After enduring an unreliable ecommerce site and a lackluster wholesale solution, Beard & Blade — an Australian based seller of men’s grooming supplies — migrated from Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus to accelerate growth and offer customers a robust self-serve wholesale portal.
Since replatforming, the company has notched impressive accomplishments:
- Retail sales have increased 35% year over year
- Wholesale revenue has increased 100%
- At $296, wholesale AOV is 5x retail AOV’s $49
Switching to Shopify Plus has been remarkable. We’re doing record sales since switching to Shopify Plus. This was unthinkable when we were on Adobe Commerce.
Challenge
In addition to an unreliable site that routinely cost Beard & Blade sales, the company says it was unable to efficiently execute its wholesale strategy while on Adobe Commerce. Instead of a single storefront that pulled from a single inventory pool, Beard & Blade was required to have two storefronts; a retail store and separate wholesale store, each of which required its own inventory pool since the company says Adobe Commerce would not allow for separate pricing or customer lists.
Even worse, when a large wholesale order was placed, not only did Beard & Blade have to manually send wholesale orders to its warehouse for fulfillment, staffers also had to manually update inventory levels on the retail storefront.
“Trying to run a wholesale store on Adobe Commerce is really difficult,” says co-founder Ben Chidiac. “It’s not easy to manage and requires a lot of manual work.”
Solutions
Since replatforming in January 2017 and launching its Shopify Plus wholesale ecommerce channel, Beard & Blade no longer worries about the reliability of its site nor must it operate a separate wholesale store that pulls from a separate inventory pool.
Likewise, it no longer has to manually enter wholesale orders or adjust inventory levels on its retail site after taking a large wholesale order:
- Beard & Blade uses its existing Shopify Plus retail storefront to offer a branded, self-service wholesale storefront for high-volume buyers to access and order from wherever and whenever they want
- Inventory for wholesale orders is automatically pulled from the same inventory pool that services Beard & Blade’s retail store and is synchronized with orders and customers in one admin for real-time monitoring and analysis
- The turnkey, password-protected wholesale portal allows Beard & Blade to offer different customers custom products or collections at fixed, percentage off, or volume-based pricing with minimum and maximum quantity increments
“Our wholesale offering has improved dramatically since switching to Shopify Plus,” Salemme says. “Not only is it easier to set up and manage but customers love being able to log in and track their orders.”
Results
Wholesale orders now integrate like any other order and automatically enter Beard & Blade’s warehouse workflows to be picked and packed like routine retail orders. Unlike the company’s experience on Adobe Commerce, wholesale orders are not disruptive, treated any differently, or require manual attention that can slow and negatively impact the customer experience.
Since launching on Plus Beard & Blade has increased retail sales 35% year over year. The company’s $296 wholesale AOV compares favorably with its $49 retail AOV, and wholesale revenue has doubled.
Beard & Blade is now a multimillion dollar company with a global footprint.
“Switching to Shopify Plus has been remarkable,” Salemme says. “We’re doing record sales since switching. This was unthinkable when we were on Adobe Commerce.”