Shifting gears: How bold change powered eCommerce success at Pierce Group

When I first walked through the doors at Pierce Group, I wasn’t stepping into a ready-made roadmap filled with clear initiatives and polished growth metrics. Instead, I stepped into an opportunity – one that gave me the chance to rethink how we approached both technology and collaboration. 

I joined in 2023 and the company was operating on a legacy, on-premise eCommerce stack. It had supported the business for years, but it was no longer aligned with where we wanted to go. Performance, scalability and flexibility were becoming constraints rather than enablers, and the team was spending more time maintaining the system than innovating on top of it. 

The platform was heavily customized and complex, which made change slow and demanding. At the same time, the development team was highly capable and motivated –  they simply needed the right conditions and tools to unlock their full potential. 

It quickly became clear that we had a pivotal choice ahead of us: Continue evolving within the existing setup, or take a bold step forward and build something better suited for the future. That decision would become one of the most important – and rewarding –  chapters of my time at Pierce. 

This is the story of how we turned that moment into a transformation of both our technology and our culture. 

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Building on a strong foundation and preparing for what’s next 

Pierce Group is a fast-growing European eCommerce company serving passionate motorcycle and snowmobile enthusiasts through three online brands: 24MX, XLMOTO and Sledstore. We operate across 20 European countries and have more than 40 localized websites tailored to diverse markets. 

As a pure-play online retailer, delivering a seamless and high-quality digital experience is at the core of everything we do. That also means continuously evolving to meet rising customer expectations. 

Our previous platform reflected earlier strategic choices, including hosting and customizing much of the solution in-house. While this approach had enabled growth in earlier phases, it also introduced increasing complexity over time. As the business scaled, so did the need for a more flexible, modern architecture. 

Rather than seeing this as a setback, we saw it as a natural inflection point – an opportunity to modernize and build a platform that could truly support our future ambitions. 

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Learning fast and moving forward 

As we explored modernization, we defined clear requirements: 

• Seamless expansion across countries and brands  

• High scalability for millions of SKUs and peak traffic  

• Fast and reliable integrations (especially with partners like Ingrid)  

• Flexibility to build and customize without monolithic constraints  

• Strong internal ownership without dependency on external system integrators  

We evaluated several platforms and conducted proofs-of-concept. While commercetools was initially shortlisted, we chose another vendor based on our interpretation of speed and implementation control. 

That decision gave us valuable insights early on. Within a few months, it became clear that we needed to adjust course. Rather than continuing down a path that wouldn’t fully meet our needs, we made the decision to pivot – quickly and decisively. 

This moment was critical. With strong executive support, we aligned on a more ambitious approach: Not just an upgrade, but a re-architecture designed for long-term scalability and innovation. 

That’s when we re-engaged with commercetools –  and began the next, successful phase of our transformation. 

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Why did we choose commercetools? 

When we revisited our platform decision, we did so with valuable experience and clearer priorities. That process helped us sharpen what truly mattered: 

• We were looking for a true partner – not just a software provider  

• We valued transparency and honest dialogue over overly optimistic promises  

• We needed flexibility and openness – without hidden constraints

  From the start, our engineers had shown a strong interest in commercetools. They recognized something powerful: A platform designed to enable, not restrict. That perspective became increasingly important as we moved forward. 

What stood out immediately was the level of openness. Instead of limited environments or simplified demos, commercetools gave us access to real APIs, robust documentation and production-ready capabilities from day one. The solutions we developed during our early proof-of-concept phase translated seamlessly into production – exactly what you want from a composable approach. 

Most importantly, commercetools proved to be a true partner throughout the journey. We benefited from: 

• A dedicated and highly responsive architect providing valuable guidance at every step  

• Practical advice and transparent conversations with commercetools experts, especially when navigating more complex scenarios  

• A fast and efficient integration with our shipping partner Ingrid – delivered in just six weeks and ahead of schedule  

• A strong composable foundation aligned with our Pierce 2.0 vision, enabling scalable, resilient commerce while decoupling and automating core processes  

With this foundation in place, we also had an opportunity to strengthen something equally important: Team confidence and culture. 

I believe that progress comes from openness and ownership. So I approached the team with transparency, acknowledging the journey we had been on and the learnings we had gained along the way. That honesty became a turning point. 

The response from the team was incredible. Over time, we saw a significant shift in engagement and morale – reflected in our employee NPS, which moved from -47 to +87 in just over two years. 

One of my favorite signs of success? The team felt comfortable enough to challenge, joke and communicate openly – even to the point of regularly pranking me. That level of trust doesn’t happen overnight; it’s built through shared experiences, accountability and continuous learning. 

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Implementation: building capabilities from within 

Based on previous experiences, we saw an opportunity to take a different approach to implementation. Instead of relying heavily on external system integrators, we chose to invest in our own people and build strong in-house capabilities. 

This decision allowed us to: 

• Strengthen internal ownership and expertise  

• Move faster with greater control  

• Optimize costs while building long-term value  

We trained every developer, architect and team member involved in the commercetools implementation – and the results exceeded expectations. Within just one month, the team was fully onboarded, combining hands-on training with comprehensive documentation. Feedback from the team was overwhelmingly positive, with several highlighting it as one of the most valuable learning experiences in their careers. 

From both a capability and cost perspective, the impact was clear – delivering significantly more value compared to traditional implementation models. 

With a skilled and motivated team in place and a strong partnership established, we kicked off the implementation. Initially planned for a year, we successfully went live in just six months. 

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A scalable foundation for the future 

We followed a phased, market-by-market rollout strategy – ensuring stability, protecting SEO and minimizing operational risk. This approach allowed us to build momentum while maintaining control. 

Today, we operate on a modern, composable architecture that includes: 

• commercetools at the core  

• A headless frontend built with Svelte  

• Best-of-breed components such as Storyblok (CMS) and Bloomreach  

• Custom microservices tailored to mission-critical needs, including shipping capabilities

 The result is a platform built for scale, capable of handling tens of millions of URLs per site while maintaining performance and flexibility. 

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The road ahead 

While our new commerce platform has been a critical foundation, it’s only the beginning. 

We are continuing our rollout across Europe, with additional markets planned through 2026. At the same time, we are accelerating our focus on personalization, automation and delivering experiences that truly resonate with our customers. 

The shift toward AI-driven commerce is already underway, and success in this space requires structured, accessible and orchestrated data. That’s a direction we are actively building toward – embedding AI into both our customer experiences and our internal development processes. 

With a composable, AI-ready architecture in place, we are well positioned to explore new opportunities, from conversational experiences to more advanced, agent-driven interactions. 

Pierce 2.0 is not about avoiding challenges – it’s about embracing them, learning quickly and continuously moving forward. 

Because meaningful progress doesn’t come from standing still – it comes from having the courage to evolve. 

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Interested in learning more about customers who have achieved success by migrating to commercetools? Visit our customer stories page.

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