How MZ Wallace Cut Costs 64% and Boosted Sales with Shopify Plus

Background

MZ Wallace launched its first website in 2004 on an in-house system. As the brand grew, the team moved to Salesforce Commerce Cloud hoping to offload infrastructure work. What they found instead was a rigid platform with sky-high development fees that drained R&D budgets and slowed down site updates.

The Challenge

Non-technical staff struggled to update landing pages or add fresh features. Each change required agency tickets, long timelines, and steep invoices. When Salesforce required a full replatform to unlock new features, MZ Wallace faced either a massive upgrade project or a move to a more nimble platform.

Choosing Shopify Plus

The team compared total cost, feature sets, and speed. Shopify Plus stood out for its ease of use, built-in features, and robust partner ecosystem. MZ Wallace engaged IM Digital, a Shopify Plus agency, to manage the migration from start to finish—estimating four months to go live.

Implementation

In a four-month sprint, IM Digital replicated product data, rebuilt storefront templates, and connected payment, shipping, and marketing tools. Team members without coding skills tested the intuitive admin interface, confirming that out-of-the-box features like gift cards and loyalty programs worked without custom development.

Results

Within weeks of launch, MZ Wallace saw a 40% lift in ecommerce conversion rates and a 22% bump in revenue. Most striking was the 64% reduction in total cost of ownership—freeing budget for marketing and product innovation. Rather than wrestling with platform constraints, the team now spends time on campaigns that drive customers and repeat business.

Lessons Learned

A third-party platform may promise R&D, but lock-in and high hourly rates can outweigh benefits. Shifting to a modern SaaS solution lowered barriers and costs, while enabling non-technical staff to act quickly, which is vital in the fast-moving world of direct-to-consumer retail.