Since its founding in 1991, DARCHE has been a leader in the Australian outdoors and camping market, having developed the country’s first dome swag. Over more than three decades, DARCHE has expanded its range to include a diverse selection of products, such as 4x4 awnings, rooftop tents, camping furniture, sleeping gear, and accessories.
Starting out as a wholesale business, DARCHE has made a name for itself selling its products to camping and outdoor stores around Australia and internationally. More recently, the brand has established a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business to complement its core business-to-business (B2B) operation.
While DARCHE previously had an ecommerce solution in place for B2B and consumer customers to place orders and make purchases, it rarely directed customers to its online store due to its poor performance and user experience. But after switching to Shopify Plus, DARCHE created an online store it was proud to send B2B customers to, driving sales in the process.
With Shopify Plus, DARCHE has seen:
- 3x year-over-year (YoY) increase in B2B sales anticipated in FY24
- 59% YoY rise in annual web traffic
- Exceeded 12 months’ worth of sales in 4 months
The challenge
With most of DARCHE’s revenue coming from its B2B business, the brand wanted to streamline its wholesale ordering process by ramping up its online sales processes. But the limited functionality, poor product search capabilities, and slow page load times of its previous online store made the brand reluctant to ask customers to use it. Instead, DARCHE found itself processing most B2B orders either over the phone, via email, or onsite in customers’ stores.
Due to limitations in its existing ecommerce solution, DARCHE couldn’t create an online storefront that could be customized to suit DTC customers as well as B2B customers. For instance, it could not implement a guest checkout option allowing customers to make one-off purchases. It was also unable to automatically populate its landing page, which was geared towards the needs of B2B customers, with products and pricing relevant to DTC customers.
Moreover, any time DARCHE wanted to make changes to its previous online store to create a smoother customer experience, or even just update and add product details or imagery, it would require the services of external developers and take days to be completed. At the same time, the previous ecommerce solution did not integrate well with DARCHE’s existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This made effective inventory management difficult.
The solution
DARCHE understood the importance of a commercial website and explored a variety of options before settling on Shopify, which was suggested by a staff member in the marketing team. The brand engaged a creative studio for the development of the site and launched its new online store in June 2023. The brand made immediate use of the B2B on Shopify portfolio of features, including company profiles, custom catalogs, personalized price lists, and self-serve purchasing. These instantly made wholesale customers’ online ordering processes quick and easy.
Shopify Plus also allowed DARCHE to enable guest checkout functionality, so that DTC customers could buy items from DARCHE’s online store at the recommended retail price without having to worry about wholesale customer-level login requirements. Moreover, with the ability to automatically tailor the website view depending on whether the customer is a wholesale or retail buyer, DARCHE was able to create a more user-friendly and appropriate experience for both groups of customers, especially for B2B.
Additionally, DARCHE used the extensive integration capabilities of Shopify Plus to get its online store communicating clearly with its ERP system, providing a complete view of inventory across the business. This gave both DARCHE and its customers the ability to see in real time whether items are in stock prior to placing an order. At the same time, the ease of website customization in Shopify Plus meant DARCHE could make changes to its online store itself.
The results
Since taking on Shopify Plus, DARCHE has seen a growing number of its B2B customers flock to the online store to place their orders, enticed by the streamlined ordering experience it now offers, with easy-to-search product catalogs and tiered pricing tailored to each individual customer. This has alleviated the pressure on the brand’s sales and customer service teams to manually take orders, freeing up more time to provide better, more attentive service to its B2B customers.
Having a website that is a pleasure to use has not only driven up web orders and sales revenue more broadly, it has also given DARCHE the impetus to actively promote its online store, proudly driving both DTC and B2B customers to it with the full knowledge they will get a great brand experience. This, along with an unprecedented level of customer insight thanks to Shopify’s dashboard reporting, has been an important step in DARCHE’s broader marketing strategy and activities, and the brand now has the confidence to drive traffic from emails, organic web search, and pay-per-click advertising to its online store.
The company also has greater visibility of its inventory status, both online and offline, making its stock management processes more efficient. And while DARCHE is already using Shopify international sales tools to make its first international foray in New Zealand, it plans to use Shopify expansion store functionality to launch its brand in markets that are further afield, such as the United States, which offers extensive untapped opportunities for the brand.
With Shopify Plus, DARCHE saw results fast:
- 3x year on year (YoY) increase in B2B sales anticipated in FY24
- 59% YoY rise in annual web traffic
- Exceeded 12 months’ worth of sales in 4 months
Customer quotes:
Shopify has completely changed the way we do business. Previously, our B2B orders were mainly processed manually. Retailers would email or call to place orders, and our customer service team would assist them. Now, retailers feel comfortable placing orders online via the Shopify B2B function. This provides them with an easier, more seamless sales experience, and helps build trust with our brand. We're now a more modern business.
For now, we’re really excited about the opportunities our new website has afforded us. We want to further modernize the business and lean into the power of ecommerce and online marketing.
