Case Study: The Integrated Ecommerce Tech Stack Accelerating This Fashion Brand’s Online Growth

US brand The Pulse Boutique is on a mission to bring joy to women’s closets with their “cute, comfy and casual” clothing. Since its launch in 2014, it has transformed from a basement startup to a successful business with thousands of devoted customers. In fact, since Swanky’s first engagement with Pulse in 2018, the company’s annual revenue has grown over 250%.

This case study will focus on the integrated ecommerce tech stack powering Pulse’s online growth. In particular, it will explore how different tools work together to improve the customer experience and reduce data silos.

What does an optimal ecommerce tech stack look like?

The key to an optimal ecommerce tech stack is having solutions that seamlessly communicate with each other. This has multiple benefits for retail teams and consumers alike.

When platforms for functions such as CRM, email marketing, reviews, loyalty and customer support are interconnected, customers can enjoy consistency across channels and touch points. A joined up customer experience can go a long way in improving shopper satisfaction, encouraging repeat purchases and driving brand advocacy.

For retailers, an interconnected ecosystem – where platforms seamlessly share data – helps to reduce data silos and facilitate a holistic, real-time view of customer behaviour. This enables brands to create more targeted interactions with customers.

Cross-application data sharing also reduces manual work and improves efficiency by enabling the automation of processes. This includes sending automated product review requests via email, or product quiz results being automatically integrated into SMS communications.

Ultimately, by leveraging a unified approach to ecommerce technology, brands can streamline processes, optimise marketing strategies, and elevate the experience for their customers.

Pulse’s consolidated ecommerce tech stack is an excellent example of this in practice.

A winning fashion ecommerce tech stack for The Pulse Boutique

Key solutions in Pulse’s integrated digital toolbox include:

• Shopify Plus
• LoyaltyLion
• Okendo
• Klaviyo
• Attentive
• Venn Apps

We’ll explore each of these in more detail below, taking into consideration how the solutions integrate with each other.

Ecommerce platform: Shopify Plus

Pulse’s ecommerce website is built on Shopify Plus, leveraging Shopify Online Store 2.0. Designed to scale and support retailers through growth, the platform has proven to be a reliable home for Pulse’s fast-evolving online operation.

The team have enjoyed features and capabilities such as:

• High-volume capacity – The platform can handle north of 10,000 checkouts per minute, giving retailers confidence during peak events like Black Friday or flash sales.

• Superior checkout experience – Shop Pay is advertised as the fastest and highest-converting checkout on the market.

• Large ecosystem of apps and integrations – There are more than 8,000 apps and pre-built integrations available for Shopify retailers to interact with, all of which are rigorously reviewed prior to release.

• Powerful automations – The platform’s Flow and Launchpad tools help to automate repetitive tasks and reduce manual admin required.

• Flexibility & agility – Brands can easily implement changes on-site thanks to Shopify’s intuitive drag-and-drop store builder. Plus, Online Store 2.0 has unlocked even more customisability for retailers thanks to features like ‘sections everywhere’ and native metafield functionality.

Loyalty: LoyaltyLion

For the Pulse team, nurturing their large and active community of customers has remained a key point of focus throughout the brand’s growth. They have worked hard to create a mutually beneficial relationship that rewards their loyal customers whilst supporting the business’ engagement and retention goals.

The brand’s popular and highly successful loyalty program – ‘Pulse Perks’ – has played a significant role in this. It is powered by leading loyalty solution LoyaltyLion and gives customers multiple ways to earn points, including through purchases, social follows and reviews.

LoyaltyLion seamlessly connects with a range of other tech platforms, including email marketing solutions, helpdesks, subscription tools and mobile app builders. This enables the Pulse team to maximise the value of their customers’ loyalty data and unlock hyper-personalised communications.

An incredible 44% of The Pulse Boutique’s revenue can be attributed to loyalty program members, with redeeming members worth 10x as much as non-members in terms of customer lifetime value, ordering more than 4x as often non-members.

Reviews: Okendo

The Pulse Boutique team uses Okendo to capture and showcase customer reviews. These reviews are rich in content, with ratings of quality, comfort and sizing used to provide deeper insights for potential customers.

Leveraging social proof like this is a proven way to boost shoppers’ confidence and drive conversions – especially amongst new customers who aren’t familiar with a fashion brand’s sizing, for example.

