An interview with Anis Tayebali, VP of engineering at Lulu and Georgia, by Ali Orr, head of consumer goods at Shopify
We sat down with Anis Tayebali, VP of engineering at Lulu and Georgia, to talk about Lulu and Georgia’s journey from Adobe Commerce to Shopify. Now in his second year at Lulu and Georgia, Anis is responsible for the entire ecommerce experience. His role includes everything from managing customer experience to connecting ecommerce activities and transactions with the back office.
With over 10 years of experience in technology and leadership roles, Anis specializes in delivering cutting-edge solutions to complex business challenges.
After migrating their more than 40,000 SKUs from Adobe Commerce to Shopify, Lulu and Georgia has:
- Unlocked business growth and scalability
- Tapped into Shopify’s robust app ecosystem for seamless integrations
- Utilized Shopify API for enhanced operational efficiency and automation
- Implemented a versatile checkout system for B2B and DTC needs
The following content is based on our interview with Anis, presented in his own words. It has been edited for clarity and length. To watch the full video interview, click here.
Lulu and Georgia: A furniture brand embracing personal lifestyle
Lulu and Georgia is a family-owned business founded by Sara Sugarman in 2012. She grew up surrounded by people who were considered pioneers in the interior design space, so it was a natural evolution for her to start her own home decor company.
Based in Los Angeles, Sara has grown the online business from a startup to a well-known multimillion-dollar brand.
We currently feature over 40,000 home furnishings and accessories, many of which are exclusive in-house designs. We often collaborate with local artists and famous designers to create one-of-a-kind pieces available exclusively at Lulu and Georgia.
Our product launches often generate excitement similar to a sneaker drop, drawing a surge of activity as customers rush to purchase limited-edition items.
We’ve prioritized making the site easy for customers to navigate with multiple filters, including product type, height, color, material, and even sustainability.
Creating versatile and inspiring home collections
We’re proud of our curated collections that build on the idea that our products should complement each other effortlessly. One single look doesn’t define our aesthetic, and our diverse team of talented individuals brings unique perspectives to create unique collections.
Our collaborative process, which doesn’t stick to rules about specific time periods or aesthetics, is our secret to crafting versatile and appealing looks.
We don't limit ourselves to just being a rug or chair company. Our approach is more about inspiration. When you visit our site and a rug catches your eye, you buy it. Seeing how great it looks, you might then decide to get a couch. Before you know it, you add curtains, lighting, and more to your cart. We aim to help customers identify the right style for them.
Offering a consistent and unified customer experience
The customer is at the core of our business, and we're dedicated to understanding what matters to them.
We believe the customer journey begins long before they visit our site. It starts when they encounter an image related to us or perform a Google search that includes our content. This initial interaction kicks off a consistent experience, from the first ad they see through to our landing page and onto our site, where they make a purchase.
We invest a lot of time in creating a seamless journey so that every customer interaction is memorable for the right reasons.
The challenge: Adobe Commerce stifled growth
Before we were on Shopify, we were on Adobe Commerce version 1, which was coming to the end of its life. We faced an inevitable replatform to either Adobe Commerce version 2 or an alternative.
Site performance issues
As we were looking to replatform out of Adobe Commerce 1, one of the deciding factors that kept us from Adobe Commerce 2 was site performance issues. Our site would slow down in performance or, in some cases, even go down—and this was without high-traffic, high-scale events.We were growing, and our system [Adobe Commerce] couldn't handle it.
Inability to scale
We had severe issues even just taking and fulfilling orders. The business couldn’t fulfill its mission.
The growth of the company was at risk, and hence we wanted to move to a partner where scale or performance were not an issue.
The growth of the company was at risk, and hence we wanted to move to a partner where scale or performance were not an issue.
Inability to automate
Additionally, as Lulu and Georgia grew, many team members thought there must be better ways of doing things. For instance, we needed to automate a lot of back-office work, but Adobe Commerce didn’t have the tools we needed to do this.
Lack of an ecosystem
Another issue was that Adobe Commerce app ecosystem wasn't mature, and their integrations were not seamless. There weren’t enough integrations and apps to help us scale and improve the site. There wasn’t even a solid offering for basic reporting—and with Shopify, even the bare-bone offerings are solid.
The solution: Lulu and Georgia moved to Shopify
We searched for a partner that could effortlessly handle scale, performance, and infrastructure issues.
After reviewing multiple platforms, the answer was clear: Replatforming to Shopify would address our scale challenges.
Migrating to Shopify with over 40,000 SKUs
We knew migrating more than 40,000 SKUs would be a significant challenge, but Shopify provided specialized tech to streamline this process. We integrated our back-office system into Shopify using a connector named Celigo, taking advantage of Shopify's extensive ecosystem. We were also excited that we could bring Algolia Search to the site to make searches more relevant to customers and help us navigate all of our SKUs.
As anyone who’s embarked on this journey knows, it’s key to consider what elements of the site to launch with carefully. Initially, we chose the essential pages and features for a minimally viable product. We realized replicating the entire system from day one would be unrealistic.
