place using multiple regional and gendered attributes.

America, Visual Merchandiser EMEA

A black leather ankle boot with laces and a yellow stitching detail, featuring a pull tab at the back.

Future Outlook

Enhanced A/B Testing: Implementation of structured testing methodologies for further optimization.

Search & Filter Improvements: Continued enhancements to search functionalities to drive discoverability.

Conclusion

Dr. Martens’ collaboration with Fredhopper has resulted in significant improvements in global merchandising efficiency, personalization, and product discoverability. Through the refinement of regional ranking strategies, the optimization of gender-specific attributes, and the enhancement of search functionalities, Dr. Martens consistently delivers an outstanding shopping experience that is finely tuned to meet the diverse needs of various markets.