SportsShoes.com Doubles Conversions with BigCommerce

SOLUTION

Composable and future-proof

SportsShoes knew it needed to take a composable approach to replatforming. It had been held back for far too long by an inflexible, legacy tech stack and so wanted to invest in an infrastructure where it can select and integrate the best tools for each element of ecommerce with ease. The brand started off by identifying the tools it wanted to use and then, after considerable market research, found that BigCommerce offered the optimum balance of a flexible API infrastructure and affordable total cost of ownership (TCO). 

“We wanted to leverage a best-of-breed platform,” says Jon Cleaver, Chief Technology Officer at SportsShoes. “We wanted the best search and merch platform that we could find, which was BloomReach. We wanted to have the best PSP, we chose Stripe, and the best CMS for our particular needs, which was Prismic.

“BigCommerce brought all of that tech stack together, and we built everything around those core platforms. It gives us a great degree of flexibility going forwards because if new technology evolves, any one of those components can be easily switched out for another provider. So that very much gives us a future-proof path.”

Tailored payments with Stripe

One of the big attractions of the BigCommerce platform for SportsShoes is its advanced checkout features which can be set up to offer customers a simple one-page route to complete a purchase. At the same time, the company also knew it needed a best-in-class PSP (payment service provider) to ensure the best performance in terms of approving and processing payments in multiple currencies while also protecting the brand from fraud.  

“Stripe offers leading technology in payments, they're incredibly strong with fraud prevention tools and fraud risk tools, which work really well,” says Jon Cleaver. “And the great thing is the integration with BigCommerce, it's been really seamless, low touch, low friction, low headache, and it just works for us.” 

It’s not just seamless integration that works well with the Stripe partnership. The payment options available for each market save SportsShoes considerable time and cost researching, and implementing the right fit for each country. These time savings are not just for the brand but also for customers. Cleaver reveals the Stripe Link service offers the ability to identify returning shoppers to deliver a frictionless checkout experience.

“Stripe Link gives that seamless experience where we recognize customers who’ve used Stripe Link before and so they get a one-time use code and to complete checkout on their behalf,” he enthuses. “That's worked really well, the take-up has been really positive.”

“There’s also the ability to switch on and off different payment methods in different territories and, particularly in Europe, that's a really important feature. So, for example, in the Dutch market I can enable iDEAL. Stripe also integrates a lot of the Buy Now Pay Later methods as well. So it means we only have to integrate with one PSP and that unlocks multiple different options per territory. That saves time to market and development costs, which is really important.”

Multi-Storefront for EU growth 

SportsShoes is not only seeking growth in its domestic UK market, it has ambitious plans to continue building revenue streams across the EU. For this it needs a central ecommerce platform to run sites dedicated to each country’s language, pricing, currency and linguistic requirements. To simplify this growth strategy efficiently, Jon Cleaver reveals the brand is using BigCommerce Multi-Storefront.

“We have six different storefronts that we provide to our customers and they're in English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, and we also have our mobile application,” says Cleaver. “We are using Multi-Storefront. It allows us to translate the product catalogues, use different currencies and payment options in these different territories as well. It’s been a key technology that we've leveraged.”

BigCommerce services supporting success at every step

BigCommerce’s hands-on service approach often plays a critical role. From onboarding through to ongoing operations, these dedicated teams work closely with clients to ensure consistent support and collaboration. 

With direct lines of communication, rapid response times, and access to platform experts, BigCommerce service team has helped SportsShoes navigate challenges and deliver new features efficiently. Their responsive, people-driven approach continues to be a cornerstone of the successful two-year relationship.

“In any technology project, there are always ups and downs — but the BigCommerce team has always been there,” says Cleaver. “From implementation to day-to-day service, there’s no friction. We've worked with an Implementation Project Manager, Customer Success Manager, and Technical Account Manager who guide us, connect us with partners, and help us push through any of the things we're trying to achieve.”