Why Schleich Uses Polar Analytics to Run Global DTC Reporting Across 11 Countries
connected
per month
About Schleich
Schleich is one of the world’s leading toy manufacturers, beloved for its hand-painted figurines and imaginative playsets that have sparked creativity for generations. Founded more than 85 years ago, the brand has grown into a household name across Europe and beyond. Today, Schleich products are sold in over 11 countries, inspiring children to tell their own stories through imagination.
One Lean Team Struggling to See a Unified Picture Across 11 Countries
When Schleich migrated from Magento to Shopify, the move gave the ecommerce team more agility but also introduced data chaos. Each market ran on its own systems, currencies, and Google Analytics (GA) properties, leaving fragmented insights scattered across platforms.
As the sole analyst for Schleich’s global DTC business, Ecommerce Analytics Manager Ben Shatsoff became the point person for all reporting. Every monthly rollup meant a full day of manual work across Shopify, GA, Klaviyo, Amazon, and multiple ad platforms. Ben explained the bottleneck,
“It was understood that if someone asked for a new report, it would take at least a day to compile. We couldn’t pivot quickly, and regular reporting only happened monthly because it was too much of a lift to do more often.”
This bottleneck slowed Schleich. Merchandising teams in Europe, marketing leads in North America, and even finance had to wait for Ben to deliver answers. Attribution was unclear, particularly in Europe, where cookie restrictions obscured traffic and conversions.
Building Flexible Dashboards and Achieving Attribution Accuracy Across Multiple Shopify Stores
When Schleich adopted Polar, they saw an opportunity to rebuild their reporting foundation around clarity and speed.
The first breakthrough was consolidation. Four Shopify stores, Meta, Google, Klaviyo, Amazon, affiliate data, and more were all connected into one platform, giving Ben the ability to build dashboards tailored to each team and region.
“The biggest thing for us was having everything readily available. Now I can actually do the analysis versus putting the data together.”
For marketing, Polar’s Pixel was installed across stores, designed to capture touchpoints that GA and ad platforms often missed. The Pixel gave Schleich the ability to surface a more accurate picture of ROAS and channel performance.
Instead of being locked into standard platform definitions, Polar’s custom reporting allowed Schleich to create new metrics, reclassify dimensions, and segment data in ways that reflected how the business operated. This meant answering niche questions quickly and adapting reporting as strategies evolved.
And with Polar’s Klaviyo Audiences, Schleich prepared its EU stores to launch automated flows like browse recovery and abandoned cart campaigns, unlocking revenue that had been left untouched.
Gaining Global Insights and Self-Serve Dashboards for 15+ Stakeholders
The impact was immediate. Reporting that once took a full day now runs in minutes, saving the team an estimated 35 hours each month, freeing them to focus on analysis rather than maintenance. More than 15 team members now access Polar directly, while others receive automated reports delivered by email.
“Now I send out a summary of what I see in the data. The dashboards are already there. I get to analyze instead of just putting numbers together.”
Attribution clarity improved as well. With Polar Pixel data, Schleich uncovered discrepancies in ad platforms’ reporting, seeing where Meta overstated ROAS and where Google underreported. Early audits showed roughly 95% attribution accuracy, giving the team confidence to reallocate spend by channel and country.
With custom metrics and dimensions, Polar’s team created reporting logic tailored to Schleich, including the ability to group KPIs into three-week periods instead of standard calendar months. Schleich also isolated ROI from upsell apps, segmented orders by custom tags, and compared performance across franchises. These views uncovered striking differences: in Europe, seasonal products like Advent calendars encouraged repeat purchases, while in the U.S., they were more “one-and-done.” Those insights now guide how budgets are allocated ahead of peak season.
“We used to just look at sales. Now we look at LTV by first purchase, by franchise, and even by basket mix. It changes the conversation from ‘what sold’ to ‘what builds loyal customers.’”
Most importantly, Polar reduced bottlenecks. Merchandising teams now self-serve to track product performance and reorganize collections. Sales teams walk into retailer meetings with zip-code-level insights on baskets and LTV. Even Schleich’s president logs in regularly to explore dashboards himself.
What’s Next for Schleich
Looking ahead, Schleich plans to deepen its analytics stack with Polar by sending stronger signals back to Meta and Google via CAPI, layering in subscription analytics, and integrating loyalty data to better understand retention and true customer lifetime value. With a clean reporting foundation in place, the team also sees hyper-personalization on the horizon.
