Polish online furniture maker Oakywood has always aimed to combine a love for woodwork and quality craftsmanship with modern technology to create durable and sustainable office furniture and accessories. Founder Mateusz Haberny grew up in the foothills of the Tatra mountains in the Polish highlands, where he says everyday objects are “expertly-carved works of art”. It is here that Oakywood was conceived and eventually grew into a trusted name in interiors shipping to 18 countries.
Shopify Plus has enabled Oakywood to achieve:
- 250% increase in sales of key products
- AOV increases of 458% in Germany, 232% in Switzerland, and 84% in the UK
- 200 reviews and an overall Trustpilot rating of 4.7 in just a few months
Challenge
Mateusz knew that to really grow Oakywood into a recognised brand and not just sell via a marketplace, it needed a platform. A major roadblock preventing Oakywood from scaling was the lack of ownership. The brand previously sold on Etsy, where it was head-to-head with competitors – without a standalone ecommerce store, the brand would struggle to differentiate itself from its competition.
The business faced another barrier when it came to custom orders; customers would previously have to submit a custom order by filling out an online form where they would need to describe in detail the product they wanted. On top of that, it was impossible to know exactly how it would look – a significant downside to investing in expensive pieces with no way to picture the end result.
I thought, ‘There needs to be a better way of doing this.’ So I looked and found Shopify. And the great thing about Shopify is that it was very easy to take a webshop to market in a matter of hours – not weeks.
Solution
In 2017 Mateusz moved the business from his Etsy storefront over to Shopify Plus, where the brand was able to leverage the extensive app ecosystem. Shopify’s Trustpilot integration was one of them, a feature that has brought huge credibility to the brand, especially in the UK. Until this point, reviews were scattered across multiple channels such as Google Reviews and Stamped.io.
Migrating also meant the brand was now able to process customised orders more quickly through Shopify AR, among other benefits. Shopify AR enables Precismo, a 3D scanner tool that allows shoppers to generate a 3D model of a custom piece of furniture as well as virtually display it in their home, which looks, as Mateusz describes, “just as natural as photographs.”
It’s had a tremendous effect on our business. We rebranded the store last year, we switched over to Shopify Plus, then we added the customisers with Precismo. [Customers] reach out post-purchase to say the AR model was a game changer and the thing that made them purchase those products.
Results
Thanks to Shopify's international sales tools, taking the Oakywood brand global has been a breeze – allowing for sales in multiple countries and currencies in just a few clicks and resulting in an average order increase of 84% in the UK, 232% in Switzerland, and 458% in Germany.
Prior to this, the business would go months at a time with almost no orders for custom pieces. Since implementing Precismo’s 3D scanning technology via Shopify AR, Oakywood receives around 200-300 custom orders per month.
And after implementing Shopify’s Trustpilot integration, the brand rounded up 200 reviews and racked up an overall rating of 4.7 in just two months. Meanwhile, certain key products have seen an increase in sales of up to 250% – not just due to product ratings, but the ability to see previous customer images of the products in their homes.
Get an in-depth look at how Wecanfly has successfully guided Oakywood in their Shopify Plus implementation here.
Often [businesses in Poland] don't want to go abroad. But I thought, ‘Why don't I sell globally?’ And it was a game changer when Shopify introduced Shopify Markets because it was much easier to navigate those sales.
