AS Colour Gets Outfitted for International Growth on BigCommerce

Discover how customisable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.

Case Study Device Laptop Ascolour

51%

increase in visits

39%

increase in orders

45%

increase in revenue

Performance metrics compare US store data from March, 2024, to March, 2023.

Sustainability. Quality. Style.

Lawrence Railton founded AS Colour in 2005 to create high-quality clothing blanks, mainly for the music industry. Today, they operate five warehouses in four countries worldwide. They’re still working with big names in entertainment, but have also expanded further into the B2B and wholesale space, supplying blanks for printers and embellishers across the globe.

Quality has always been paramount for AS Colour. “From the very beginning, doing the right thing was really important for us as a brand,” said Joe Sharplin, Head of Design at AS Colour. “We’ve always tried to do the best that we can, whether that’s through production, the materials we use, auditing factories.

“Another part of that is taking pride in ourselves and the quality of the apparel we produce. We see sustainability as key to AS Colour and what we do,” he continued.

A long-lasting, high-quality product is the cornerstone of AS Colour’s business. It’s only natural that they would seek out an ecommerce platform that matches their high expectations for form and functionality.

CHALLENGE

An ageing platform led them to reevaluate their ecommerce technology.

When AS Colour set up shop online, they used Magento 1 to power their ecommerce experience. But, as the platform neared its end of life in June of 2020, AS Colour began to review its alternatives.

“We looked at a few other options,” Joe says. “Shopify Plus, Magento 2, and BigCommerce were all in the running. Our main need was a platform that was super stable — one that would allow our sites to stay up and always be available for our customers.”

They also needed a platform that offered robust business-to-business (B2B) functionality, like price groups, pricing tiers, and customer groups. “That was really make or break for us,” explained Sharplin. “It was those two things, features and functionality, that really set BigCommerce apart from the pack and ultimately led us to replatform to BigCommerce.”

“It was those two things, features and functionality, that really set BigCommerce apart from the pack and ultimately led us to replatform to BigCommerce.”

Joe Sharplin Head of Design, AS Colour

SOLUTION

BigCommerce turned out to be a perfect fit.

After ultimately deciding on BigCommerce for their new ecommerce implementation, AS Colour enlisted the help of BigCommerce Agency Partner Moustache Republic to help develop the perfect ecommerce powerhouse to drive international direct-to-consumer (DTC) and B2B growth.

“At its core, AS Colour is a B2B business. But with their desire to grow into the DTC space, we knew BigCommerce would really check all the boxes,” said Tony Hou, CEO and Founder of Moustache Republic. “The website was going to require a balance between the two, DTC and B2B, and we knew that BigCommerce, the way it handles the checkout experience, plus the way it can handle products and SKUs, would be a perfect fit.”

DTC and B2B on one platform.

Selling both DTC and B2B has become an important aspect of AS Colour’s business, and they needed an ecommerce solution that could provide a customer-centric purchasing and browsing experience, while also providing specific functionality necessary for B2B sales.

But, as with most things in the fashion industry, the look, feel, and style of the site remained paramount.

“When you look at many apparel companies in the wholesale space, the websites are very much built for wholesale, and they look like it, too,” said Sharplin. “But because we have the DTC and B2B sides of the business, we really needed a website that had the look and feel of a retail site, while also providing that B2B functionality. BigCommerce is perfect in that aspect, because we can create a beautiful website, but also create customer groups, price tiers, and custom logins for business partners.”

AS Colour has used BigCommerce’s native B2B functionality to create two separate experiences on the same site. Locked behind a login portal, they have created groups and pricing tiers unique to individual customer groups. This makes it easier for them to manage individual customer relationships without the heavy lift of individual account management.

“We’ve kind of perfected our B2B experience in the U.S. and are looking to expand some of those optimisations into our other global markets,” he explained. “It’s a great example of how we can customise the different experiences based on locales, but still maintain the same overall narrative, look, and feel of the brand.”

One place AS Colour has perfected that B2B experience is in checkout. “We’ve made it where B2B customers get an almost completely different buying experience than DTC customers. Because, generally speaking, B2B customers buy more products than their DTC counterparts,” Hou explained. “The cart layout is different, the product presentation is different, and then of course, the checkout experience is tailored to their needs, too.”

BigCommerce makes global growth a breeze.

AS Colour, a multinational brand, uses BigCommerce to not only test and customise user interface and experience, but also to localise the website content and experience to the different regions in which they operate.

