ZyroFisher.
Delivering a sleek enterprise solution for eight ZyroFisher brands on Shopify.
Packed with a variety of challenges, the ZyroFisher project was an exciting opportunity for the blubolt team to flex our creative and technical muscles!
“The brands were hosted on VisualSoft (except for FastHouse, which was already on Shopify) and had different CMS setups, making internal team collaboration between the +60 brands they distribute very difficult,” says Kaja Sztuczka, Senior Project Manager at blubolt. “So, in migrating all eight brands to Shopify, blubolt needed to deliver on multiple requirements for ZyroFisher:
1. Create one “parent” theme so each of the nine brands could be “children” of that parent theme, meaning each child theme reflects the individual brand guidelines,
2. Create an identical backend setup for each of the eight sites to enable seamless management of the +60 brands they distribute and
3. Ensure the setup enabled the ZyroFisher team to manage multiple sites without learning new technologies when moving between brands.”
Team ZyroFisher: the eight brands now powered by Shopify.
ZyroFisher brands live on Shopify Plus.
Altura. This brand is tried, tested and trusted, with over 25 years of experience producing the most considered cycling products.
Bell Bike Helmets. Established in 1954, Bell is synonymous with imbuing confidence in thrill seekers with a high-quality range of helmets for auto racing, motorcycling and bicycling.
Camelbak. Known as the home of hands-free hydration for sporting enthusiasts, Camelbak is the world's leading maker of hydration solutions like bottles, packs, coolers, reservoirs, filtration and assorted accessories.
Giro. Steadfastly committed to serving enthusiast riders, the brand offers high-quality cycling equipment like helmets, shoes, gloves, and clothing.
Panaracer. Founded in Japan in 1952, the brand manufactures bicycle tyres for elite cycling.
ZyroFisher brands live on Shopify Advanced.
BMC. Featuring intricate Swiss engineering, BMC’s collection of premium bikes is the natural choice of the world’s top athletes, who go on to win races like the Tour de France.
CatEye. Founded in 1954, CatEye is the world industry leader in innovative cycle computers, lights and reflectors for cyclists.
Tifosi. With the brand name Italian for ‘super-fan’, it’s no surprise that Tifosi eyewear is a trusted brand for enthusiasts of all sports, particularly cycling, running, outdoor and golf.
Why choose Shopify & blubolt?
So why did the ZyroFisher team choose Shopify as its enterprise-level eCommerce platform, with blubolt delivering the project?
We posed the question to Abby Carter, Head of eCommerce at ZyroFisher and Yotpo Amazing Women in eCommerce 2023 Honoree.
“Our migration to Shopify with blubolt was a strategic decision. Having worked with lots of eCommerce platforms, I knew that Shopify would give us the flexibility and adaptability to handle a high volume of brands easily. I was also confident that blubolt understood the technical complexity of what we needed and could deliver it! As a result, we’re now able to focus on user experience, retention, and conversion to drive revenue and brand growth.”
Benefits of the parent and child theme approach.
“The biggest technical challenge was creating one parent theme with the eight brands all being children of that theme. Then building the site in a way that allows for maximum flexibility when creating pages to ensure each of the eight sites reflects the individual brand,” says Jon MacKinnon, Senior Frontend Developer at blubolt. “So we started the project with a thorough audit of each site and noting all the frequently used blocks shared across all sites. We then included these in the new parent theme, meaning they can be used across all the child sites. As a result, managing the sites is far easier and more efficient for the ZyroFisher content team, and the past difficulties with teams collaborating have been solved.”
Another benefit of this approach is that blubolt can make changes in one place and deploy the changes across multiple sites, meaning ZyroFisher only needs to budget for one piece of additional work rather than eight.
Personality-packed design across eight brands.
“As this project involved multiple brands under one parent theme, our design needed to take into consideration eight sets of brand guidelines and deliver eight sites with a unique personality,” says Madeleine Gale, Design Lead at blubolt. “As explained by our development team above, we rose to the challenge by ensuring that all the blocks we included in the build were designed in a way that would work for every brand. In addition, we carefully considered how the components and style guide were set up so that when the branding was switched out, the site wouldn’t break! This meant delivering a consistent typography hierarchy and ensuring components were set up similarly but with individual brand flare.”
Sporting flexibility & function.
For greater customisation across brands, the blubolt team built in a high level of flexibility into the sites, which includes two header options, two footer options, and two PDP options, as well as options for different product swatch styles (for example, colours or images). Consequently, the internal ZyroFisher teams are free to mix and match any of these options on a per-brand basis to ensure each site has its own distinctive style.
In addition, the blubolt team created a group of “shared sections”, which allow for the sites and pages to be built quickly by ZyroFisher’s content team. These included multiple options for displaying elements such as the hero image, showcasing collections, promo blocks, and image and text content.
Perfect partners: nailing the tech stack to power multiple sites effectively.
While each brand has some brand-specific apps, the blubolt team helped ZyroFisher select an impressive tech stack to deliver across all eight sites. This includes Nosto for personalisation, Klaviyo for email marketing, Yotpo for reviews, Zendesk for customer support, Shopify Translate & Adapt for multi-language sites, and Boost Commerce for search and filtering. In addition, the team integrated Stockist for the store locator, Kiwi for sizing charts, Equate for product comparisons and Smart Wishlist for the wishlist.
ZyroFisher set for enterprise success on Shopify Plus!
Looking for Shopify inspiration for a project of your own? Head over to some (or all!) of ZyroFisher's new sites:
