Full Funnel PartnershipUI/UX RedesignShopify DevelopmentCRO OptimisationUK + US

How A Year-Long Full Funnel Partnership Grew Cadence's Revenue 389%

Conversion rate from under 1% to 1.9%. Subscription take rate to 70%, peaking at 80%. Two Shopify stores. One rebrand.

It started as CRO and funnels. Within a few months we were running the full funnel experience for Cadence across the UK and US: two Shopify themes, landing pages, offers, bundling, subscriptions and a complete ground-up rebrand of both sites. This is the whole story.

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+389%

Revenue since we joined

<1% → 1.9%

Conversion rate

70%

Subscription take rate

80%

Peak take rate (offer test)

Offer structures tested

cadence.co.uk

Client

Cadence

Industry

Science-backed hydration and performance fuel

Platform

Shopify x 2 (UK & US) · Recharge · Aftersell

Engagement

12 months, full funnel management

The challenge

A brand on Walmart and Target shelves, converting under 1% online.

Cadence makes science-backed hydration for daily movement: electrolyte drinks, sachets, gels and fuel bars, stocked by Walmart, Target, GNC and The Vitamin Shoppe. Retail was working. The websites were not keeping up. When we joined, site conversion rate was below 1%. There were two separate Shopify stores for the UK and the US, each drifting in its own direction. The range was growing faster than the site could explain it. Subscription existed, but it was not the obvious choice. And the brand itself was about to change, with new packaging, new flavours and a new visual identity on the way. The product was built around a daily habit. The website was built around a one-off purchase.

Who actually buys

Everyday athletes and runners who want hydration to be a routine, not a decision. They buy the system, then they buy it again.

Source: customer research, post-purchase data and subscription behaviour across UK and US

Friction 01

Two stores, two experiences

UK and US themes managed separately, with no shared testing programme.

Friction 02

Range without a route

Drinks, sachets, gels, bars, bottles. No clear start here.

Friction 03

Subscription as an afterthought

A habit product sold as a one-time order.

Friction 04

Brand mid-transition

New packaging and flavours arriving; the site still told the old story.

The strategy

It started as CRO. It became the whole funnel.

The first few months were split testing and funnels. As the wins stacked up, Cadence handed us the full funnel experience and day-to-day website management for both stores: landing pages, offers, bundling, subscription flows, product launches, PLPs, cart, post-purchase. Then, in July 2026, the rebrand: working directly with Cadence's head of design to rebuild both themes from the ground up.

Customer researchA/B testing (UK + US)Offer testingBundlingSubscription designLanding pagesDirect response copyUX redesignTwo Shopify theme buildsProduct launchesWebsite managementQA

The goal was not

How do we get more first orders?

It was

How do we sell the habit, not the can?

Every offer, bundle and page judged on conversion, take rate and revenue per visitor, across both regions.

Paid traffic

Offer & funnel tests

Homepage

Rebrand, launches

Collections

New PLPs, 247 collection

PDP & buy box

Wins #1, #2, #3

Cart

Upsells, now permanent

Subscription

Recharge, Aftersell, month 2

How the partnership grew

From a CRO test to running two stores.

Phase 1

CRO & funnels

Research, first split tests, landing pages. Speed from day one.

Phase 2

Full funnel, UK + US

Site management, 10 offer structures, bundling, subscription flows.

Phase 3 · July 2026

The rebrand

Both themes rebuilt from the ground up with Cadence's head of design. Launched with the Orange Soda can.

Phase 4 · Ongoing

Launch & retain

247 Mango launch, new PLPs, cart upsells made permanent, month-2 subscription delivery.

What we did

Five wins. One principle each.

Win 1 · PDP · Subscription offer

Make subscription the obvious choice

Cadence is a daily product. The most valuable customer is the one who never has to think about reordering. So the buy box stopped treating subscription as a discount toggle and started treating it as the offer. Subscribe & Save is selected by default. 30% off the first order. Three free gifts staged across the first three deliveries, a cap, a Core 550 bottle, a sports towel, so there is a reason to stay for delivery two and three, not just delivery one. 15% off every month, an exclusive fuel guide, cancel anytime. One-time purchase sits underneath, quieter.

70%

Subscription take rate

80%

Peak in offer tests

Default

Subscribe & Save

Staged

Gifts over 3 deliveries

Take rate is a design decision. Stage the gifts across deliveries and the customer buys the second month before they have finished the first.

The buy box

In context · Sachet Variety Pack PDP

Win 2 · Funnels · Offer testing

Test the offer, not just the page

Most CRO programmes test layouts. We tested the deal. Across the year we ran ten different offer structures through the funnels on both stores: buy one get one, quantity breaks, save when you buy 3 or more, first-order discounts, gift-with-subscription, starter systems, and bundles at different price points. Each one was measured on the same three numbers: conversion rate, subscription take rate and revenue per visitor. The offers that won became permanent. The ones that spiked AOV but hurt take rate were retired, even when they looked good in a screenshot.

