Molly Mutt Enhances the Lives of Pets and Owners with BigCommerce
Discover how customisable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.
170%
increase in YoY revenue after year one
31%
increase in YoY revenue after year two
13%
increase in AOV after three years
Introducing an effortless way to clean your dog’s bed.
For Molly Mutt, the story starts in 2008 with three dirty dogs living in a San Francisco apartment with their owner, Molly Mundt. Any pet owner knows that three dirty dogs usually come with three dirty dog beds. Molly’s apartment lacked a washer and dryer, so she found herself having to lug all three beds up San Francisco’s iconic hills to her closest laundromat.
After enough trips, a life-changing idea came to her — “What if there was a cover on the beds that she could take on and off to wash instead?” Molly teamed up with her old friend and colleague, Art Simon. Together, they co-founded Molly Mutt and began their mission to create sustainable products that ease the lives of pet parents.
Molly Mutt has since made an international name for itself with high-quality dog bed covers and additional pet products like crate covers — all available in custom prints designed by Molly herself. With their business rapidly growing, they knew they needed a reliable ecommerce platform that could keep up.
CHALLENGE
Dealing with the maintenance and hosting of Magento 1.
Molly Mutt originally created their online storefront with Magento 1. As the business grew, they realised a locally hosted ecommerce site required regular maintenance. This took them away from doing what they love, designing new pet products and one-of-a-kind custom prints.
In 2019, when it was announced that Magento 1 would no longer be supported, Molly Mutt decided enough was enough.
“We didn't want the hassle of Magento anymore where we were responsible for the hosting,” said Charles Combs, Head of Marketing at Molly Mutt. “We were in charge of the maintenance if we needed to scale the servers so that we could accommodate more traffic. That was our responsibility, and frankly, that's not what we wanted to be focusing on.”Â
This put Combs and the team on the hunt for an ecommerce platform that was cloud-hosted and would allow them to grow. Soon after beginning their search, they found BigCommerce.
“BigCommerce kept showing up in our searches and we knew we needed something that was scalable but also flexible and cloud-hosted,” explained Combs. “It really came down to BigCommerce and Shopify. Ultimately, we just got a much better feeling in terms of how BigCommerce would be a partner that we would be joining as opposed to just a service.”
“It really came down to BigCommerce and Shopify. Ultimately, we just got a much better feeling in terms of how BigCommerce would be a partner that we would be joining as opposed to just a service.”
Charles Combs Head of Marketing, Molly Mutt
SOLUTION
Ability to be fully customisable.
With the help of BigCommerce’s Implementation Team, Customer Success Team, and agency partner Modelic, Molly Mutt seamlessly transitioned from Magento 1 — without losing any SEO value.
While creating the new store, Molly Mutt tasked Modelic with developing an essential component to their website — the bundle kit feature. This allows customers to order multiple related products at once, saving them the hassle of clicking around the website to find everything their furry friend needs.Â
“We were able to build the bundle kit feature using an offsite database that communicates with the customer’s browser in real-time. This way they can choose items based on size, colour, and patterns, and get exactly what they want instead of choosing from something that's prebuilt,” said Matthew Coles, Account Director at Modelic.Â
This bundle feature is a key element of Molly Mutt’s website and online sales as it presents products in a way that encourages customers to add more related items to their cart, raising the average order value. It also automatically applies exclusive discounts to bundled items, rewarding customers who use this feature.
Robust native features and easy-to-install apps.
A key factor in Molly Mutt’s decision to choose BigCommerce was the native functionality and easy-to-install apps the platform offers. Molly Mutt wanted the power to scale their business through BigCommerce’s native features such as faceted search, otherwise known as advanced product filtering.
Additionally, Molly Mutt has been able to sell wholesale to other stores in the pet industry by taking advantage of BigCommerce’s native platform B2B features, such as price lists, restricted login, and customer groups.Â
“BigCommerce had the most built-in functionality that we needed and it wasn't costing extra. We didn't have to go download an app that's hosted on third-party servers,” said Combs. “BigCommerce had all of that built-in, which was really important for us.”
