For nearly 15 years, 7B Boardshop has been a cornerstone of the snowboard and skateboard community in Bonner County, Idaho. 7B has built a loyal following by focusing on authentic community connections, hosting events, and supporting local riders. But despite their success, the team recognized an opportunity to modernize their presence online and offline as they continued to grow.
By replatforming to Shopify, 7B Boardshop created a cohesive, trustworthy brand experience that resonates with their community across online and offline sales channels. The results have been remarkable. Since moving to Shopify, 7B Boardshop has:
- Projected 15% growth in total sales year-over-year
- Generated 55% of sales from new customers
- Established a thriving online business after years of negligible ecommerce sales
The Challenge: Hitting a wall with outdated retail technology
Despite 7B Boardshop's strong community presence and loyal customer base, their online store was significantly underperforming. The outdated platform wasn't user-friendly, lacked engaging content, and failed to reflect the shop's authentic community vibe, making it ripe for an upgrade.
The shop was using Lightspeed for both in-store point-of-sale and their online store, but the systems weren't optimized for their needs. "I would hear the complaints about it," recalls Justus Hines, Marketing Manager at 7B Boardshop. "It was just a dated system." This created friction for both staff and customers, with no seamless way to connect the in-store and online shopping experiences. The technology didn't reflect the quality of service and community focus that defined the 7B brand.
At the same time, the shop wasn't fully leveraging their strong community connections. "There's already this community, there's this perfect storm of team riders and individuals that support the business," Justus explains. "But they're kind of dormant actors, right? They're not being utilized." The shop needed a platform that could help activate these community connections and better engage with them to help the business continue to grow.
The Solution: Creating a unified experience with Shopify
7B Boardshop decided to replatform to Shopify based on its reputation for user-friendly design and unified commerce capabilities. Justus had advocated for the switch, recognizing how other successful retailers in their industry were leveraging the platform. He led the effort to build a completely new online store on Shopify, focusing on creating an authentic digital experience that matched the shop's in-person aesthetic by leveraging existing assets from previous projects, including 16-millimeter footage and an extensive photo archive.
The team worked to ensure the website felt trustworthy and professional while maintaining the shop's authentic character. "I think it gives our customers a sense of security," Justus says. This attention to design and user experience was critical in building customer confidence in the online store.
The implementation timeline was ambitious but strategic. After Justus joined in August, the team partnered with the agency Matagora to manage the complex data migration of their extensive inventory. Together, the teams worked diligently to build out the new online store and implement Shopify POS simultaneously, launching both in December, which was just in time for their peak winter season. This coordinated approach ensured that both online and in-store experiences were unified from day one.
For their in-store hardware setup, 7B implemented a fixed Shopify POS terminal at the main register, complemented by a mobile iPad that staff could use throughout the store. This dual-device approach gives the team flexibility during busy periods, allowing them to process transactions anywhere in the shop and reduce checkout bottlenecks when multiple customers are ready to make purchases.
With the new technology in place, 7B could finally activate their community connections through both digital and physical channels as they showcased the positive change that was happening at the shop.
The Results: From local legend to omnichannel champion
Since launching on Shopify, 7B Boardshop has experienced the busiest winter season in their 15-year history, with significant growth in both online and in-store sales.
After years of minimal online sales, 7B has seen substantial growth in their ecommerce revenue. This wasn't just about having a new website—it was about creating a cohesive brand experience that customers could trust. The professional look and feel of the Shopify platform, combined with authentic content and seamless checkout options including Shop Pay, created an experience that customers were delighted to use.
Shopify POS has transformed the in-store experience as well. The mobile POS capabilities using an iPad have been "super helpful" during busy periods, according to Justus, allowing staff to process transactions anywhere in the store. "If someone's standing around for 10 or 15 minutes not getting assistance, it's not going to turn into a sale," Justus explains. "Shopify POS lets us make sure that that doesn't happen."
Shop Pay has been particularly valuable for the in-store experience as well. "Shop Pay has been huge for us," Justus says. "Customers just hop on the iPad and the next thing you know, they're walking out of the door, and we've made a sale."
Justus goes on to explain what is perhaps the most significant result of the switch to Shopify POS, saying, "The resounding word that I get is that it feels trustworthy." With Shopify powering 7B's full commerce stack, this sentiment extends from the in-store experience to the online store, creating a modernized look and feel that's helping open up new worlds of opportunity.
Having Shopify POS has been huge for us. It gives our customers a sense of security and feels trustworthy. We're finally able to have our online store matching what we do in the brick and mortar, which is what we've been working toward for years.