CLIENT CASE
CLIENT CASE
A strategic omnichannel turnaround driven by AI
A strategic omnichannel turnaround driven by AI
From 30,000+ campaigns to one connected omnichannel engine. Using AI and in-store data from 4 million loyalty members, XXL cut media spend while protecting revenue and growing profitability.
Key achievements
Key achievements
From silos to omnichannel
Feeding in-store transaction data into the bidding algorithms significantly increased omniROAS across all markets.
Maximising overall profitability
A new strategy, a technological overhaul and smarter use of first-party data drove a substantial increase in overall profitability across markets.
Smart spend equals strong returns
With AI allocating budget only where it drove real business value, XXL significantly reduced total media spend while protecting top-line revenue.
From silos to omnichannel
Feeding in-store transaction data into the bidding algorithms significantly increased omniROAS across all markets.
Maximising overall profitability
A new strategy, a technological overhaul and smarter use of first-party data drove a substantial increase in overall profitability across markets.
Smart spend equals strong returns
With AI allocating budget only where it drove real business value, XXL significantly reduced total media spend while protecting top-line revenue.
Tying digital ads to offline sales
XXL is the largest sports and outdoor retailer in the Nordic region, operating more than 80 "megastores" alongside its e-commerce platforms in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
In a highly competitive market, XXL needed a future-proof marketing strategy to protect its bottom line. Most of its sales have historically happened in physical stores, yet its digital marketing ran largely as an isolated setup, optimised for online metrics alone. The two needed to be connected.
The setup itself was also holding performance back. More than 30,000 campaigns spread the data so thinly that the bidding algorithms had little to learn from.
On top of that, there was a clear opportunity in search. XXL was highly effective at driving broad awareness, but a large share of its 100K+ product catalogue had yet to be optimised for how consumers actually search. Enriching that product data would put more items in front of shoppers at the exact moment of purchase intent, shifting the focus from creating demand to capturing it, and turning an already strong brand presence into direct commercial results.
From many campaigns to few
We started with the structure. By consolidating more than 30,000 campaigns into just four core campaigns per market, we created a highly focused setup. This gave the algorithms exactly what they needed: fewer campaigns, each with far more data to learn from.
Activating first-party data from 4 million loyalty members
With the structure in place, we turned to the data feeding it. We established omniROAS (return on ad spend measured across both online and in-store sales) as the primary performance indicator. Using Offline Conversion Import (OCI), we fed purchase data from XXL's 4 million loyalty programme members directly into Google Ads Smart Bidding.
This was a fundamental shift in how digital marketing was measured. For years, campaigns had been evaluated primarily on online performance, a metric that ignored where most of XXL's sales actually happened. Accounting for the complete channel mix changed every budget decision, every bid and every campaign priority. The algorithms were no longer chasing online sales alone. They were optimising for purchases across both the webshop and the physical stores.
"By feeding first-party in-store purchase data directly into Smart Bidding, we enabled the algorithms to aggressively optimise for bottom-line profitability across online and physical stores," says Jacob Johansen, Managing Director at s360 Norway.
Making 100K+ products easier to find
With the algorithms now optimising for the right outcome, the next step was to make the products within those campaigns work just as hard. With 100K+ items in the catalogue, every listing was an opportunity: richer titles, complete attributes, and images built for how people actually browse and buy. Done right, that kind of detail turns an existing product into one that gets found and chosen.
That's where Quantum changed the game. Rather than reviewing listings one by one, it enriched the entire catalogue in one automated sweep: adding missing attributes, rewriting titles to match how consumers actually search, and adapting images and videos to fit. The result was more products surfacing in more searches, with creatives that gave shoppers a reason to click.
WHAT IS QUANTUM?
Quantum is our proprietary feed enhancement tool that leverages AI to analyse, enrich, test and scale feed attributes across text, images and video.
WHAT IS QUANTUM?
Quantum is our proprietary feed enhancement tool that leverages AI to analyse, enrich, test and scale feed attributes across text, images and video.
WHAT IS QUANTUM?
Quantum is our proprietary feed enhancement tool that leverages AI to analyse, enrich, test and scale feed attributes across text, images and video.
Better product data and creatives are only half the job. The other half is getting them in front of the right people, without a team manually building and refreshing hundreds of ads.
That's where Smartly came in. We connected Smartly directly to XXL's enriched product feed, so the platform could automatically generate and deploy relevant ads across social channels. When a product listing was updated, the ad reflected it. When a new item was added to the catalogue, it went live almost immediately. Every ad stayed in sync with the catalogue, with no manual briefs slowing things down.
WHAT IS SMARTLY?
Smartly is a leading digital marketing platform that enables brands to launch campaigns faster across channels, localise at scale, and continuously optimise based on real-time data.
WHAT IS SMARTLY?
Smartly is a leading digital marketing platform that enables brands to launch campaigns faster across channels, localise at scale, and continuously optimise based on real-time data.
WHAT IS SMARTLY?
Smartly is a leading digital marketing platform that enables brands to launch campaigns faster across channels, localise at scale, and continuously optimise based on real-time data.
More profit from less ad spend
The results speak for themselves. With in-store sales feeding the algorithms and an enriched catalogue powering every ad, omniROAS increased significantly across markets.
The collaboration also proved that commercial scale doesn't require bigger marketing budgets. By using AI to allocate spend only where it drove tangible business value, XXL reduced total media spend significantly while protecting top-line revenue and driving a meaningful increase in overall profitability.
Together, these changes delivered a marketing setup that works harder and spends smarter, and proved that cutting costs and protecting revenue don't have to be a trade-off.
The work has also been recognised nationally, winning two Gold awards at the Norwegian Performance Awards 2026.
About XXL
Since its foundation in 2001, XXL has grown into a leading destination for sports and outdoor activities in the Nordics. Today, XXL has more than 80 stores in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as the largest online sports store in the Nordic region. It offers well-known brands at the lowest prices. In summer 2025, XXL was acquired by Frasers Group, a British retail group specialising in sports, fitness, fashion and lifestyle products, and delisted from the stock exchange.
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