How Storyblok empowered growth for a leading fashion brand

Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden
Technology Stack: Storyblok, Centra, Next.js, Heroku, Cloudfront

CHIMI is a fashion brand that originated in Sweden in 2016. The brand was founded with the philosophy to inspire the capturing of every aspect of modern life through eyewear. The products are imagined through the eyes of Scandinavian simplicity altered by a futuristic lens.

With ambitions to expand globally and diversify their product offerings, CHIMI realized their existing technology stack was limiting their potential growth. They struggled particularly with localization efforts and maintaining control over content management across different markets and product lines. Storyblok not only addressed CHIMI's immediate challenges but also positioned them for sustained growth and innovation in the competitive fashion industry. By leveraging Storyblok as a headless Content Management System (CMS), CHIMI achieved operational efficiencies and empowered their teams to focus on strategic initiatives like market expansion and product diversification.

CHIMI's quest for flexibility and scalability

CHIMI faced critical challenges related to flexibility and scalability within their online presence. They were using WordPress with WooCommerce as their tech stack. Their main pain points included challenges with managing multiple languages and markets efficiently. They also struggled with scaling their eCommerce operations across different regions and product categories, particularly facing issues with product display pages (PDPs) differing significantly between eyewear and apparel.

Flexibility and Localization Challenges:

• Difficulty in adapting content for different markets: With CHIMI’s previous system, they struggled with customizing and localizing their content to suit diverse regional preferences and cultural nuances. They needed a way to tailor content effectively across various markets and resonate with local audiences.
• Limited ability to scale and reach wider global audiences: The technology constraints prevented CHIMI from quickly expanding their market reach beyond their initial demographics. They needed to easily launch in new countries and effectively penetrate diverse global markets.

Technology Stack Limitations:

• The existing tech stack lacked agility and scalability: CHIMI's technology stack was unable to accommodate the evolving content management and eCommerce needs of a growing fashion brand. They needed more flexibility in order to respond quickly to market trends, customer demands, and new opportunities.
• Inefficient processes hindering rapid growth and expansion: Manual workflows and outdated tools made it challenging to scale operations smoothly, impacting CHIMI's overall competitiveness in the fashion industry.

These challenges showed that CHIMI needed to upgrade their digital systems to support their big plans for growth and make their operations run more smoothly.

How Storyblok transformed CHIMI's digital strategy

To address these challenges, CHIMI embarked on a digital transformation journey in adopting a headless architecture. This decision was driven by the need for greater flexibility, scalability, and efficiency in managing their online content and expanding their eCommerce capabilities. Working closely with ROIROI, a leading eCommerce agency, CHIMI aimed to overhaul their technology stack to support their ambitious growth plans:

• A CMS tailored for eCommerce: CHIMI needed a CMS that could easily integrate well into their eCommerce platform led by Centra - to support growth across diverse markets. Storyblok was the perfect choice for that.
• Visual Editor and content control: During the decision-making process, CHIMI and ROIROI selected Storyblok as their headless CMS of choice primarily due to its unique Visual Editor. It empowered CHIMI's marketing and content teams to manage and update content autonomously, with minimal dependency on developers. This capability was crucial as CHIMI expanded its product lines to include both fashion and luxury eyewear, needing frequent content updates and creative control.
• Scalability and time efficiency: Implementing Storyblok allowed CHIMI and ROIROI to create Reusable Content Blocks and Components, significantly reducing development time. What would typically take a year to implement was achieved in just a few months, enabling CHIMI to swiftly adapt to market demands and roll out new offerings faster. This efficiency translated into substantial time savings, estimated at 20 to 40 hours per month compared to their previous CMS.
• Localization and market expansion: Storyblok's internationalization capabilities were pivotal in CHIMI's localization efforts. Beyond supporting multiple languages, the platform facilitated tailored content localization for specific markets, including adapting payment options and marketing campaigns accordingly. This flexibility was crucial as CHIMI prepared to enter new regions such as the United States and refine their market strategies based on localized consumer preferences and behaviors. Today, opening up a market with an existing language takes no more than a few hours, enabling market-specific localization for content, products, shipping, and payment options.

Looking ahead, CHIMI envisions a future with an enhanced retail presence and a robust eCommerce platform, targeting substantial revenue growth. Storyblok's role in this vision is fundamental, providing the scalability and adaptability needed to support CHIMI's expansion plans into new product categories and global markets seamlessly.