So our strategy involved rolling out our system in phases, starting with the basics to gradually introduce traffic, and observing how our entire setup, including middleware and back office, handled incoming orders.
Regaining the same level of functionality—fast
We were amazed at how quickly we could reintegrate the functionality we had on our old platform using Shopify. By conducting a mapping exercise, we identified which of our previous capabilities were already available within Shopify or easily installed through apps.
We were amazed at how quickly we could reintegrate the functionality we had on our old platform using Shopify.
With this approach, we initially installed essential apps and later added ones for gift cards, returns, and other fundamental needs.
Shopify’s rich ecosystem of apps meant we could quickly integrate various capabilities, which was crucial to our successful migration.
Streamlining operations and driving efficiencies
While migrating to Shopify, we realized there were so many opportunities to automate.
Many people just view Shopify as an ecommerce tool, but it’s also an API. With that API, a lot of automation is possible, and through automation, you’ll have efficiency.
Many people just view Shopify as an ecommerce tool, but it’s also an API. With that API, a lot of automation is possible, and through automation, you’ll have efficiency.
Various partners offered connectors, enabling seamless connections between our back office and Shopify, revealing possibilities we hadn't considered before.
This newfound flexibility helped us streamline ecommerce operations like processing gift cards and handling returns much faster.
The results: Shopify fueled early success
We’ve experienced so many benefits since migrating to Shopify.
Scale
I’d say the number-one improvement is we can scale the site. We don’t have to worry about a large-scale event taking down the site or checkout not working.
We can now focus on our offerings, including providing other ways of purchasing or adding new apps that could provide customers with better functionality.
We can take on more sessions, and we’re seeing the direct impact of this on our revenue. When we experience massive surges in demand, we can now take full advantage of that.
Having a reliable performance system that could take on all that scale is amazing.
Stability
We have a lot more site stability now, so our team has more mindshare to create better assets and products, think of ways of putting collections together, and start offering that to our customers.
Integrations
On the tech side, we can now focus more on optimizing our integrations to be even more efficient. We always aim to get that order into the warehouse and fulfill it quicker.
We're more engaged in these topics rather than fixing a broken checkout or dealing with performance issues.
App ecosystem
Shopify's app ecosystem has also been a major advantage for us. Rolling out new programs like promotions or gift card capabilities has become simple and resource-efficient, compared to the traditional approach of building them ourselves.
Rolling out new programs like promotions or gift card capabilities has become simple and resource-efficient, compared to the traditional approach of building them ourselves.
Today, when we’re considering rolling out new capabilities, we talk to someone at Shopify who gives us several solid app options to choose from. Then while looking into those companies, we realized those apps have been around for years. There are plenty of reviews, and these are established companies that just do the said capability and integrate with Shopify. All you have to do is install the capability.
It’s similar to having a smartphone–if you want an app, you go download the app from the store, it’s very simple.
With Shopify, a lot of these use cases are solved and they're packaged up and ready to go.
Unified checkout
Lastly, creating a checkout that meets both B2B and DTC needs without major tweaks is a big win. To just have just one checkout for everyone saves us from complex engineering work. This single, adaptable checkout works for all types of shoppers on our site.
It saves us time that we can now invest in enhancing the customer experience across our site.
Looking ahead: Lulu and Georgia will accelerate growth with Shopify
We’re excited to develop our B2B offering further and improve online shopping experiences with 3D tech.
We’re also exploring innovative tools, including AI, to simplify product discovery and tailor recommendations while customers shop on our site.
Leaning into B2B at Lulu and Georgia
With Shopify's introduction of native B2B features, we're eager to let Shopify handle the differences of dealing with business clients instead of direct-to-consumer interactions. It’s great that Shopify enables us to differentiate between customer segments within our system, a significant improvement from our initial setup.
I appreciate the ability to design customized themes for our B2B customers directly through Shopify. This approach liberates our engineering team from the admin tasks typically handled in the backend.
Enhancing the customer experience with 3D tech
Without physical stores, our permanent goal is to enhance the shopping experience by directly engaging our customers through 3D technology.
We waited to do 3D because we wanted it to be more commonplace. We didn’t want our customers to install anything special on their phones, get an app, or download a plugin. We wanted to eliminate all those requirements. So we waited until the technology matured enough that it became universally available on everyone’s phone.
Thanks to 3D technology on our website, customers will be able to effortlessly view products from every angle—above, below, close-up, and rotated—giving them a comprehensive understanding of the furniture they're interested in. This also sets us up for AR.
Looking ahead, we aim to expand the variety of options available to our customers, particularly in our furniture range, like couches and beds. While we pride ourselves on our curated selection, we recognize the need to diversify our offerings and involve our customers more directly in the customization process.
We’re excited to see how else we can scale Lulu and Georgia with Shopify. The platform makes so much sense for our journey.
Watch the entire interview
Watch the full video interview with Anis Tayebali, the VP of engineering at Lulu and Georgia, for a closer look at the Lulu and Georgia journey.
