“It really comes down to the overall online experience. Shoppers expect new, relevant, and engaging experiences every time they visit our site, and Searchspring gives us the tools to do just that.“
Julian Peticca
Manager, Digital Merchandising, Bauer
The Brand
Bauer Hockey is the world’s leading designer, developer, manufacturer, and marketer of ice hockey equipment.
Founded in Kitchener, Ontario in 1927, Bauer developed the first skate with a blade attached to a boot, forever changing the game of hockey.
Since then, Bauer has continued to develop the most innovative products in the industry, inspiring players to be their best and empowering hockey communities across the globe.
The Partner
CQL is a digital commerce agency with over 28 years of experience creating online experiences and solutions for inspiring brands and people who love them. Their unparalleled technical expertise, coupled with industry-leading ecommerce platforms, helps retailers drive revenue, build new channels, and envision world-changing ideas.
The Challenges
As Bauer attempted to modernize their brand, introduce new site features, and build partnerships with new brands; they found themselves beholden to their current ecommerce platform – hindering Bauer’s ability to grow and innovate.
The Bauer team needed a strategic re-platform, shifting to a cost-effective, simpler tech stack that allowed for agility and growth.
During this time, Bauer also saw an opportunity to improve the online experience with a more powerful site search, as well as advanced merchandising and personalization tools.
The solution needed to not only enhance the native offering of their new Shopify Plus site but also allow for flexibility and control in the buyer journey.
The Solutions
In Q4 2022, Bauer stormed the online arena with its continued commitment to innovation: a strategic redesign & re-platform from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus. Bauer teamed up with CQL to lead the platform migration, Shopify Plus design and build, third-party integrations, and support.
Among the third-party integrations selected, CQL recommended Searchspring for its easy integration and proven success in increasing conversions on Shopify Plus. Having partnered with Searchspring on several leading ecommerce sites, CQL knew Searchspring was the right solution to help Bauer overcome pain points with product discovery and relevancy.
“With a partner like Searchspring, Bauer now has the power to control the entire product discovery journey for shoppers,” says Cathy Monday, Client Success Manager at CQL. “They can quickly and easily take advantage of Searchspring’s product suite to deliver an online experience that’s highly relevant, uniquely personalized, and keeps shoppers coming back again and again.”
Once integrated, Bauer quickly leveraged Searchspring’s robust merchandising suite – utilizing campaign scheduling, inline banners, product pinning, and more.
With boost rules, Bauer’s merchandising team saves significant time by automatically influencing product arrangement on collection pages – ensuring that shoppers always see the newest and most popular items every time they visit the site. Tailored product suggestions are also placed strategically throughout the site, offering hyper-relevant and personalized recommendations for customers based on previous shopping behaviors.
The Results
A strategic redesign and move to Shopify Plus with CQL, coupled with the implementation of Searchspring, proved to be a winning combination for Bauer.
“It really comes down to the overall online experience”, says Julian Peticca, Manager, Digital Merchandising at Bauer. “Shoppers expect new, relevant, and engaging experiences every time they visit our site, and Searchspring gives us the tools to do just that.”
Within the first 4 months of leveraging Searchspring, Bauer’s online store experienced a 2.6x increase in revenue generated by site search. They also found that more shoppers were using site search, with orders attributed to search 2.9x higher than before Searchspring.
Conversion rates from shoppers using search have also been lifted 2.2x higher than those not using search.
