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Designerie Builds a Luxury Ecommerce Site with BigCommerce
Discover how customisable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.
57%
increase in B2B customers placing online orders
36%
increase in revenue
2
storefronts
Falling in love with French furniture
Brendan McCarthy, Managing Director at Designerie, has always been captivated by European-style furniture. While completing his graduate studies in France, he launched a vibrant French furniture brand, kickstarting his journey in the home furnishings industry. That early passion has since evolved into Designerie — a leading European furniture importer and exporter.
Beyond Designerie, McCarthy runs the US office for Sika-Design — a high-end Danish furniture brand and the exclusive US distributor for several luxury European labels.
As a hybrid B2B and B2C business, McCarthy needed an ecommerce tool that could seamlessly cater to Designerie’s diverse customer base. After facing several challenges with his platform, he knew it was time to find a solution that would allow him to successfully scale both brands.
CHALLENGE
Missing key features to build a high-end site.
Initially, McCarthy hosted Designerie on Shopify. However, he quickly realised that the platform created limitations regarding the B2B business side. As the brand continued to grow, it needed a platform that could seamlessly cater to its trade customers. After learning about BigCommerce’s variety of B2B features, McCarthy knew he had found the ecommerce tool he had been searching for.
“When we learned about BigCommerce, we were immediately swayed to migrate from Shopify. BigCommerce's B2B wholesale functionality for customer groups allows us to dictate customer-specific pricing at a macro level while still offering B2B customers a B2C experience while shopping online,” said McCarthy.
In addition to B2B features, Designerie needed a tool with robust functionality that could enhance the front-end and back-end experience for shoppers and team members. BigCommerce’s out-of-the-box features and freedom to integrate outside technology made the platform a no-brainer.
“When we were comparing Shopify Plus to BigCommerce, it was clear that BigCommerce’s B2B wholesale functionality was far superior and the ease of integration to our back-end systems made it much better across the board. You just simply don't find this level of native capabilities on Shopify Plus,” said McCarthy.
“When we learned about BigCommerce, we were immediately swayed to migrate from Shopify. BigCommerce's B2B wholesale functionality for customer groups allows us to dictate customer-specific pricing at a macro level while still offering B2B customers a B2C experience while shopping online.”
BRENDAN MCCARTHY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DESIGNERIE
SOLUTION
Building a premium B2B experience.
With the help of BigCommerce and agency partner Modelic, Designerie has significantly improved the experience it provides online B2B shoppers. With features like faceted search, buyers can easily filter for products based on aspects like material or colour — streamlining their browsing experience.
“We offer a lot of different colours and product variations. Faceted search has allowed us to normalise all of those different attributes so that a user can filter and drill down based on specific features or functions they're looking for," explained McCarthy. “This has been the biggest feature enhancement our B2B customers have been excited about.”
In addition to enhanced search capabilities, Designerie takes advantage of B2B Edition. Since migrating to BigCommerce, the brand has hired independent sales representatives to assist in growing the B2B side. Currently, the brand is rolling out the ability for these sales agents to create custom quotes for design firms with an online B2B account.
“Right now, we're in the process of rolling out the ability for our independent sales agents to create custom quotes for design firms that have a B2B account with us,” said McCarthy. “With B2B Edition, you have a singular company and unlimited users underneath that. This lets our sales agents share quotes, request modifications, and approve them as needed.”
Enhancing team functionality with custom tools.
In addition to the platform’s out-of-the-box functionalities, Designerie takes advantage of BigCommerce’s freedom to incorporate custom features. To encourage more B2B shoppers to create an online account and give the sales team better visibility into buyer behaviours, Designerie built a custom HubSpot integration.
With this feature, Designerie can send automated email sequences highlighting its benefits for interior designers and trade customers. Each email also provides net pricing and a discount on retail items.
Since implementing this tool, the sales team has better insights into which pages users interact with, allowing them to refine and improve their overall strategy.
“Without this integration, we didn't know who was interacting with the website or how they were interacting with it. Now, the sales team and our independent representatives have a lot more visibility in terms of who is landing on pages and which pages they're landing on. This has really empowered our sales team in everything that they do,” explained McCarthy.
In addition to improving back-office tasks, this integration has led to more customers creating a B2B account and using Designerie’s online store to request quotes and orders.
