Hi, I'm Arianne, founder of Aeolidia. We create effective Shopify sites and email marketing for thoughtful, independent brands. Our newsletter shares advanced, need-to-know ecommerce strategies. Not on the list yet? Join here.
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Calvina and Jess presented a version of this talk at Mom 2.0 Summit last April, and it was such a big hit that we decided to share it with more people online.
Jess Gleim and Calvina Nguyen presenting at Mom 2.0 Summit in April 2026
Last year our team at Aeolidia partnered with Jess and Calvina on a project for High Tail Hikes, a brand of handmade dog gear, made in Oakland, for people who consider their dogs one of the great loves of their life.
What sets High Tail Hikes' products apart is that they’re highly customizable. The only problem was, all that decision-making in the buying journey was not exactly a walk in the park for customers.
Jess and Calvina found that visitors were encountering friction in the buying process and they brought us in to help.
Jess did the numbers and ad strategy.
Calvina did the brand, the design, and photography.
And our team at Aeolidia rebuilt the Shopify site, including a custom tool that walks shoppers through the process of customizing their own leash.
We were delighted to have High Tail Hikes owner Elizabeth Williams join us live on the webinar to share her personal experience of what it was like working with all of us on this project. She told us:
Elizabeth Williams High Tail Hikes
"We've had our best year ever this year, and I'm just feeling super positive about the business. We just hired a couple more people... I'm proud of the site and being able to have feedback from people that they love the website. I think it all kind of builds on itself. We also are getting more referrals. Our SEO has improved and we're showing up on Google more and all of the money that we now invest into ads is going to have a higher return. So, it's all kind of working together really well, which is really exciting."
And we were all so excited (and got emotional!) when we pulled the most recent results to share on the webinar...
The new High Tail Hikes website launched at the end of 2025.
Since then, there's been a 39% increase to gross sales, a 29% order increase, and the average order value (AOV) has increased by 8%.
Overall, High Tail Hikes is projected to grow almost 35% this year. They've already done 94% of their entire 2025 revenue with more than 3 months left in 2026.
Plus, paid ads went from a 3.2x ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) to a 6.5x ROAS without changing the ad strategy. And owner Liz is actually earning more while spending less on ads this year!
High Tail Hikes is on track for a record-breaking year, thanks to the revenue leaks that have been fixed.
If you'd like some help finding the revenue leaks in your own business, grab our rate sheet here and let's start a conversation!
Is the World Getting Uglier? by graphic design superstar Debbie Millman (kind of funny that this article is published on Time.com and very ugly indeed with all the flashing ads).
We designed and built the Flax & Twine site and recently paired back up with owner Anne, to add many improvements, including this new skill level system for her craft kits. We upgraded her site, refreshed the homepage, and added a "new to craft" identifier to help customers find their way around.