Okendo’s integrations with the other apps in Pulse’s tech stack mean that the team can easily incorporate reviews throughout their ecommerce strategy – including incentivising their production with loyalty points via LoyaltyLion and automating their collection with post-purchase emails in Klaviyo.

Email marketing: Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a leading email and marketing automation solution, designed to help ecommerce businesses craft personalised, data-driven marketing messages. With its focus on targeted, automated communication, it helps retailers boost customer engagement, build meaningful customer relationships, and drive sales.

Crucially, its integrations with other platforms help create a seamless customer experience. Retailers can gather and activate data for the most personalised and timely interactions throughout the entire customer journey.

For example, its integration with Shopify enables automated ecommerce communications (like abandoned cart and back in stock flows), whilst its LoyaltyLion integration means that the Pulse team can automatically welcome new loyalty members and easily share loyalty point updates via email.

Swanky has a dedicated team of in-house Klaviyo specialists who help brands harness the potential of this powerful platform. From standalone projects, to ongoing email marketing initiatives, we can help you drive exceptional results with Klaviyo.

SMS: Attentive

As a brand with its customers at its heart, SMS is a highly effective strategy for Pulse. It delivers instant, direct communication with consumers, strengthening relationships with its real-time reach. SMS allows the brand to provide order updates, communicate loyalty information, promote restocks and sales, share discounts, and much more.

Pulse’s SMS marketing is powered by AI platform Attentive, which uses real-time data to create tailored customer interactions. It connects with hundreds of other tech platforms to empower seamless experiences across channels and touch points.

For instance, Attentive’s integration with Okendo means that Pulse can engage customers post-purchase by requesting reviews via SMS. These can be automated using Okendo Sequences.

Meanwhile, the Attentive-LoyaltyLion integration empowers this fashion brand to send SMS campaigns based on loyalty data, with automated workflows based on the completion of certain actions.

Mobile app: Venn Apps

To elevate the shopping experience for its consumers, Pulse offers a bespoke mobile app. This brings convenience to customers’ fingertips, with push notifications for direct, low-cost and effective communication with customers, as well as a faster route to checkout. It also helps create a sense of exclusivity for those who download it, thanks to app-only promotions and privileged access to products.

Built using Venn Apps, it’s a powerful tool for a fashion brand like Pulse – one that boosts customer engagement and loyalty, ultimately unlocking more value from customers.

Venn Apps and LoyaltyLion are used together by the Pulse team to enhance the loyalty experience for the brand’s mobile app users. They can leverage the integration between the two solutions to reward customers with loyalty points for completing actions on the mobile app.

Plus, they can automate push notifications about customers’ points balances and available rewards to motivate shoppers to return to the app. In fact, Pulse has seen a 79% increase in repeat purchase rates by using the Venn Apps and LoyaltyLion integration.

Long-term collaboration with Swanky’s Australian Shopify experts

Swanky has proudly collaborated with Pulse founders Mallory and Mackenzie at various stages throughout their business journey. Our partnership began with a CRO engagement, followed by a Shopify store re-theme in which we revamped and modernised this fashion brand’s online presence.

Pulse then joined our Growth Accelerator program, seeking to leverage our Shopify expertise across a range of services. We supported the brand with data analysis, helped to transform traffic into conversions with further A/B testing, implemented a new loyalty program, and increased business efficiency by automating backend admin processes.

Most recently, in 2024 we were excited to unlock further growth opportunities by upgrading Pulse to Shopify Online Store 2.0. During the 2.0 upgrade, we updated the site’s product pages to help Pulse customers easily identify the right size for them. The addition of dynamic fields, including a fit guide and model profiles, address common concerns around fit and size and contribute to an improved online shopping experience.

Reflecting on Pulse’s success, Sean Clanchy, Managing Director of Swanky Australia and co-host of After Hours eCommerce podcast, commented:

“Since we first began working with the Pulse team in 2018, we have been constantly invigorated by the pride they take in providing a great experience to their customers, and their fantastic use of an integrated ecommerce tech stack to achieve this. 

“To contextualise their success, Pulse are now an 8-figure brand, who have grown over 250% since 2018. 

“I cannot wait to see what Mal and Mackenzie achieve in the next nine years!”

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