Watsons

Shopify Plus Replatform

Founded in Hong Kong in 1841, health and beauty brand Watsons has since expanded globally, operating across 13 markets in Asia and Europe – both online and in-store. Watsons UAE is a franchise owned and operated by Al Futtaim Group (AFG) in the middle east.

With an ageing custom platform holding up Watsons and the rest of the AFG franchises, they decided to act. Watsons needed to migrate to Shopify. But, with large amounts of data and a complex tech stack, they needed agency support to ease the migration.

Services & Technology
Replatforming
UX/UI Design
Theme Development
Data Migration
Custom Shopify App Development
Internationalization
Shopify Plus
Zapiet
BlueWallet
Sufio
Discount Ninja
ProMap
Loqate
Swogo
Wishlist King
OneTrust
Akeneo
MaxMind
Langify
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The Challenge

Watsons needed a platform that would make site content management easier and remove the need to support their ageing in-house platform. After a successful proof of concept with B&Q, AFG decided to act and migrate Watsons to Shopify Plus.

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The Solution

Watsons was set up on a complex tech stack with multiple third parties, including PIM and Email systems. They wanted to retain the same functionality using the same tech stack on their new e-commerce store, so we focused on setting up integrations between Shopify and their preferred stack. Now, product data remains stored in their tech stack but, through the integrations, is sent directly to their Shopify front-end.

With the migration to Shopify Plus, Watsons wanted to make site improvements to boost the user experience, including incorporating an entirely custom loyalty program. Blue Wallet, AFG’s custom loyalty program allows users to collect points that can be used across all AFG franchises, including B&Q and Watsons. We built a custom app that integrates with their loyalty platform so that, despite migrating to Shopify Plus, this functionality would still be available.

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The Results

Following a successful launch in the UAE, Watsons has already seen an uplift in user experience.

64%
Increase in conversion for new visitors
76%
Increase in sessions with a checkout