How B.O.C. Cut Costs 60% and Unified 49 Stores with Shopify Plus

Overview

The Bike & Outdoor Company (B.O.C.) started in Hamburg back in 1999, building a strong reputation as a specialist retailer of bicycles, e-mobility and outdoor accessories. Over two decades, they grew to operate two high-traffic ecommerce sites—boc24.de and bicycles.de—and ran 49 physical stores in Germany. But when their legacy platform began hampering agile work and created slow inventory updates, B.O.C. knew it was time for a system that could scale seamlessly.

The Challenge

Managing a 15,000-SKU catalog across 51 sales channels (two websites and 49 retail locations) on an inflexible platform meant manual processes, lagging stock data and high monthly fees. Search functionality was sluggish, customer satisfaction dipped, and internal teams spent too much time wrestling with technical gaps instead of improving the shopping experience.

Crafting the Solution

B.O.C. partnered with Shopify Plus and expert agency Latori to execute a lightning-fast migration. They exported product data, cleaned and mapped thousands of SKUs, then imported everything into Shopify Plus. UsingShopify Flow, routine tasks—like inventory syncing, price updates and order routing—were automated. Custom apps and the robust Shopify API handled complex inventory logic and connected the 49 stores to the new platform in real time.

Implementation Highlights

• Migrated a catalog of 15,000 distinct products in under two weeks
• Linked 49 brick-and-mortar outlets and two online shops into one dashboard
• Automated stock levels and pricing rules with Shopify Flow workflows
• Built custom middleware on Shopify’s REST and GraphQL APIs to process inventory rules

Results and Impact

Within days of launching, B.O.C. saw a dramatic improvement in system speed and reliability. Automated workflows freed the ecommerce team to focus on merchandising and campaigns. Monthly platform costs dropped by 60%, saving significant budget. Customers experienced near-real-time stock visibility, faster checkouts and improved search. Internally, staff gained autonomy: they can now update products, run promotions and manage orders without waiting on IT.

Key Learnings

Shifting to a unified, API-first ecommerce platform lets fast-growing retailers break free from manual processes and high fees. Automation tools like Shopify Flow reduce errors, accelerate updates and empower non-technical teams. Combining custom development with out-of-the-box integrations ensures even complex inventory logic is handled reliably.