Internationalisation
Oct 12
Case Study: How Shopify Boosted this Equine Ecommerce Store’s Revenue by 300%
We worked with an equine ecommerce store to build a Shopify site that saved them hours of admin work and led to an immediate increase in sales upon launch. We’ve been told their new website is the envy of their competitors! Read on to find out why.
Written By
Sarah Hanney
An equine ecommerce store in need of a new website
For over 50 years, Australian-based Peter Williams Riding Apparel (PWRA) have been designing and manufacturing premium equestrian garments. Whilst their product has always been highly regarded and their brand well-respected in the world of equine retail, their ecommerce store did not reflect the quality of their products.
In addition to the visual presentation of the brand, the limitations of their existing ecommerce platform meant PWRA were spending hours making manual updates, and it was expensive and complicated to make changes to their website.
With more and more customers choosing to make large purchases over the internet, PWRA recognised a need to create a website that was both functional and easy to manage, as well as user-friendly and appealing to customers.
Why did they choose Shopify to host their ecommerce store?
As a small business without a dedicated IT team, PWRA needed a simple interface to make updates, and the reliability of Shopify to support their business. They’d come across Shopify before, and after hearing rave reviews from other Shopify merchants, they decided to choose it to host their ecommerce store.
The Shopify success story
We caught up with the business manager at PWRA, Helen Barkla, to find out how she’s adjusting to their new Shopify store.
Has Shopify lived-up to your expectations?
“As with anything new, there were some hectic moments getting my head around it all. But once we became familiar with Shopify, it was quite straightforward. Personally, I love Shopify’s ability to work with anything and everything – it has changed not just the visual representation of the business, but it’s completely changed my admin workload!
I can now use the OneSaas Shopify app to synchronise orders and inventory directly with my accounting programme. Previously I used to manually enter customer details and create invoices, whilst manually updating stock levels. I seldom had any time to market the business. Now, this app just pulls data from Shopify to our accounting programme – MYOB AccountRight – and does it all for me. The website is live with our inventory within an hour. It syncs every hour and I can force it to sync immediately if required. The way Shopify has enabled us to streamline the business and reduce workloads has been wonderful!”
What have you enjoyed the most about migrating your store to Shopify?
“Probably seeing it all come together and realising how easy it was going to be at the end. It was fairly stressful at times, and in the middle of the project the workload seemed overwhelming. But once we got over the product upload, organised the collections and had everything sorted, it was great to see it all come together. What would have been a huge (and intimidating) task on our old platform was actually quite simple on Shopify.
And whilst the jargon and technical side of the project could be confusing, Sean at Swanky was great at simplifying things and explaining them in “normal” language. He even turned up here with a packet of biscuits one afternoon and spent time sitting down helping me to understand the jargon and run me through the processes I’d need to use day-to-day.”
What do you like the most about your new Shopify store?
“Its functionality. I’ve noticed an increase in sales, and where people used to order just one item they’ll now order a couple or a whole outfit.
Now that the website is easier to navigate, customers are able to search for and find the products they are looking for, and our customers love the new reviews system, powered by Okendo. One thing we have found particularly interesting is that we have started selling products that really weren’t selling before. All of a sudden we are saying ‘Wow, people are ordering these items again!’ which for years have been slower sellers. It’s obvious to us that we are more visible, our site is more searchable and generally just much better at helping our customers find the products they’re looking for.”
New search functions enable customers to find products and make multiple purchases easily.
What improvements and results have you seen on your website since your launch?
“Absolutely an increase in sales, straight-up. And multiple product sales, where people are adding a couple of items to their cart and increasing their order values. The conversion rate is really good too. And when I promote the business on Facebook it is so easy to add something to the cart and check out. From the customer’s point of view, it’s much more user-friendly – which means more sales for us.
Our wholesale clients are reporting back to us and saying how beautiful the website looks and how wonderful it is to use, and that’s coming from competing shops as well!”
What makes the launch of this new e-commerce store a Shopify success story?
- A more user-friendly website, leading to more orders, cross-sells and a higher average order value.
- An immediate increase in sales, with PWRA on track to achieve a 300% retail increase over the next year.
- Multiple hours of admin work saved each day using OneSaas to synchronise inventory, orders and invoices between Shopify and MYOB AccountRight.
- PWRA wholesale customers can now order online using the Wholesale Club Shopify app, saving even more time and exposing merchants to a wider range of products.
- Greater organic reach, with new customers arriving on the store from around the world.
- With processes streamlined, PWRA now have the time and platform scalability for entering international markets.