How RUDIS achieved an 80% revenue increase with Shopify & CQL

RUDIS launched in 2013 with a vision to create quality performance gear for wrestlers and has since become the market leader in wrestling. Despite their brand growth, RUDIS had outgrown their existing commerce platform, WooCommerce, and struggled to meet demand.

RUDIS partnered with CQL to accomplish two things: stabilize the new RUDIS site on Shopify Plus and optimize it with a rapid iteration of new features, integrations, and improved design and user experience. With the celebration of RUDIS’s 10-year anniversary, the new site launch also served as a catalyst for a stunning brand refresh that would present wrestling in a way that the world had never seen.

RUDIS’s new digital ecosystem, built on Shopify as a foundation for rapid growth, features a modernized brand, new technology partnerships, and a high-energy, engaging user experience. All of it together highlights RUDIS’s expertise, mission, champion athletes, custom team apparel, and high-performance gear.

In their relentless pursuit of excellence, RUDIS has achieved unprecedented growth on Shopify:

The challenge: Pinned down by tech paralysis

Despite their growth, RUDIS was in tech paralysis after outgrowing their old ecommerce platform. Their booming website couldn’t support big product drops and would experience frequent site outages, leaving the wrestling brand struggling to meet growing demand.

Quickly becoming the buzz of the wrestling industry, RUDIS’s increased popularity quickly proved their old tech stack was unable to support their volume of website orders. RUDIS needed to build out a new ecommerce foundation that was flexible, efficient, and scalable for brand growth in a competitive marketplace.

The RUDIS team came to CQL for a two-phased implementation. The first phase needed to focus on site stability and site speed, in addition to a brand refresh to elevate the brand’s look and give new energy to the site design. The second phase would focus on growth and innovation, optimizing the site with a rapid iteration of new features, integrations, and enhanced design and user experience.

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The solution: Becoming a champion on Shopify

With the celebration of RUDIS’ 10 year anniversary, the new site launch on Shopify served as a catalyst for a stunning brand refresh that would present wrestling in a way that the world had never seen. Using CQL’s Shopify Plus framework Propel as a new foundation for growth, the new RUDIS website emerged with an energetic brand refresh and an intuitive, compelling user experience that proudly showcases the brand’s expertise, mission, champion athletes, and high-performance wrestling gear.

While maintaining a look that feels organic and authentic to the RUDIS brand, the CQL team introduced a creative design on Shopify that brings high energy and elevates RUDIS’s product through the juxtaposition of models and layered storytelling interfaces.

Shopify’s powerful CMS allows RUDIS to exhibit their wrestling ethos and unparalleled expertise with engaging product stories, highlights of RUDIS’s design and engineering, champion athlete stories, and spotlights on Team RUDIS. RUDIS customers can find Team RUDIS wrestling champions like Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Snyder, learn about their history and achievements, and shop their RUDIS brand wrestling shoe collections.

Following their initial launch which included an integration with ERP system NetSuite, the RUDIS team quickly discovered opportunities for business expansion and optimization. Leveraging Shopify’s flexible platform and stable foundation for growth, RUDIS quickly integrated new technology partners for search, merchandising, reviews, and returns. RUDIS has taken advantage of Shopify’s efficiency and successfully launched several new projects including new merchandising sections to promote outfits and looks, new email landing pages, a Virtual Shoe Size Finder, new product page grid layouts, and updated photography to further enhance their digital transformation.

The results: Winning with unprecedented growth

RUDIS launched a digital experience that improves commerce capabilities, technologies, and customer experiences. The impact of the Shopify launch was seen quickly. By cyber week, RUDIS had achieved the largest volume and year-over-year growth in their history with an 80% revenue increase, a 70% order increase, and a 27% conversion rate increase YOY.

Shopify provided not only the site stability that RUDIS was seeking, but also the flexibility and efficiency for continued business growth. Shopify’s checkout extensibility allowed RUDIS to optimize their buy stack with content and enhance the site with a simpler purchase workflow. Shopify’s powerful CMS also helped improve the user experience and email performance with custom landing and product collections pages. And Shopify’s built-in SEO features have helped increase SEO rankings for RUDIS products and pages.

RUDIS is also the recipient of a Platinum 2024 MUSE Creative & Design Award and a Grand 2024 NYX Award, two prestigious award programs honoring creative, design, and marketing professionals.

RUDIS stands as a testament to dedication, precision, and a relentless pursuit of excellence—on the mat, in their gear, and now, with their Shopify digital transformation.