Equestrian Supplies Retailer, Equiport, were looking to move to Shopify from a custom-built web platform.
For most if not all ecommerce brands, due to the improved ease of use and the speed at which you can make changes to your online store, moving to Shopify is extremely worthwhile. However, that’s not to say the process is without its challenges.
Understanding this, but ultimately wanting a more stripped back and streamlined business hub, Equiport trusted us with handling their web migration, which would include carefully handling all of their existing customer data, building custom functionalities, and much more.
The primary challenge for the migration was the complexity of Equiport’s products. For some products, Equiport sought to give customers the ultra-personalised product offering you’d get through a one-on-one consultation with a sales representative, online. However, this meant that a singular product listing could have hundreds of variants.
Out of the box, Shopify currently limits a product to three customisation options and 2000 product variants. So we were going to have to build a custom functionality in order for this essential part of the customer experience to be maintained.
Let’s take the Fleece Show Rug as an example to illustrate the complexity we were faced with. This product has a maximum of 17 product options to build your product of choice, and thousands of possible combinations, with each combination having a different price attached to it.
Our approach was to make each addition to the base product its own product, essentially creating a huge bundle builder within one product page.
By building each option as a meta-object, we were able to give Equiport the ability to build out each new option from a new range of options, which weren’t natively available within Shopify, such as the colour swatches and fonts defined within products. The customer is also not able to add these composable products to their cart, until they have chosen each option, cutting out any unfulfillable orders from making their way through the cracks.
Taking this methodology a step further, as we were able to edit the checkout in Shopify Plus, we were able to list all of the additional pricing options under one product.
This meant that a customer would only see their one hero product, but Equiport would know all of the smaller add ons that made it up too. Additionally, we made sure that all variants were tax compliant internationally. As not only did the hero product have its own VAT, but so too did each add on.
The promises of running your business on Shopify are so well known that many retailers don’t fully appreciate them. But regardless of if you’re making the move to Shopify basic, Shopify Advanced, or, like Equiport, Shopify Plus, you’ll instantly benefit from the reduced total cost of ownership and the ease of use of running your business online. For Equiport, these benefits were almost instantaneously felt, giving them a site that’s much easier to maintain and update with new products.
If this is a journey you’re looking to go on for your business, make sure you do so with guidance from an experienced and knowledgeable team like us. Let’s talk.
"With Cake’s expert guidance, migrating to Shopify Plus has been transformational for our business. They demonstrated a deep understanding of our goals, the complexity of our product range, and the premium experience we wanted to deliver. We would highly recommend Cake to any business looking for a thoughtful, strategic, and design-led approach to ecommerce."
Jennie Dunning - Ecommerce Manager, Equiport
Every great relationship starts with a conversation, so schedule your call with us now and let’s find out how we can help you unleash your potential.
The Slice is our monthly newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox on a monthly basis. Receive the latest in ecommerce news, discover our latest work, insights to help you grow your business, and more.
