Founded in 2000, Tigerlily is one of Australia’s leading premium swimwear brands that specializes in holiday wardrobes designed for any occasion. Along with its ecommerce site, the brand also operates 11 stores across Australia.
While the brand was quick to recognize the need to serve customers online and via its stores, creating a consistent customer experience across those sales channels was a challenge. “We were using Shopify for ecommerce, and another provider as our POS system. The disconnect between both systems was resulting in fragmented data, and the inability to launch buying experiences that reflect how shoppers want to shop,” explains Travis Wright, Tigerlily’s CEO.
To unify its sales channels and build a foundation for more seamless shopping online and in-person, the brand switched to Shopify POS.
Since switching to Shopify POS, Tigerlily has seen:
- 20% growth in store average order value
- 20% rise in group revenue in FY23 compared to FY22
- 4% higher average order value for multichannel shoppers when compared to single-channel shoppers
Challenge
For a brand with a history steeped in brick and mortar retail, the shift in consumer shopping habits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic was a pivotal moment of change.
With shoppers still shopping online while gradually returning to its stores, Tigerlily knew it needed to unify both sales channels and support the multi-channel buyer’s journey.
While the brand chose Shopify for its ecommece platform, its POS system was from a different provider and connected to its online store via an API. While the systems were technically connected, data didn’t sync to the same reporting dashboards, causing fragmented customer, order, and inventory data that could only be resolved with manual reconciliation.
The lack of a native integration also prevented Tigerlily from offering hybrid shopping options like in-store pickup, store returns for online purchases, or even a loyalty program that allowed shoppers to collect and redeem points online or in store.
There's nothing worse than a customer coming into a store and your team being unable to help them. That, compounded with the fractured data and time-consuming reconciliation process, made us start looking for a POS system that worked better with our ecommerce platform and allowed us to truly unify those channels.
Solution
Tigerlily implemented Shopify POS in late 2021 on the advice of advisory firm BDO. With its POS system and ecommerce platform working in harmony, Tigerlily’s store team could serve customers how they wanted to be served—whether it be processing a return for an item purchased online, fulfilling a store pickup order, or providing better product recommendations based on their purchase history.
Tigerlily also launched a loyalty program with Yotpo that gives shoppers the flexibility to collect and redeem points in-store and online. Additionally, the brand installed customer service helpdesk app Gorgias, which enables its customer care team to collect and communicate customer feedback with store teams and improve the shopping experience even further.
Shopify POS also integrated seamlessly with its inventory management system (IMS), Cin7. The native integration between Shopify’s ecommerce platform and POS system enabled Tigerlily to launch in-store pickup, offer ship to home order fulfillment if a certain item isn’t on-hand, and return or exchange online purchases in store without causing inaccurate inventory reporting.
Since moving to Shopify POS, customers have a more frictionless experience when they shop with us. We’ve launched services and order fulfillment options that simply weren’t possible before that really elevate the service we can provide and make their experience more enjoyable.
Results
Since unifying its sales channels on Shopify, Tigerlily has been able to use detailed reports to get a complete 360-degree view of its customers across all sales channels and make the most of each touchpoint. Leveraging its newfound centralized reporting has been a massive value-add for the brand, with revenue growing 20% year over year.
Detailed customer profiles have also been a boon for store sales. Equipped with online and store purchase history, Tigerlily’s store staff can provide more personalized recommendations to shoppers, which has helped lift store average order values by 20% as well.
In addition to increasing in-store sales, the brand has found that customers who shop in-store and online—a cohort which represents over 20% of its customer base—have higher order values than single channel shoppers by as much as 4%. “This further validates our vision for unifying digital and physical shopping experiences,” explains Travis. “Facilitating that multi-channel shopping journey has a direct impact on our bottom line, which makes it a worthwhile investment.”
Since switching to Shopify POS and bringing our sales channels together, we’ve seen a 20% growth in store average order values and year-over. Customers appreciate that our experience online and offline feels consistent, which helps drive more sales.
