How Shopify Plus' headless architecture enabled TASCHEN to conquer new markets in just 5 months.

Since 1980, the TASCHEN publishing house has been inspiring readers with publications covering topics such as art, photography, design, and more. Over the past decades, the tradition-rich company from Cologne has built a worldwide reputation and is one of the most successful art publishers with eleven shops in the world's major cities.

The task was to transfer this success into the digital age and lay the foundation for a successful online business. With Shopify Plus, TASCHEN managed to generate a seamless customer journey and open up new markets.

With Shopify Plus, TASCHEN quickly achieved results:

Challenge

The publishing house was already focusing on online commerce before switching to Shopify Plus. A specially developed platform was supposed to pave the way for the traditional company's entry into e-commerce. However, this approach turned out to be slower and more limiting than expected. Important functions were difficult to integrate. Updates and changes to the software were implemented slowly. It quickly became clear to TASCHEN that this solution was no longer sustainable if they wanted to grow at the rate of their ambitions.

The internationally renowned company was looking for a solution that would enable a swift go-live in several countries, while being quick and easy to use.

The high level of trust in Shopify Plus for e-commerce, the state-of-the-art software and reliability, as well as countless success stories from other retailers convinced the publisher that Shopify Plus was the right solution.

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Solution

TASCHEN chose to work with Marmalade agency and Shopify Plus to rebuild its international webshop presence. Now, Shopify Plus enables the company to have a headless architecture of the online shop with integrated Product Information Management (PIM) and the most powerful checkout in the world - Shopify Checkout.

The shop software impresses with a variety of out-of-the-box solutions and plug-ins, which, unlike the previous system, ensure streamlined implementation. TASCHEN has managed to combine both online and brick-and-mortar retail, as well as telephone orders, to create a unique customer journey. The connection of third-party suppliers and dropshipping has opened up new sales channels. The publisher has also successfully established discount codes, gift vouchers, various payment options and customer segmentation. All in all, Shopify Plus has enabled TASCHEN to reach new target groups and conquer new markets in record time.

Results

In February 2023, after only five months of development, the new online shop was launched internationally and is now available in five languages. Today, the publisher can establish changes and updates many times faster than before. Together with Shopify Plus, TASCHEN enables a seamless customer journey that pays off for the company. Since the launch, the total number of orders has increased by 12 percent. At the same time, the average order value increased by six percent. Overall, TASCHEN recorded a 20 percent increase in sales compared to last year!

Shopify Plus has paid off for the publisher and has become the control centre of its online business. In the future, the company wants to push B2B business even more and establish a D2C like customer experience for B2B with Shopify Wholesale.