“We've noticed a pretty significant adoption, specifically of smaller residential interior designers. We're targeting about a 40% adoption of our brick-and-mortar customers and our residential interior designers, and we’re hoping they migrate to just utilising our B2B experience on BigCommerce between now and the end of next year. About two years ago, less than 1% of B2B customers were using our online store,” remarked McCarthy.
Simplifying storefront management.
To seamlessly manage both Designerie and Sika-Design from the same back-end account, McCarthy takes advantage of BigCommerce’s multi-storefront feature.
Prior to using multi-storefront, McCarthy hosted both brands on two different BigCommerce accounts. This often led to a disconnect between product information on the two sites.
“We were at a point in our journey where we ran the sites on two BigCommerce accounts. That meant two different feeds to our back-end inventory. Anytime we wanted to onboard a new product, update pricing, or manage our catalogue, we had to do it a minimum of two times, which often led to inconsistencies between the different sites,” explained McCarthy.
Thankfully, BigCommerce’s multi-storefront capability has allowed McCarthy to only need one inventory for both sites, eliminating the possibility of presenting inaccurate information across the two stores.
“As soon as I found out that multi-storefront was coming, I was knocking on BigCommerce's door wanting to go live as soon as possible. Since implementing it, the experience has been great. A big functionality we’re looking forward to is the domain-specific blog feature — that will be a game changer for us once it's live,” remarked McCarthy.
“We're targeting about a 40% adoption of our brick-and-mortar customers and our residential interior designers, and we’re hoping they migrate to just utilising our B2B experience on BigCommerce between now and the end of next year. About two years ago, less than 1% of B2B customers were using our online store.”
BRENDAN MCCARTHY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DESIGNERIE
“As soon as I found out that multi-storefront was coming, I was knocking on BigCommerce's door wanting to go live as soon as possible. Since implementing it, the experience has been great.”
BRENDAN MCCARTHY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DESIGNERIE
RESULTS
Bridging the gap between offline and online shopping.
Since migrating to BigCommerce, Designerie has noticed a significant improvement in overall site engagement. Specifically on the B2B side, more shoppers now conduct business through its online store instead of traditional offline methods.
“The way that we've built out our two BigCommerce sites to date has created a much more seamless transition from the offline sales we're doing. During our sales presentations, we now always steer brands to our website as the primary resource and tool to gather all the information they need,” explained McCarthy.
Switching to BigCommerce has allowed Designerie to take advantage of various capabilities to improve the overall customer journey. These features have enabled it to offer a B2C-like experience for B2B shoppers — making its site more appealing to the modern trade buyer.
“Offline activities — like browsing a catalogue — are much easier for customers to do through our BigCommerce site than flipping through a paper catalogue. Through our optimisations, shoppers can view more information and download any key media assets they need. Breaking down barriers by streamlining processes and providing access to more information has allowed us to convert on a lot more sales,” said McCarthy.
“Offline activities — like browsing a catalogue — are much easier for customers to do through our BigCommerce site than flipping through a paper catalogue. Through our optimisations, shoppers can view more information and download any key media assets they need. Breaking down barriers by streamlining processes and providing access to more information has allowed us to convert on a lot more sales.”
BRENDAN MCCARTHY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DESIGNERIE
LOOKING AHEAD
Continuing to elevate the customer journey.
Designerie is always looking for ways to improve the shopping experience for its customers. Currently, it’s evaluating opportunities to provide more information throughout its site to further enhance the user journey.
“We're really looking at the overall site right now in terms of what pages are missing, how we are not communicating benefits, and how we can more clearly present information,” explained McCarthy.
In addition, the brand looks to add features like 3D files that allow shoppers to envision how a product would look in a space.
“A lot of interior designers build mockups of what a space will look like. I've talked to designers at shows who say they won’t buy from a brand without this feature. We think this will improve the overall B2B experience and allow us to increase conversions,” explained McCarthy.
With BigCommerce, Designerie knows it can implement any tool necessary to enhance the user experience without limitations.
“The way that we've built out our two BigCommerce sites to date has created a much more seamless transition from the offline sales we're doing. During our sales presentations, we now always steer brands to our website as the primary resource and tool to gather all the information they need.”
BRENDAN MCCARTHY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DESIGNERIE
Published: November 2024
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