Gamma x Hybrid: towards an optimal digital omnichannel strategy

Background

Gamma, one of Belgium’s most well-known DIY retailers, is part of the Dutch Intergamma Group and operates as a true omnichannel retailer.

In Belgium, Gamma ranks among the top 3 in the DIY market. Every week, approximately 160,000 customers visit the 86 Gamma stores in Belgium, with an equivalent number visiting the webshop. Around 1,000 employees serve customers on the shop floor.

The challenge

In the competitive Belgian DIY market, Gamma aimed to maintain and further grow its market share. Since Belgian DIY customers increasingly research online before visiting physical stores, the battle for consumers starts digitally. A well-thought-out offer, the right pricing strategy, and guiding the online visitor with the right expertise through content are integral to the online strategy. Maximizing return from digital performance channels is crucial to convince targeted searchers to either make an online purchase or at least visit a store.

Given the extensive assortment (+20,000 SKUs), the fast promotion strategy, and a flexible market, the Intergamma team (also responsible for Gamma Netherlands and the Karwei formula) faced the challenge of not only providing the right skills and capacity but also adapting them to the Belgian reality (Flemish vs French).

Why Hybrid agency?

Through our TaaS approach, we decided to flexibly supplement Gamma’s internal team with a team of Paid Advertising specialists who not only bring the right performance skills and necessary volume but also challenge the overall strategy and its translation to the Belgian market. This team works 95% remotely and coordinates closely with the internal team via calls and meetings. Joint KPI dashboarding serves as the compass for both teams. This allows the Hybrid team to work largely autonomously, with responsibilities and expectations clearly defined.

“Hybrid is the perfect complement to our internal team. They strengthen us with skills and capacity where needed and provide new tools so we can continuously improve performance. The results speak for themselves.” Wouter De Meyer – Digital Lead Gamma Belgium

The collaboration

Based on the objectives, our team first analyzed the accounts and figures. This thorough audit gave us a clear view of where performance could be increased and how priorities should be set. Using this data, we determined our plan of action in consultation with the Gamma team.

Key pillars:

• Search NL & FR (Branded, Semi-branded & Non-branded)
• Feed Management
• Shopping ads
• Remarketing

Focus points of the Hybrid team:

• Continuous bid management and experimenting between manual and automated bidding strategies
• Reducing the share of branded keywords and moving certain keywords to semi-branded based on specific criteria
• Structural adjustments to exclude internal competition – essential with over 30,000 SKUs
• Translating overall strategy into language- and region-specific optimizations (Flemish vs French)
• Excluding products not offered (but assumed to be available by the consumer), irrelevant items (opening hours, etc.), high-click keywords with no conversions
• Feed optimization via Channable
• Expanding Shopping campaigns (Smart & Standard)
• …

Results and impact

Y-to-Y results : period <aug 2019 – feb 2020> vs <aug 2018 – feb 2019>

Overall €250,000 additional revenue was realized while saving more than €100,000 in advertising costs

• Overall ROAS : 6,34 vs 4,14 => increase of 53%
• ROAS Search Branded + Semi-branded : 12,60 vs 6,19 => increase of 103%
• ROAS Shopping : 3,35 vs 2,09 => increase of 60%

The future

For Gamma, the focus is on further strengthening digital omnichannel expertise and continuously optimizing performance across all channels. The Hybrid team will continue expanding collaboration with Gamma’s internal team, with extra attention to personalization, automated campaigns, feed optimization, and intelligent use of data for real-time decisions. In addition, efforts will focus on improving measurability of store visits and online conversions, integrating new technologies and tools, and leveraging regional insights (Flemish vs French) to make campaigns more targeted and relevant. This ensures Gamma further strengthens its position in the Belgian DIY market and achieves sustainable digital growth.

Conclusion

Hybrid’s approach clearly paid off: with a 53% increase in overall ROAS, a doubling of ROAS on branded campaigns, and a 60% increase on Shopping campaigns, Gamma not only generated more revenue (+€250K) but also saved significantly on advertising budgets (-€100K). Through strategic focus and optimal collaboration, Gamma successfully increased its digital performance and reinforced its position in the Belgian market.