3
Silkeborg, Denmark
Retail
B2C, B2B
When SPORT 24 kicked off its eCommerce journey, the requirements were simple: Provide standard online shopping to complement brick-and-mortar sales. To achieve this goal, the retailer opted for a one-size-fits-all solution by Magento (now Adobe Commerce). Shortly after, the team at SPORT 24 realized that scoring success meant creating unique customer experiences, which required a level of flexibility and scalability their legacy tech couldn’t provide.
For instance, the retailer faced numerous online sales peaks, which include not only Black Friday and Christmas time but also the seasonality of every sports category, from soccer to handball. With SPORT 24 having a non-stop promotional strategy, the company must be always prepared to handle a high influx of customers. However, the legacy tech wasn’t able to scale as fast as the company needed, which ended up with slow performance and, worse, site crashes. As a result, the retailer was missing out on revenue opportunities.
Moreover, upgrading systems every six months became unsustainable, as costs were sky-high and the process was overly time-consuming as each large upgrade took about a month.
To keep the innovation ball rolling for continued growth, the Danish B2C arm of SPORT 24 needed a flexible, API-first and scalable eCommerce technology to experiment and innovate with new tech, such as generative AI, without constraints or vendor lock-in. Cross-border and omnichannel commerce were also high on the agenda. And, above all, the retailer’s main goal was to become adaptable and always ready for whatever’s next.
A best-of-breed tech stack was the answer for SPORT 24 to achieve its ambitious goals. After an evaluation period that included a four-month proof-of-concept (POC) phase, the company selected commercetools Composable Commerce and Contentful for CMS, all seamlessly integrated via its own cloud platform hosted on AWS. For the frontend, the company used Next.js to craft unique digital storefronts.
After the POC stage, the company successfully migrated to commercetools using the big bang approach within nine months with a team of six developers and one architect. To minimize the inherent risks of traditional migration processes, the team leveraged A/B testing prior to the switch.
Furthermore, the tech team built the business logic to integrate with all best-of-breed systems, as well as the API orchestration layer between the frontend and the eCommerce engine. The commercetools’ API documentation was instrumental for seamless integration.
With a composable solution in place, SPORT 24 immediately benefited from the maximized flexibility and scalability it offers. As a result, it’s now possible to create one-of-a-kind promotions with flexible data models that enable customized pricing and campaign types across various seasonal events, boosting revenue and growth.
When we decided to implement a one-size-fits-all solution years ago, we compromised by creating a standardized approach. However, we soon learned that SPORT 24 needed to offer unique customer experiences to be successful in the long run. The legacy tech wasn’t right to achieve our goals, so we switched to composable commerce. With the flexibility of composable, we have the foundation to tap into our customer needs, no matter if they’re omnichannel, AI or anything else that may pop up in the future.
Head of eCommerce Development, SPORT 24
With 80% of the company’s discovery journey starting online, SPORT 24 upped the omnichannel game: Customers can check product availability online in real-time across all the physical stores and reserve items to be picked up in-store. This ROPIS (reserve online, pickup in-store) strategy has been massively successful.
As the webshop now performs at Usain Bolt-like speed thanks to cloud infrastructure, preliminary A/B tests revealed that SPORT 24 increased order conversion by 14% and AOV (average order value) by 13%. In addition, with the flexibility to create specific campaigns and pricing for loyal customers, the company has experienced a significant uplift in signups to its membership program.
The tech team is proud of how much they’re able to A/B test ideas, try out new features and evaluate what resonates with consumers. This strategy empowers the company to meet the always-evolving demands of its customers as well as to forge ambitious plans for the future.
Expanding into new markets, especially those close to Denmark, features high on the company’s vision. Powered by a composable tech stack, SPORT 24 will be able to localize eCommerce without complexity, handling multiple currencies, languages and product ranges with ease.
And finally, SPORT 24 will expand its successful eCommerce to B2B. The company already provides sports clubs and businesses with customized products, such as jerseys with personalized names and numbers, but these have to be ordered and handled offline. With composable commerce, SPORT 24 will be able to digitize the entire buyer journey.
Freedom to create and adapt product models with special pricing schemes and various campaign types.
Customers can shop however they want, online or offline, without any friction.
Easy creation of cart and product discounts to eligible customers.
