Scaling an e-commerce decor brand: from Ukraine to 7 EU countries in 18 months
A designer lighting and home decor manufacturer (Handmade segment) wanted to enter European markets due to high competition and limited premium segment demand in Ukraine during the crisis.
About the Client
Designer lighting and home decor manufacturer (Handmade segment).
Client Request
Enter European markets due to high competition and limited premium segment demand in Ukraine during the crisis.
Initial Situation
Sales only in Ukraine via Instagram and word-of-mouth. Google Ads budget — $2,000/mo. Website had no English version and no analytics setup. Client's main mistake: relying on gut feeling without tracking which product categories performed best, making inventory decisions blindly. They also translated product descriptions through Google Translate, which failed to capture the brand's artisan story.
Foundation & Analytics
Implemented GA4 and set up e-commerce tracking. Integrated BigQuery for raw data collection to track the customer journey from first click to repeat purchase.
Testing (Months 0-4)
Launched Performance Max and search campaigns for Poland and Germany. Our initial mistake: we tried launching all 7 target countries at once with equal budget split, which made data collection slow and optimization impossible. We quickly pivoted (week 2) to focus 80% budget on just 2 test markets. This allowed us to find that acquisition cost in Germany was higher but average order value 1.5x larger — a critical insight we would have missed with scattered budget.
Localization (Months 5-10)
Translated and adapted content for France, Italy, and Spain. Adapted keywords to local mindset (emphasis on 'sustainability' in Germany and 'design' in France).
Scaling (Months 11-18)
Expanded structure to 7 countries (PL, DE, FR, IT, ES, CZ, RO). Used Merchant Center Multi-Country Feeds. Optimized bids based on LTV and margins of individual product categories.
“The key to success was phased expansion and learning from early mistakes. Instead of trying to cover all of the EU at once (our week-1 mistake), we found winning combinations in one country and scaled them to similar markets. Deep analytics allowed us to control profitability of every dollar and discover that customer lifetime value varied 3x between countries — information that shaped our entire scaling strategy.