At the recent Ecommerce Expo on September 18, 2024, we delivered a talk alongside The Conran Shop and Shopify, and had the privilege of sharing our combined exciting journey of migrating one of the world’s most iconic homeware brands. We helped The Conran Shop migrate from Magento to Shopify, streamlining their digital operations and supporting their international expansion into the Middle East. This transformation was part of a broader strategy to reduce complexity, increase efficiency, and align with their ambitious rebranding efforts as they celebrated their 50th anniversary. Here’s how we approached it.
The reasons behind migration
The Conran Shop, founded by Sir Terence Conran in 1973, has always been at the forefront of homeware design, offering a unique blend of contemporary furniture, lighting, and home accessories. However, as the business evolved, their digital operations needed to keep pace with their vision. Helen Wigley, Digital Marketing Manager at The Conran Shop, spoke about some of the challenges they were experiencing with Magento:
"We had accumulated a lot of customisations with Magento, and it felt like we were treading water. It was hard to maintain and develop, especially when trying to keep up with our ambitious roadmap."
The complexity of Magento was holding them back, particularly as their business needs changed. Emma Hamilton, Web Development Manager at The Conran Shop elaborated:
“Our product catalogue had become more compact and less complex, but Magento’s ecosystem was bloated with tools we no longer needed. We were offering fewer variants and categories, but the platform didn’t reflect this simplification. Moving to Shopify allowed us to focus on efficiency and growth.”
In short, Magento’s maintenance demands—yearly upgrades, security patches, and hosting fees—were eating into their resources. As part of the migration process, one of our key objectives was to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO), which had become a significant burden for The Conran Shop. Post-migration, they saw a 75% reduction in TCO, primarily due to Shopify’s simplified tech stack and lower operational costs.
The Opportunity for Change: Middle East Expansion
The decision to migrate to Shopify wasn’t just about addressing immediate challenges; it also presented a golden opportunity to prepare The Conran Shop for future growth. The brand was expanding into the Middle East, which provided a valuable testing ground for the migration. Emma shared the thought process behind this move:
“The Middle East expansion marked a shift in our focus away from the EU. It was the right time to make bold changes and clean the slate. The new market allowed us to experiment with Shopify’s international features, making it easier to manage multiple regions with two separate teams.”
We worked closely with The Conran Shop’s team to set up Shopify in a way that allowed for efficient parallel management of two ecommerce ecosystems: one for the UK and another for the Middle East. Shopify’s intuitive interface and built-in solutions for payments, taxes, and currencies were crucial to ensuring a smooth launch. What made this transition particularly exciting was the opportunity to align the replatforming with The Conran Shop’s larger rebranding efforts. They had recently celebrated 50 years in business with a bold new look, and this was the perfect time to overhaul their digital presence. The Middle East launch acted as a soft launch, allowing us to fully test and debug the site before going live in their core markets.
The Conran Shop, Unified & Shopify at the ecommerce expo, 2024
Scaling Back to Grow: The Power of Simplification
The move from Magento to Shopify wasn’t just about cutting costs—it was about empowering The Conran Shop with greater flexibility and control over their digital ecosystem. The transition allowed them to move away from their bloated, multi-system approach to a leaner, more agile model. Emma summed up the advantages perfectly:
“We now have the ability to experiment widely without the fear of high costs or long-term commitments. With Shopify, if something isn’t working, we can quickly pivot. This agility has made us feel much more in control."
One example of this newfound agility is the way The Conran Shop’s team experimented with various merchandising applications. In the past, changing such tools would have been a costly and time-consuming process. Now, thanks to Shopify’s flexible app ecosystem, they were able to test five or six different merchandising tools before settling on the right one. Another significant change was the shift in mentality within the team. Instead of customising systems to the nth degree—something Magento required, often with high costs attached—they adopted a new approach. As Helen explained:
“Now we focus on using Shopify’s out-of-the-box features and only add customizations if there’s a solid business case for doing so. This has made us more agile and less reliant on constant maintenance."
For us at Unified, this shift represented a key moment in the project. It demonstrated that the migration wasn’t just about technology—it was about empowering The Conran Shop to take control of their own growth journey.
Empowering Digital Marketing and Content
Another critical aspect of the migration was the impact on The Conran Shop’s digital marketing and content management. Magento had been limiting their ability to fully leverage their content, particularly when it came to SEO, product storytelling, and email marketing. Shopify, on the other hand, gave them the freedom to manage content in-house with greater ease and efficiency. Helen shared how the team has been able to optimize content directly on the platform:
“We can now manage on-page SEO, site structure, and even create buying guides, which are critical for our SEO strategy. Before, these would have required external support. Now we can do it all within Shopify."
The integration between Shopify and Klaviyo has also been a game-changer for their email marketing efforts. Automated flows, product recommendations, and personalised campaigns are now much easier to create. As a result, email marketing has become their second-best performing digital channel.
“Creating personalised email campaigns used to be a challenge, but now it’s seamless. The integration with Shopify has allowed us to increase email volume and improve performance," Helen explained.
Overcoming Challenges and Delivering Results
Of course, a project of this scale came with its challenges. Tackling a migration, rebrand, new market, and new product catalogue all at once required careful planning and coordination. However, by starting in the Middle East, we were able to mitigate some of the risks. As Emma explained:
“The Middle East launch gave us a valuable testing ground. By the time we launched in the UK, the platform was fully tested and debugged, which made the process much smoother."
In the months since the launch in February 2024, The Conran Shop has seen impressive results. Their conversion rate has increased by 109%, and the add-to-cart rate is up by 53%. These improvements, coupled with a 75% reduction in TCO, demonstrate just how transformative the migration has been.
What’s Next for The Conran Shop?
Looking ahead, The Conran Shop is poised for further growth. We’re continuing to work with them as they explore new opportunities with Shopify, particularly in the realms of B2B and wholesale. They’ve just launched a dedicated B2B site that allows them to offer tailored discounts to different tiers of customers, all managed within the same Shopify interface. The next major project on the horizon is bringing their point of sale (POS) system under the Shopify umbrella. The goal is to unify the customer experience across all sales channels—retail stores, trade, and ecommerce—by feeding everything into one system.
“Shopify offers a smooth integration with our ERP system, which is something we’ve always struggled with in the past. This will be the next big step in creating a truly unified customer experience,” said Emma.
Final Thoughts
Helping The Conran Shop migrate from Magento to Shopify was an incredibly rewarding experience for us at Unified. By scaling back complexity, we’ve been able to help them grow more efficiently, empowering their team to take control of their ecommerce operations and drive future success. As they continue to expand into new markets and strengthen their digital presence, we’re excited to be part of their journey, ensuring that their ecommerce experience is as iconic as the brand itself.
You can check out the full case study for The Conran Shop HERE.
