From soft launch to scalable growth
Context
House of Decant is a challenger alcohol retailer operating in one of the UK's most competitive ecommerce categories.
When Growth Society became involved, the business was still in its early stages. The brand had completed a soft launch and generated some initial traction, but there was no proven acquisition model, limited marketing infrastructure and no clear roadmap for scaling growth.
Within weeks of the initial conversation, we assembled a specialist team spanning strategy, paid media, CRM, content and creative, creating the foundations required to move quickly.
The opportunity was clear. House of Decant had a distinctive brand identity, a strong point of view and pricing advantages through its supply model. The challenge was turning those strengths into a repeatable growth engine capable of acquiring customers efficiently and building long-term customer value.
Leadership needed a clear growth strategy, confidence in where to invest and a framework capable of taking the business from early-stage traction to meaningful scale.
Objective 01
Establish a repeatable acquisition engine
Objective 02
Scale new customer growth at viable CAC
Objective 03
Build a base of returning customers
Objective 04
Create a structured roadmap for growth in a saturated category
Decisions
The opportunity was clear. The challenge was deciding how to scale it.
Key questions included:
How aggressively should the business invest in customer acquisition?
Should the focus be short-term profitability or long-term customer value?
How could the brand stand out in a crowded and price-sensitive market?
What would give customers the confidence to buy from a relatively unknown retailer?
Competition was only part of the challenge. Decision friction was the bigger barrier.
In a category defined by overwhelming choice and limited brand loyalty, customers didn't need more products. They needed help deciding what to buy.
Three decisions shaped the strategy:
Prioritise customer acquisition, with profitability driven through repeat purchases and customer lifetime value rather than first-order returns.
Build an integrated growth model across brand, content, paid media and retention, ensuring each channel reinforced the others.
Position House of Decant as a trusted curator, helping customers discover and choose products with confidence rather than simply offering more choice.
Priorities
Define a clear growth roadmap: Establish how budget, channels and audiences would scale over time.
Build an efficient acquisition engine: Acquire customers at scale while maintaining control of CAC.
Reduce customer decision effort: Use content and creative to guide product selection and improve conversion.
Lay the foundation for retention: Begin building repeat behaviour to support long-term profitability.
Execution
Execution combined rapid scaling with a structured content and creative system.
Hard launch phase
Acquisition activity was scaled quickly, supported by clear targeting, positioning and budget allocation.
System-led content and creative
A unified approach was introduced across paid, organic, email and brand, built around three core systems:
Brand signal: establishing authority and taste
Decision support: helping customers choose with confidence
Engagement and progression: turning trust into repeat behaviour
Content focused on point of view, reassurance, guided moments and curated discovery - ensuring customers were not just driven to site, but actively supported in making a purchase decision.
Trading optimisation
Product strategy evolved to reflect demand and popularity, reinforcing the role of curation in improving conversion.
Change
The shift from soft launch to structured hard launch drove rapid growth, moving the business from early traction to a scalable acquisition model within five months.
The biggest shift was how that growth was generated. Rather than fragmented, channel-led activity, brand, content and performance worked together to drive acquisition and retention. This reduced reliance on paid media alone and improved the efficiency of every customer interaction.
Result 01
Six-Figure Months
Net sales (5 months)
Result 02
Exceedin revenue milestone
New customers acquired
Result 03
£60
CAC (AOV £161)
Result 04
245
Returning customers (AOV £197)
Result 05
3x
Weekly revenue run rate (~£1.5k to ~£4.5k)
Learnings
In saturated categories, differentiation alone isn't enough. Customers don't just need more choice. They need help deciding.
Growth came from structuring acquisition around learning and scale, aligning on investment versus profitability, and building a system that reduced decision friction at every stage.
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