How The Conran Shop Cut Costs 50% and Boosted Conversions by 54% with Shopify

Turning a Complex Platform into an Agile Retail Engine

The Conran Shop, known for its curated selection of contemporary furniture, lighting and home accessories, had built an ecommerce site on Magento with layers of custom code. This approach demanded constant developer hours and drained budgets, leaving little room to refine the customer journey or test new features. When the brand decided to streamline operations and roll out a new unified identity across channels, sticking with Magento felt like trying to paint over cracks in a wall.

Facing the Cost and Complexity Challenge

Under mounting maintenance costs and frequent platform hiccups, the team at Conran realised their technology was working against them. Each update or new feature took weeks of dev time and extra budget approvals. The digital director sums it up: “Our greatest frustration was seeing our budgets tied up in maintaining the platform, rather than channelling those resources into creating exceptional experiences for our customers.”

Phased Migration to Shopify

Partnering with Unified agency, The Conran Shop switched to Shopify in two stages. First, they ensured new operations in Kuwait ran smoothly, then in early 2024 they flipped the switch on the UK site. The migration, was not only smoother but also faster than expected. Native apps and built-in features replaced months of custom builds. Matrixify handled Product Information Management duties in a fraction of the time it took on Magento, and Shopify’s default search tools outperformed their legacy solution.

Rolling Out Unified Commerce

Moving to Shopify opened doors to a unified model. Physical stores onboarded Shopify POS, giving retail teams one system for in-store and online sales. Staff quickly embraced the intuitive interface and tapped into customer details for personalised service. Meanwhile, trade customers got a dedicated B2B portal powered by Shopify’s wholesale features, streamlining the ordering process and freeing up sales reps to focus on design consultations.

Impressive Results and a Leaner Operation

Within months, The Conran Shop saw a 50% reduction in total cost of ownership, a 54% lift in conversion rates, and a 23% boost in email marketing revenue. Freed from the overhead of platform upkeep, the team now tests apps, tweaks UX flows, and explores AI tools for future growth. They’ve shifted from firefighting to proactively improving the brand experience at every touchpoint.

Looking Ahead

With a flexible commerce foundation in place, The Conran Shop is exploring how to weave AI into customer service and merchandising, and how advanced analytics can inform product curation. Most importantly, they’ve reclaimed their budgets for ideas that matter to shoppers, not lines of code.