Scaling second-hand sales through a Shopify Plus redesign
A major player in children's fashion, SMALA is revolutionizing the second-hand market with an internalized and virtuous model (quality control, logistics, cleaning). With sustained growth, the brand was facing a major challenge: an aging technical architecture that restricted the autonomy of teams.
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A strategic redesign for a second-hand leader
The objective of this redesign was threefold:
- Migrate to Shopify Plus to absorb a large catalog volume.
- Giving back control to internal teams on commercial promotion and content management.
- Integrate the new offer “Smala Collection” (new products) within a unified ecosystem.
Merge “New” and “Used” offers in a mobile-first journey
The UX/UI challenge consisted in making two very different buying experiences naturally coexist: the Second hand (unique pieces) and the Smala Collection (multi-size new products).
Our design center designed a refined and immersive interface, focused on the readability of a dense catalog:
- Intuitive double entry: Clear segmentation from the menu and via a “Buy/Sell” entry portal at the top of the page, immediately directing the user to the right path.
- Optimized navigation: Essential for effectively filtering among the thousands of references available.
- Highlighting services: Seamless integration of the “Super Smala” subscription offer and private sales to maximize customer retention.
- Mobile First: An interface designed for impulse buying on mobile, guaranteeing perfect fluidity despite the depth of the catalog.
Behind 150,000 references, a solid technical architecture on Shopify Plus
The success of this project is based on the ability to Shopify Plus to manage a large volume of data. With 150,000 active references and the daily injection of thousands of new products, the technical architecture should not suffer from any latency.
We have deployed a robust and connected architecture:
- API Performance & Volumetry: Leveraging the native power of Shopify Plus APIs to keep inventory and orders in sync in real time.
- Advanced features:
- Subscription: Solution integration Recharge to manage the “Super Smala” premium offer.
- Hybrid architecture: the existing redemption brick is retained and connected to Shopify in order to allow customers to resell their clothing and reuse their credit directly on the site, thus strengthening the circular economy logic.
Shopify Plus: Marketing autonomy and sales performance
The switch to Shopify Plus is transforming the daily lives of SMALA teams:
- Marketing autonomy: Teams now manage landing pages, sales events and merchandising alone via the theme editor, drastically reducing the Time-to-Market.
- Server scalability: The SaaS solution easily absorbs traffic peaks related to private sales or collection launches.
- Functional scalability: The ecosystem of apps (Recharge, Matrixify, etc.) makes it possible to add functional building blocks (such as subscription or loyalty) quickly and without heavy development.
Conclusion
With this redesign, SMALA now has an e-commerce tool that matches its logistical and commercial ambitions. The alliance of the power of Shopify Plus and our technical expertise made it possible to remove technological obstacles to make way for growth and customer experience.
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