Mountain Equipment

Reaching the next peak of customer experience

Mountain Equipment scales to new heights with Shopify

Mountain Equipment has been making gear for the most rugged and wild places on Earth for over half a century. Its outdoor clothing and equipment have empowered countless ascents of the world’s highest peaks and treks to the North and South Poles.

The outdoor brand, which is part of the Bollin Group, first came to us to launch their direct-to-consumer store. This involved replatforming Mountain Equipment to Shopify, accompanied by a full redesign of the website.

As part of Tryzens’ ongoing partnership with Mountain Equipment, we continuously work with the brand to evolve their digital architecture to keep pace with changes in consumer expectation and technology.

The latest milestone in Mountain Equipment’s digital commerce journey focused on optimizing the customer experience and future-proofing their store functionality.

Increase in total sales

81%

Growth in average order value

13%

Increase in orders

1%

The Challenge

Optimizing the customer journey

Tryzens was tasked with analyzing the existing customer journey and identifying areas of optimization across the digital experience. We suggested a broad range of actions to meet the brand’s ambitions of reaching higher standards in customer engagement.

Going global

To meet Mountain Equipment’s goal of breaking into the US market, we needed to ensure the ‘.com’ store was transactional. Previously, it wasn’t, which resulted in missed business opportunities in the US. To achieve this, we needed to map and set up domain redirects to change the domain name from ‘.co.uk’ to ‘.com’.

Seamless SEO

Another challenge involved streamlining operations by migrating expansion stores to a single Shopify instance without negatively impacting SEO. We conducted an SEO audit before and after the domain changes to ensure positive SEO outcomes.

Mountain Equipment also needed a futureproof content management system that would give them more control over managing landing pages and templates.

The move to Shopify 2.0 facilitated this migration, allowing easy adaptation of content to update landing pages for different markets.

Enhancing the user experience

A new conversion rate optimization (CRO) audit was completed to ensure effective marketing strategies. The audit identified key areas for enhancement in the user experience to drive improvements in customer engagement.

For example, enhancing the product detail pages, tracking product-specific information, building engagement through content, and showcasing the customer repair service on the site.

Developing an ecosystem of integrations

A key part of our solution centered on integrations. We migrated the brand to Patchworks’ new dashboard and built custom flows tailored to the business needs and use cases. This integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) solution now allows the automation of data flows across the business, helping to streamline operations and seamlessly connect their ERP to Shopify.

The Solution

To address these challenges, our strategy zeroed in on improving functionality, user experience, and customer engagement.

Redesign on Shopify 2.0

Following a comprehensive UX audit, Mountain Equipment was live with a complete redesign of the online store on the Shopify 2.0 framework.

The product detail pages were heavily redesigned with added functionality to futureproof the store. This included rich product display features, like detailed images and video, product features, and alternative colors and sizes as well as delivery times, customer reviews, and payment options.

We also created a new blog listing section to better organize and present content. This feature helps engage customers with structured and detailed information about the brand and its products.

Down tracking

We migrated a functionality, which was previously on WordPress to Shopify, that allows customers to track the origin and details of down products. This system pulls meta-objects through to the page based on the barcode, giving users access to detailed information about the down used, helping to build transparency and trust.

By entering the unique down code of the product, customers can trace the origins of the material and download the scope certificate, which offers verified documentation of the down’s ethical sourcing and quality standards.

Sustainable practices

Tryzens introduced a repair service feature to the site, allowing customers to send back products for repairs. This enhances sustainability by extending the product lifecycle and reducing waste and environmental impact.

In addition, the product detail pages are accompanied by a sustainability and impact report, which highlights how it aligns with their commitment to good environmental, social, ethical, and food safety practices.

Integrations

We integrated new functionality to Mountain Equipment’s architecture using Patchworks.
This includes:

The email marketing platform Klaviyo, allowing the brand to deliver targeted and personalized email campaigns.
The AI customer experience platform Gorgias improves their customer service management while streamlining communication and support.
Order Editing marks a major enhancement for Mountain Equipment. It enables customers to self-serve by making changes to their orders, giving them greater control and flexibility. This will save the customer service team hundreds of hours, allowing them to focus on more complex customer inquiries.
Order and fulfilment automation, facilitated by leveraging the Patchworks dashboard, allowing for the creation of templates for reuse by Bollin’s portfolio of brands.

Internationalization

We switched the brand’s domain name from ‘.co.uk’ to ‘.com’. This enabled Mountain Equipment to begin successfully marketing and selling in the US.

The SEO audits analyzed pre- and post-domain change to ensure there were no negative impacts to SEO. The first orders were placed from the US within days of going live.

Leveraging the Shopify 2.0 platform, the brand can now localize content, easily adapting content of landing pages and templates for each market.

We brought in Global-e to handle duties and taxes following the expansion of its international operations, helping to accurately calculate and display all duties, taxes, and fees at checkout.

Juno has been key in developing our integrations ecosystem. Their expertise in integrating platforms like Patchworks, Klaviyo, and Gorgias has not only improved our marketing and customer service but also positioned us to adapt quickly to technological advancements. These enhancements are vital in futureproofing our digital capabilities and continuing to meet our customers’ needs.

Christian Ward, Ecommerce Manager at Bollin Group

The Results

Our work has led to scaled-up success for Mountain Equipment. Following the redesign and optimization of the store, the brand saw an 81% increase in total sales while the average order value grew by 13%. They also experienced a 1% boost in the number of orders.

These achievements highlight the success of the project: enhancing the customer experience and positioning Mountain Equipment for continued growth.

Increase in total sales

81%

Increase in average order value

13%

Increase in orders

1%

Our partnership with Tryzens has been so important in taking our digital presence to new heights. Their comprehensive UX audit created the pathway to fully redesign our website on Shopify 2.0, significantly enhancing our customer experience.

Terry Stephenson, Head of Marketing at Mountain Equipment