Discover how Wild Fork Foods cooked up success by migrating from Shopify to commercetools. This strategic eCommerce overhaul allowed the company to optimize its checkout process, improve the customer experience and efficiently manage the complexities of variable weight products. From dynamic pricing implementation to seamless integration of inventory management software, the results have been sizzling for both operations and customer satisfaction.
From farm to fork with a fresh approach
Wild Fork Foods, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) retailer specializing in high-quality meats and seafood, has always sought to revolutionize the way people buy and consume protein. By controlling every step from farm to fork, it guarantees top-tier products at competitive prices. However, Shopify wasn’t cutting it anymore.
The company faced several limitations that hindered its ability to scale, manage complex product data and offer a refined customer experience. From inconsistent inventory management to an inefficient checkout process, Shopify’s platform didn’t "meat" the company’s growing needs. Recognizing that it needed more than a simple upgrade, Wild Fork Foods began its migration to commercetools, a powerful API-first platform that promised to meet these challenges — and more.
The perfect cut: Why Wild Fork Foods migrated from Shopify to commercetools
Wild Fork Foods’ decision to move from Shopify to commercetools wasn’t just about improving their backend — it was about delivering a better overall customer experience. The previous platform struggled with the nuances of their business, including managing variable weight products and handling the integration of internal systems like their inventory management software. Shopify wasn’t flexible enough to support the company's growing demand for real-time product information and efficient operations.
Enter commercetools — a headless, composable platform built for scale and flexibility. With commercetools, Wild Fork Foods found a platform that could not only meet their immediate needs but also allow them to scale quickly during peak sales periods, such as the holiday season.
Raul Sukraj, CIO of Wild Fork Foods, reflected on the transition, saying, "We knew we had to modernize this stack and we know where the industry was headed, which is more composable, headless commerce, cloud-native and everything with MACH®. So we knew where we needed to get to." This foresight is what pushed the team to adopt commercetools, ensuring they could expand into new markets and continuously adapt their offerings.
Challenges with variable weight products and the role of API-first technology
One of the most challenging hurdles Wild Fork Foods faced with Shopify was handling variable weight products. Unlike traditional eCommerce items with fixed weights and prices, its meat products require dynamic pricing based on weight. Without the right system in place, Wild Fork Foods encountered pricing discrepancies and inventory inaccuracies, which impacted revenue and customer trust.
The API-first technology of commercetools was a game changer. It allowed Wild Fork Foods to implement a flexible inventory management system for the food industry, tailored to accommodate its unique needs. The company was able to dynamically adjust product pricing based on weight at checkout — an essential improvement that had a direct impact on revenue accuracy. With commercetools, it built a system where the product weight determines the final charge at the time of fulfillment, ensuring accurate pricing and minimizing potential revenue loss. This streamlined their inventory and checkout process, reducing friction and enhancing the overall D2C customer experience.
Our model is fairly complex in ways that test the limits of Shopify. For example, the majority of protein we sell has a variable weight. When you order picanha online, the final charge is determined by its weight at the time of fulfillment. This concept of variable weight is something that has presented challenges for most traditional retailers selling online."
CIO, Wild Fork Foods
Slicing through complexity: Improving inventory management and product information
Before migrating, managing Wild Fork Foods' extensive product catalog on Shopify was a constant struggle. The catalog included hundreds of protein options that needed to be accurately categorized and updated in real-time. Shopify’s limited ability to handle such a dynamic and large-scale inventory led to inefficiencies that spilled over into the customer experience.
By integrating commercetools’ product information management system, Wild Fork Foods transformed how the company handled its inventory. The seamless integration of API-based tools helped them track product availability instantly, ensuring customers had up-to-date information, which ultimately improved their overall experience. Additionally, the new system streamlined internal processes, allowing for smoother operations during high-demand periods.
Cooking with fire: How commercetools improved the checkout, cart and order processes
The migration to commercetools didn’t just solve backend problems; it enhanced the entire shopping experience for customers. One critical area of improvement was the checkout process. On Shopify, Wild Fork Foods encountered frequent issues with cart abandonment and inaccurate pricing due to variable weights, frustrating customers at the final stage of their shopping journey.
With commercetools, Wild Fork Foods optimized the entire checkout process. The API-first architecture enabled the team to customize their cart and checkout systems to ensure a smooth, frictionless customer experience. Features like real-time inventory updates and dynamic pricing reduced cart abandonment and improved the Net Promoter Score (NPS), reflecting higher customer satisfaction.
Additionally, the platform allowed them to adapt quickly to market demands. For instance, during peak sales periods, the scalable infrastructure ensured Wild Fork Foods could handle increased traffic without compromising performance. This flexibility was crucial for maintaining an optimized D2C customer experience, especially in times of heightened demand like holiday seasons.
Expanding horizons: Success in the US and Canada
Wild Fork Foods’ journey with commercetools started in Canada, a smaller market that allowed it to test the platform’s capabilities before rolling it out in the US. The results in Canada were nothing short of phenomenal. On the first day of the new eCommerce launch, three previous records were shattered: The number of daily orders placed increased by 58%, the number of daily new customers placing orders increased by 73% and daily website visits tripled over the previous high and increased by 6.5 times over the average daily visits since the beginning of the year.
Buoyed by this success, the team swiftly migrated their US operations, where they experienced similar gains. The flexible and scalable nature of commercetools allowed Wild Fork Foods to expand its reach and increase market share, all while improving operational efficiency. In fact, since the migration, Wild Fork Foods has seen a significant uptick in revenue, driven by its ability to offer a better, more consistent customer experience across both Canada and the US.
As Raul shared, “Overall, I think it ladders up to some of our business goals that we're looking to drive, which is really a seamless customer experience.”
The taste of success: Key improvements after migration
The shift to commercetools proved to be a winning recipe for Wild Fork Foods, serving up numerous benefits:
Dynamic pricing implementation: By leveraging commercetools' dynamic pricing capabilities, Wild Fork Foods ensured that customers were charged accurately, based on the product’s final weight at the time of fulfillment.
Optimized inventory management: The new inventory management system for the food industry, enabled by commercetools, allowed for better stock tracking and real-time updates, reducing errors and improving customer satisfaction.
Enhanced checkout experience: With optimized checkout and order processes, customers enjoyed a seamless experience from cart to confirmation, which significantly increased NPS and reduced cart abandonment rates.
Scalability and flexibility: commercetools’ composable architecture enabled Wild Fork Foods to quickly scale and adapt, particularly during high-traffic periods like holiday sales, ensuring no bottlenecks in service or performance.
Market expansion: Wild Fork Foods is now better equipped to expand into new markets, with plans to enter more international territories, all thanks to the flexible and scalable foundation commercetools provides.
A recipe for the future: Personalization, omnichannel and innovation
Looking ahead, Wild Fork Foods is far from finished innovating. The next steps in its journey involve doubling down on personalization and omnichannel integration. With the help of commercetools, the company is aiming to deliver hyper-personalized experiences to each customer, tailoring product recommendations and offers to individual preferences.
Moreover, their ongoing investment in omnichannel integration will connect their online and physical storefronts, creating a unified experience. Whether customers are shopping online for delivery or in-store pickup, the experience will be seamless.
For an in-depth report on how Shopify really compares to commercetools, read our white paper commercetools vs. Shopify for Enterprise-Level Businesses.