Offer structures tested

80%

Peak take rate

Permanent

Winners rolled out

Retired

On the numbers

The offer is the biggest lever on the page. Ten structures taught us more about Cadence's customer than a hundred button tests would have.

Save when you buy 3+ · Sachet bundle

Starter Hydration System · £48 → £26.32

Win 3 · PDP · Bundle builder

Sell the system, not the SKU

With drinks, sachets, gels, bars and bottles, the range had outgrown a normal product page. So we built the Hydration Systems: Starter, Ultimate and Sachet Bundle, each with a step-by-step builder. Step 1 pick your drinks, step 2 pick your sachets, step 3 pick your bottle. The customer assembles their routine and the bundle discount does the rest.

Higher

AOV on system PDPs

Bundles

Share of orders

3 systems

Starter, Ultimate, Sachet

Bundling is product discovery. A builder that walks someone through the range teaches them what to buy while raising the order value.

Before · control

Before screenshot

After · winner

After screenshot

The three-step builder · Drinks to Sachets to Bottle

Win 4 · Rebrand · Two themes, ground up

Rebuild both stores around the new brand, and take the research with you

In July 2026 Cadence moved to new packaging: bold flavour colours, a new logotype, a new visual world. Over a few months we worked directly with their head of design to carry that across every flavour, every visual, every page and every line of copy on both the UK and US themes, rebuilt from the ground up. This was not a reskin. Every winning pattern from the first nine months of testing, the subscription buy box, the systems, the offer framing, the Get Your Hydration Right category navigation, was designed into the new build from day one. The site launched in step with the Orange Soda can.

<1% → ~2%

Conversion after rebrand

2 themes

Rebuilt ground up

All SKUs

Flavours redesigned

New

Templates & sections

A rebrand is the moment most brands lose their conversion rate. Ours doubled it, because the redesign was built on nine months of tests instead of taste.

New flavour system · cans & sachets

New flavour system · full range

Full homepage · desktop + mobile

Win 5 · UK + US · Website management

Run two stores like one team

Two Shopify themes, two currencies, two sets of stockists, one testing programme. Every win was designed once and shipped twice, with region-specific offers and pricing. Alongside the tests, we became Cadence's website team: product launches (247 Mango, Orange Soda), new collection pages, navigation updates, cart upsells promoted from test to permanent, spelling checks, bug fixes and QA. Now we are working with Recharge and Aftersell on the month-two delivery experience, because that is where subscription drop-off actually happens.

Launches

Orange Soda · 247 Mango

Retention

Month-2 delivery

UK + US

Shipped twice

Cart

Upsells now permanent

The best CRO partner is the one who also owns the site. When the same team tests, designs, builds and launches, nothing gets lost in the handover.

Before · control

Before screenshot

After · winner

After screenshot

Honest accounting

Ten offers went in. Not all of them came out.

Offer testing is where the biggest swings live, in both directions. Some structures that looked generous on paper pulled customers away from subscription, and a one-time order at a higher AOV is worth less than a subscriber at a lower one. Those are the tests that shaped the offer Cadence runs today.

29Tests run

10Winners

19Flat or negative, documented

Raised AOV, cut take rate

BOGO on cans

A generous-looking offer that pulled customers away from subscription. Full outcome to be filled from the offer test log.

Documented

Losing offer 2

One or two sentences on what happened and what it taught us. Fill from the offer test log.

Documented

Losing offer 3

One or two sentences on what happened and what it taught us. Fill from the offer test log.

The bigger result

Revenue up 389%. Conversion doubled. Seven in ten customers subscribe.

A year of research, offers, builds and a rebrand, across two stores, compounding into one business that looks nothing like the one we joined.

Metric

Before

After

Conversion rate

<1%

1.9%

Subscription take rate

An afterthought

70%, peaked 80%

Scope

2 drifting stores

1 programme + rebrand

+389%Revenue since PM Digital joined, UK and US combined.

Subscription by defaultOffers tested not guessedSystems over SKUsRebrand built on testsOne team two stores

Big thing you guys have is speed. I was pleasantly surprised when you just got on with test design straight off the bat. The more you can push the amount you guys do, the better.

Matty Martin · Cadence

On the record

Funnel First Podcast

[Pull quote from the episode: the PM Digital team feels like one of our own.]

with Matty Martin

Ecomm Cowboy Podcast

[Pull quote from the episode about working with PM Digital.]

Matty on his CRO agency

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