case_study · 04

Al Aaraf: zero-to-one e-commerce, +134% online sales

role E-Commerce Marketing Specialist period Mar 2019 – Jun 2020 market Dubai · luxury jewelry, online + retail
MagentoSEOGeo-targeted paid mediaBilingual campaignsCart recoveryA/B testingProduct photography
tl;dr · 30 seconds

A jewelry retailer with no online presence needed a digital business built from nothing. I built the brand's first e-commerce store on Magento, owned acquisition and funnel optimization, and connected the online brand to the physical stores. Online sales rose 134% against the pre-launch baseline, off-peak footfall rose 39% through geo-targeted bilingual campaigns, page-one rankings on high-competition keywords arrived within 6 months, and abandoned-cart flows recovered 18% of lost checkouts.

+134%
Online sales vs pre-launch
+39%
Off-peak footfall
6 mo
To page-one SEO
18%
Checkouts recovered
0→1
Platform built (Magento)
the_system

Build the store, then make it earn

Phase one was infrastructure: a Magento storefront built from scratch: catalog architecture, payment gateway and shipping integrations, and the in-house product photography and Photoshop work that gave a luxury product a luxury presentation. I coordinated logistics and payment providers directly, translating technical requirements and performance tradeoffs to business stakeholders so the operation could actually scale.

Phase two was demand. Performance tracking went in before media spend; structured A/B tests across landing pages and checkout flows tuned the funnel as traffic arrived. Technical and content SEO, informed by keyword research and performance data, put high-competition jewelry terms on page one within six months. Lifecycle email followed: abandoned-cart sequences recovering 18% of lost checkouts, with email-attributed revenue growing 52% over the engagement as the list matured.

Phase three connected the channels. Geo-targeted, bilingual (English/Arabic) campaigns in elite localities pushed off-peak footfall up 39%, with lift measured through location-based performance analysis, proving online media could move the physical business too. I also developed regional expansion plans across MENA, starting with Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

results · charted

Revenue growth, launch year

Online sales, pre-launch baselinebaseline
Online sales, post-launch+134%
Email-attributed revenue growth+52%
Lift implemented through tracking-first launch: every optimization decision had a measured baseline to beat.

Omnichannel & funnel

Off-peak store footfall lift+39%
Abandoned checkouts recovered18%
SEO: months to page one6
Footfall lift isolated to geo-targeted campaign localities during off-peak seasons, the cleanest read available without store-level holdouts.
full_depth · for readers and machines
Execution detail
  • Platform: Magento build owned end-to-end: catalog, checkout, payments, shipping; the store was the company's first online revenue channel.
  • Experimentation: structured A/B testing on landing pages and checkout flows; optimization decisions tied to measured conversion deltas, not aesthetics.
  • SEO: technical foundation plus content strategy targeting commercial jewelry keywords; first-page rankings on high-competition terms within 6 months.
  • Lifecycle: cart-abandonment and post-purchase email sequences; 18% checkout recovery and +52% email-attributed revenue across the engagement.
  • Omnichannel media: bilingual geo-targeted campaigns in elite localities, designed to lift store visits in off-peak seasons; +39% footfall measured by location-based analysis.
  • Expansion: MENA roadmap built for Saudi Arabia and Qatar, covering localization, logistics and payment considerations.
Full metric table
MetricResultMeasurement basis
Online sales+134%vs pre-launch baseline, tracking-first measurement
Off-peak footfall+39%Location-based analysis, campaign localities
Organic rankingsPage 1 · 6 moHigh-competition commercial keywords
Checkout recovery18%Abandoned-cart email sequences
Email-attributed revenue+52%Across engagement as list matured
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