Consistently ranked by Internet Retailer as one of the top 50 ecommerce firms, Urban Outfitters has a reputation for being as trend-setting as the merchandise they sell. Where many retailers think of their own websites as online stores, Urban Outfitters explains in this whitepaper how their site is the place where customers manage their relationship with the brand.

As such, the company integrates the brand story into each visitor’s interaction with the website—by letting consumers define the brand for themselves through their activity on the site. Via dynamic merchandising, targeting and testing capabilities supported by robust analytics and reporting, Urban Outfitters personalizes their website for each visitor. Promotions, copy and creative are all customized on the fly to meet the specific needs of each visitor based on the most up-to-date information recorded.

Types of campaigns deployed by Urban Outfitter’s marketing and merchandising teams include email acquisition, product recommendations, product badging, faceted navigation, shopping cart reminders and geotargeting.

In addition to generating increased conversion and incremental revenue, the online retailer also benefits from an agile testing environment that helps it identify winning strategies fast in order to capitalize on more of its website traffic.

How well is this approach working for them? Quite fabulously. Earlier this year, the company reported a 34% increase in year-over-year sales for its direct-to-consumer division (that’s online and catalog). By contrast, Gap announced a 16.2% year-over-year increase and Aeropostale came in a little higher at 24.2%, both well behind Urban Outfitters’ pace.

Take a peek behind the scenes at Urban Outfitters with this free whitepaper, which shares their insights on where to focus your testing and targeting efforts for maximum return.