“While the overall look and feel of each site is the same, there are very specific back-end tweaks that we make to suit each region,” Sharplin said. “It’s really important to us that we can easily make changes to local pricing and currencies.”

“We also love the ability to move quickly between our four stores,” he continued. “Me, our ecommerce manager, and our development agency, Moustache Republic, are doing everything across our New Zealand, US, Australia, and UK sites. Whether we’re updating a product description or creating a whole new product page, the ability to switch between the four sites is really seamless. We love it.”

Growing with an extensive network of technology and agency partners.

While AS Colour uses a number of native features available on BigCommerce in their site implementation, they also take advantage of tools built by BigCommerce technology partners. “Shogun allows us to create beautiful content pages, which publish through to the website seamlessly. It’s really reliable,” he said. “And Shipper HQ allows us to manage shipping and logistical operations around the world.”

For more custom features and improvements, AS Colour has turned to Moustache Republic to help with programming. “Our checkout is fully customised and built out and we’re also working to customise our category page,” explained Sharplin. “We’re integrating Searchspring to help enhance the search UX, so those will both launch at the same time.”

“The category implementation is really amazing,” Hou said. “We had to think about how we can best show their customers 50, 60 different colours that were available for one product. Through the GraphQL API, we were able to create a flow for customers to hover over individual colours and up would pop an image with the new design. It takes not even .5 seconds to change between images. It’s something we’re really proud of.”

But a key piece of custom functionality was built in-house by AS Colour’s IT manager. “Something that’s really been integral for us is the customisation with Shipper HQ, to get that to work with our two US warehouses,” he said. “Our IT manager was able to build it into our back-end to allow products to get split between those two warehouse locations. Something behind the scenes, but it’s really integral to our operations there.”

Agency Partner: 

Highlighted Applications:

BigCommerce Services:

"Whether we’re updating a product description or creating a whole new product page, the ability to switch between the four sites is really seamless. We love it.”

Joe Sharplin Head of Design, AS Colour

“Because we have the DTC and B2B sides of the business, we really needed a website that had the look and feel of a retail site, while also providing that B2B functionality. BigCommerce is perfect in that aspect.”

Joe Sharplin, Head of Design, AS Colour

Case Study Device Tablet Ascolour

RESULTS

A partnership built to last.

Since moving to BigCommerce, AS Colour has seen tremendous growth. “We’ve seen growth in all four of our operating regions,” said Sharplin. “Increases in customer visits, orders placed, and therefore, increases in revenue. The results have been great, and we’re continuing to see growth. It’s all been positive since coming on board.”

But growth numbers aren’t the only thing keeping Sharplin’s team positive. “Rachel, our BigCommerce rep who’s based in Australia, is super helpful. We have regular meetings where she keeps us up to date on everything related to BigCommerce, whether that’s updates, roadmap stuff, or functionality she thinks could really help us succeed,” he said.

“If there’s something I don’t know, or something I need help with, reaching out to BigCommerce for answers is always super easy, hassle free,” he continued. “We get answers really quickly. Everyone we’ve talked to at BigCommerce has been awesome. We love the relationship.”

Moustache Republic is also greatly appreciative of their relationship with BigCommerce, and sees great value in expanding on it. “The most valuable thing about BigCommerce for us is the flexibility of the platform. We know that whatever our clients want on their site, we can make it happen,” Hou said

“The most valuable thing about BigCommerce for us is the flexibility of the platform. We know that whatever our clients want on their site, we can make it happen.”

Tony Hou CEO and Founder, Moustache Republic

LOOKING AHEAD

Growing a global brand.

When AS Colour looks ahead, they see a world of opportunity awaiting — and they know that BigCommerce will be there to help provide the foundation they need to grow.

They also plan to continue testing and optimising their individual storefronts in order to provide the best possible user experience to customers across the globe. “Last year we launched a new homepage design, then went straight into our new category pages. Now we’ve got a product page redesign, the Searchspring optimisations launching…going to be a busy year,” Sharplin said with a laugh.

“But Moustache Republic has been doing an amazing job of helping us keep that ball rolling,” he continued. “I know they work hard with the BigCommerce back-end and ensure that everything’s working across all our different properties, that it’s seamless. They’re really keeping us running.”

And Sharplin knows that, as they continue to push the boundaries of ecommerce in the B2B/DTC fashion space, BigCommerce will be there. “As the business continues to evolve, whether that’s with a new site or multiple new sites for specific regions we’re expanding into, we’re confident in BigCommerce’s ability to support us wherever that journey takes us,” he said.

Published: May 2024

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