Case Study: How Swanky Supported Symprove’s International Ecommerce Growth

About Symprove

Founded in 2002, multi-award winning probiotic wellness brand Symprove manufactures a unique, water-based food supplement that supports the gut microbiome by delivering live and active bacteria where it’s needed most.

Increasing demand in the general wellness market, combined with an improved awareness of gut health and its wider role in health and wellbeing, has driven fast and exceptional growth for Symprove in recent years.

Symprove’s products are available online, directly through the brand’s D2C ecommerce site or via other retail websites, and in-store at a variety of health food shops.

International ecommerce growth: design and build of a new US store

When Symprove first approached Swanky, they already had a UK online store and were quickly gaining popularity in the health and wellness industry.

With big plans to build on their UK success and break into the US market, they were looking for an ecommerce agency to design and build them a brand new US site.

We launched their new Shopify Plus store in July 2020, forming Phase 1 of our work with this fast-growth supplements brand.

The site is geared towards subscriptions, with customers encouraged to ‘Subscribe & Save’ rather than make a single purchase. By signing up for a recurring subscription, users can save money and enjoy other benefits like flexible plans and convenient regular deliveries – all of which are clearly communicated across the site. 

Design

Sam Wilkinson, UI Designer at Swanky, describes the thinking behind the design elements of Symprove’s new store:

“The new site is clean, simple and approachable – helping to build consumer trust and portray Symprove as a reputable retailer. This is particularly important for an ecommerce store that sells health products, as you want users to feel empowered to make considered purchase decisions. 

“Product information is conveyed in a clear, navigable format that’s easy to digest (no pun intended!). Features such as the bitesize information blocks and simple iconography help achieve this, providing users with all the necessary details without distracting them from the customer journey. 

“Overall, the site strikes a good balance between educating the customer and providing a quick route-to-purchase.”

Ecommerce tech stack

It’s not all about looks though. Our digital experts recommended and implemented a future-proofed tech stack to accelerate Symprove’s international ecommerce growth. Their digital toolbox is loaded with a combination of apps for online success, including:

• ReCharge – to manage the subscription element of the business.
  
• Klaviyo – for automated email marketing and other customer communications.
  
• Gorgias – to provide streamlined customer service, no matter where consumers are located.
  
• JustUno – helping users navigate to the correct store with geo-based pop-ups presented on arrival.
• Avalara AvaTax – an upgrade on Shopify’s native US tax solution.

Migration of Symprove’s UK store

With their new US store up and running, it was time for Phase 2 of the Symprove project: upgrading their UK store to match. This was key to ensure brand cohesion across regions (you can read more about the importance of this in our free internationalisation ebook!).

We migrated their existing UK site from the NetSuite eCommerce platform to a new home on Shopify Plus, using their US site as a template. We made use of Shopify’s multi-store functionality, which allows both of Symprove’s storefronts to be managed centrally from one account.

Whilst the overall look and feel was made consistent across both storefronts, slight tweaks were made to the UK version to reflect nuances in the market and customer base. For instance, unlike on the US store which heavily promotes Symprove’s ‘Subscribe & Save’ option, the product pages on the UK site default to ‘single purchase’ – reflecting higher sales of this one-off purchasing option. 

As well as giving the UK store a visual makeover to match its American counterpart, we also streamlined the site’s complex discounting rules using Shopify Scripts and Shopify Flow.

The results

When you compare the UK store’s six week post-launch period with the six weeks prior to launch, there was a 42% increase in revenue, with a 36% boost in the number of transactions completed on the store. Conversion rate remained above the global average too, at 3.34%.

Shopify Plus internationalisation with Swanky

Thinking of going global like Symprove? Need some support to conquer cross-border selling? Whether you’re just starting out with internationalisation, or looking to add another foreign market to your strategy, we can show you how to scale your brand by selling internationally on Shopify Plus.

Get in touch with our team of Shopify Plus experts today to find out more! With over a decade of experience in the ecosystem, we’re in a prime position to help your brand achieve exceptional international ecommerce growth.