Molly Mutt uses several apps, including Tag Rocket, which installs third-party tags on their BigCommerce store in a no-code environment. Another Molly Mutt favourite is LimeSpot, which creates a personalised experience for customers visiting their online store.
Bringing the Molly Mutt brand to life.
For the first year and a half after launching the new site, Molly Mutt used one of BigCommerce’s built-in themes and saw a jump in revenue. With this momentum, Molly Mutt asked Modelic to create a custom template that fully encompasses the brand.
“We saw a really nice jump in revenue along with all of the other features that BigCommerce offered, and that's when we really realised there's a lot of room for growth here,” explained Combs. “So we thought let's build a template that really encompasses everything about the brand, the little cute pieces of things, being able to use an icon here — those types of things.”
Modelic took on the task of creating a site that matches the uniqueness and creativity of Molly Mutt’s brand — and they did not disappoint. Everything from Molly Mutt’s drive to promote sustainability through their partnership with Climate Neutral, to an FAQ page that includes a Spotify playlist of all the songs their custom prints are named after was included.
“We've enjoyed developing on BigCommerce because we can customise where we need to, but the base functionality is rock solid so we can always depend on that. But then we still have some freedom to do some interesting workarounds and customisations to make sure that we're servicing the end customer well,” said Coles.
Agency Partner:
Highlighted Applications:
“We saw a really nice jump in revenue along with all of the other features that BigCommerce offered, and that's when we really realised there's a lot of room for growth here.”
CHARLES COMBS HEAD OF MARKETING, MOLLY MUTT
“We've enjoyed developing on BigCommerce because we can customise where we need to, but the base functionality is rock solid so we can always depend on that. But then we still have some freedom to do some interesting workarounds and customisations to make sure that we're servicing the end customer well.”
MATTHEW COLES, ACCOUNT DIRECTOR, MODELIC
RESULTS
Skyrocketed success.
After transitioning from Magento 1 to BigCommerce, Molly Mutt saw a massive increase in revenue.
“In our first year on BigCommerce, we grew our revenue year-over-year by 170%, which was proof to us we had plenty of room to grow,” said Combs.Â
After seeing the success generated by using a pre-built theme in BigCommerce, the Molly Mutt team decided it was time to work with Modelic on a custom theme. A year after launching the customised site, Molly Mutt’s revenue grew by 31%.
“Modelic really understood the task at hand, who we were, who our customers were, and since they understood the BigCommerce platform, they built essentially the theme that we needed to make it easier for our customers to understand and purchase our products,” said Combs.
The new theme has optimised the Molly Mutt site for higher conversion rates. Molly Mutt has continued to see an increase in year-over-year growth since the launch of the custom site. Through the bundle kit feature, the integration of apps, and additional efforts, they increased their average order size by 13% by their third year on BigCommerce.
“It just goes to show I think that we made the right choice when it comes to the platform and the development partner,” said Combs.
“In our first year on BigCommerce, we grew our revenue year-over-year by 170%, which was proof to us we had plenty of room to grow.”
Charles Combs Head of Marketing, Molly Mutt
LOOKING AHEAD
Expanding through omnichannel and wholesale selling.
Molly Mutt is making a strong name for itself in the pet industry. With their long-lasting and sustainable products sold in their custom-designed prints, there’s no doubt that we’ll continue to see success from this dog-centric brand.
As Molly Mutt continues to grow, the team plans to tap further into the world of omnichannel selling. Currently, they sell on marketplaces such as Chewy and Amazon, but are looking to use BigCommerce functionalities to expand into other stores.Â
“We want Molly Mutt to be available in all of the places that pet owners are looking for sustainable and eco-conscious dog products,” said Combs. “Being able to tie that inventory or those products into any other ecommerce websites that are out there is the direction we want and need to be going in.”
On top of that, the team also plans to expand the B2B side of their business so they can generate conversions with retail pet stores. “We do have wholesale sides of our business, and so we'll be looking into B2B Edition as well to see if we can streamline that side of things,” explained Combs.
“It just goes to show I think that we made the right choice when it comes to the platform and the development partner.”
Charles Combs Head of Marketing, Molly Mutt
Published: February 2024
See More On These Topics
