How Belstaff is laying the foundations for its next 100 years with a unified commerce strategy
Industry
Fashion and Apparel
Products
Headless, Shopify Plus, Shopify POS
Use case
Migration, Apps and Integrations, Multi-channel and Omnichannel, Retail and POS, Replatforming and Upgrades
One hundred years on from its founding in 1924, Belstaff’s focus on quality, comfort, and protection has seen it worn by icons ranging from world-class racer Sammy Miller, to Amelia Earhart, “King of Cool” Steve McQueen, and Kate Moss.
As Belstaff is moving to the next century, the brand has shifted to a unified commerce approach with Shopify, streamlining its technology and bolstering the customer experience for existing and future generations.
Since moving to Shopify, the brand has seen:
- A drastic improvement in speed to market
- A drastic decrease in TCO
- An increase in conversion
Challenge
Belstaff’s community has been a lynchpin of the brand’s success, but as its 100th birthday approached, it set out to develop a full business transformation that would streamline operations and allow it to better connect with both old and new customers alike.
It's the most challenging thing to do in any brand, especially a legacy heritage brand, to come in and appeal to a new customer base whilst not alienating the loyalists who have been there the whole way
Balance would be key. With loyal customers who have been following the brand for decades, Belstaff needed to find a way to modernise their commerce strategy and reach new audiences, while protecting the heritage long-term fans love.
To do this, and drive its wider brand refresh, the company had to ensure consistency across its in-store and online experiences—something its existing systems couldn’t offer.
We had an expensive IT outsourcing model, the technical debt was building up, and the architecture was a black box. Our point of sale and ERP system were monolithic and complicated, making it hard to adapt to the changing market.
Solution
Belstaff was drawn to Shopify thanks to its intuitive features, clear roadmap for innovation, and its ability to drive unified commerce across its online and bricks-and-mortar stores.
By migrating to Shopify, Belstaff was able to unite its point of sale and ecommerce systems and, with that unified system in place, those essential pillars of Belstaff’s technology stack were connected under one cohesive whole. This meant that instead of information needing to be translated across different systems creating additional integration points and patterns, they were able to create one integration point from the start.
Navid Jilow, Belstaff’s Director of Technology noted the challenges of the alternative, saying, “If you have a different POS system to your eCommerce system then you have to deal with the additional complexity of managing two different systems, using separate data models, therefore increasing the technical and integration complexity within your IT real estate. With the POS and Ecommerce systems under one platform, we were able to efficiently integrate Shopify and NetSuite.” “IT transformation is really about data centralisation; the one platform view,” adds Navid.
Alongside Shopify’s unified commerce approach, Belstaff found Shopify’s intuitive user interface supported their rollout.
Sometimes, you get a level of resistance during a new implementation. That’s why system intuitiveness is essential. The user interface of Shopify was a real highlight. When I looked at it I was like, ‘Okay, I can actually pick this up really quickly’.
Beyond the data analysis and integration behind the scenes, Shopify also offers headless commerce, giving Belstaff full creative control over its online experience. With the brand’s unique identity and rich heritage, this has been a critical element of its overall unified commerce strategy. What’s more, it’s enabled Belstaff to achieve its goal of ensuring new and old customers alike have a consistent experience both online and in-store.
With Shopify’s headless solution and clear API documentation, the team can also customise the website’s appearance and integrate other third-party tools or systems—while keeping all the benefits of Shopify on the back-end, like fast and effortless innovation.
Our brand demands that our website looks unique. It’s really important to have that ability to be able to integrate different systems and have the option of building a headless website, which can be customizable and our brand demands that really, we want to look different.
Results
Moving to a unified commerce approach has simplified Belstaff’s back-end while simultaneously empowering the team to gain a one-platform view of customers.
Whether shopping in-store or online, Belstaff can now capture valuable data and insights easily, using them to build a complete customer profile that drives more impactful marketing. In turn, communication from the brand can be strategically targeted and adapted to suit specific interests. Meanwhile, Shopify’s out-of-the-box order routing system has made it easy to minimise split fulfillments, reduce overheads, and streamline omni delivery.
For customers, the result is a consistent and seamless experience—further bolstered by the website’s custom design being just as easy to navigate as Belstaff’s physical stores.
IT transformation is really about data centralisation and gaining a one platform view. Whether we have a customer shopping in-store or purchasing online, we now have that single view. We’re closing gaps in our data—enabling us to keep improving the customer experience.
As Belstaff continues its centenary celebrations, including with the launch of a coffee table-book detailing its rich history, its unified commerce strategy is laying the foundations for the brand to thrive well into its second century—and beyond.
Jodie Harrison, Belstaff’s Chief Brand Officer noted, “it's going to be a very different world in the next 100 years. People don't want to buy as much; absolutely correctly. They want to buy less, but they want to buy better. We are well suited to that. We are well positioned for that. You know, we really focus on quality and craftsmanship.”