“It’s been a very positive experience so far. I was pushing hard for Polar, so I hoped things would go smoothly. The onboarding was great, and our CSM, Abby, has been a huge help — always quick to respond and never saying something isn’t possible, but instead, ‘I’ll check with the technical team.’ It’s reassuring to know you take feedback into account.”
What where your goals ?
What are your marketing challenges ?
When Schleich migrated from Magento to Shopify, the move gave the ecommerce team more agility but also introduced data chaos. Each market ran on its own systems, currencies, and Google Analytics (GA) properties, leaving fragmented insights scattered across platforms.
As the sole analyst for Schleich’s global DTC business, Ecommerce Analytics Manager Ben Shatsoff became the point person for all reporting. Every monthly rollup meant a full day of manual work across Shopify, GA, Klaviyo, Amazon, and multiple ad platforms. Ben explained the bottleneck,
“It was understood that if someone asked for a new report, it would take at least a day to compile. We couldn’t pivot quickly, and regular reporting only happened monthly because it was too much of a lift to do more often.”
This bottleneck slowed Schleich. Merchandising teams in Europe, marketing leads in North America, and even finance had to wait for Ben to deliver answers. Attribution was unclear, particularly in Europe, where cookie restrictions obscured traffic and conversions.
How did you monitor growth before Polar Analytics ?
When Schleich adopted Polar, they saw an opportunity to rebuild their reporting foundation around clarity and speed.
The first breakthrough was consolidation. Four Shopify stores, Meta, Google, Klaviyo, Amazon, affiliate data, and more were all connected into one platform, giving Ben the ability to build dashboards tailored to each team and region.
“The biggest thing for us was having everything readily available. Now I can actually do the analysis versus putting the data together.”
For marketing, Polar’s Pixel was installed across stores, designed to capture touchpoints that GA and ad platforms often missed. The Pixel gave Schleich the ability to surface a more accurate picture of ROAS and channel performance.
Instead of being locked into standard platform definitions, Polar’s custom reporting allowed Schleich to create new metrics, reclassify dimensions, and segment data in ways that reflected how the business operated. This meant answering niche questions quickly and adapting reporting as strategies evolved.
And with Polar’s Klaviyo Audiences, Schleich prepared its EU stores to launch automated flows like browse recovery and abandoned cart campaigns, unlocking revenue that had been left untouched.
Gaining Global Insights and Self-Serve Dashboards for 15+ Stakeholders
The impact was immediate. Reporting that once took a full day now runs in minutes, saving the team an estimated 35 hours each month, freeing them to focus on analysis rather than maintenance. More than 15 team members now access Polar directly, while others receive automated reports delivered by email.
“Now I send out a summary of what I see in the data. The dashboards are already there. I get to analyze instead of just putting numbers together.”
Attribution clarity improved as well. With Polar Pixel data, Schleich uncovered discrepancies in ad platforms’ reporting, seeing where Meta overstated ROAS and where Google underreported. Early audits showed roughly 95% attribution accuracy, giving the team confidence to reallocate spend by channel and country.
With custom metrics and dimensions, Polar’s team created reporting logic tailored to Schleich, including the ability to group KPIs into three-week periods instead of standard calendar months. Schleich also isolated ROI from upsell apps, segmented orders by custom tags, and compared performance across franchises. These views uncovered striking differences: in Europe, seasonal products like Advent calendars encouraged repeat purchases, while in the U.S., they were more “one-and-done.” Those insights now guide how budgets are allocated ahead of peak season.
“We used to just look at sales. Now we look at LTV by first purchase, by franchise, and even by basket mix. It changes the conversation from ‘what sold’ to ‘what builds loyal customers.’”
Most importantly, Polar reduced bottlenecks. Merchandising teams now self-serve to track product performance and reorganize collections. Sales teams walk into retailer meetings with zip-code-level insights on baskets and LTV. Even Schleich’s president logs in regularly to explore dashboards himself.
What were your needs ?
What’s Next for Schleich
Looking ahead, Schleich plans to deepen its analytics stack with Polar by sending stronger signals back to Meta and Google via CAPI, layering in subscription analytics, and integrating loyalty data to better understand retention and true customer lifetime value. With a clean reporting foundation in place, the team also sees hyper-personalization on the horizon.
“It’s been a very positive experience so far. I was pushing hard for Polar, so I hoped things would go smoothly. The onboarding was great, and our CSM, Abby, has been a huge help — always quick to respond and never saying something isn’t possible, but instead, ‘I’ll check with the technical team.’ It’s reassuring to know you take feedback into account.”
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