Schulte Herenmode grew into an organic winner in menswear together with GRP Digital. Organic traffic rose 161.8%, the number of top 3 rankings doubled, and that growth continues, especially now the market is shrinking.
(2023 → 2024)
Before → after
The results
And all while the market itself shrank (-10.7% over the past year). Winning market share in a declining market is doubly valuable.
Context
The challenge
Schulte wanted structural organic growth in a crowded menswear market, without sharp insight into real market demand and the biggest opportunities. That challenge only grew: the market shrank structurally over the past years (-21.5% non-branded search demand over three years), Zalando entered nearly every category at number 1, and specialists such as de Bijenkorf, OFM and Suitable lost significant ground.
Approach
Our approach
We put search-intent data and market insight at the centre of the growth strategy, while building a strong technical foundation at the same time.
1. Understand the audience & search intent
We mapped and categorised online customer behaviour: market demand per category, when interest peaks (seasonality), which brands are preferred, and where product gaps sit versus competitors.
2. Market performance & organic landscape
We mapped the organic landscape per category as a baseline: visibility, estimated traffic, the strongest players, and the risers and fallers (month-on-month and year-on-year).
3. Growth potential, focus & follow-up
For each category we estimated how much growth is achievable within the top 10, 5 and 3. That set the focus and the content planning, and everything stayed measurable in dashboards. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
4. Technical foundation
A full technical audit (94 checkpoints across 9 themes) and product data made readable for search engines with structured data, so colour, size, price and stock are recognised correctly.
The proof
Growth in two phases
Phase 1: the breakthrough
Organic growth was explosive. By November 2024, Schulte ranked in the top 3 for 4,100 search terms (a gain of 2,000) and in positions 4 to 10 for 7,400 (+2,100) compared with a year earlier. Organic traffic grew 161.8%.
Phase 2: the growth continues
And it did not stop at that one peak. In Q1 2026 Schulte grew again, just as the market shrank: top 3 rankings +16.6% (2,423 to 2,826), with sweaters from #11 to #5, cardigans from #4 to #2 and a strong shirts pipeline. Visibility in AI Overviews grew too (top 3 from 3 to 9).
The pattern is clear: Schulte keeps winning visibility and market share year after year, even as the market shrinks. And with the technical optimisations going live in phases, there is even more growth on the horizon.
By truly understanding market demand before content is created, visibility grows where it matters commercially, year after year.
