Before you start the process of synchronizing your Shopify store with Plytix, it is better to know the basics. What is […]
By AayushFabletics, one of the most famous activist wear companies that offer high-quality sportswear and implement subscription services, has changed the tendency to buy sports clothes. Customer experience management, together with the adoption of innovative technology, is said to be the secret of the success of the brand. Nevertheless, one of the most expected quizzes by newcomers, retail lovers, and even the general population, does Fabletics utilizes Shopify in its e-commerce platform.
In this research paper, we dissect all aspects of Fabletics e-commerce approach and find out whether the company operates on Shopify. In the next sections, we will see the benefits and drawbacks of using Shopify and how it differs from Fabletics current e-commerce platform.
What is Fabletics?
Fabletics is a sportswear brand jointly started by the Hollywood actress Kate Hudson in 2013. The company aims to get people excited about exercising by selling fashionable, comfortable, and affordable workout apparel for women and men. If you sign up for Fabletics membership program, Fabletics considers your daily activities and exercises to determine which outfit you should receive every month.
Being an online company means that Fabletics first popularized itself through online sales, and it could take time for a company of this nature to build up its customers. In later years, Fabletics has grown its sales not only by opening stores in different regions of the United States. The brand has received much attention for its innovative approach to business, featured products, and their service.
Does Fabletics Use Shopify?
The research and the analysis carried out on this article are based on the fact that Fabletics is not on Shopify. The brand functions on a platform that is developed for its operations but explicitly designed for the business model of the brand. Shopify is an effective and adaptable platform for any online shop, with great features and options. However, it was not chosen by Fabletics because this approach allowed the company to have more precise control and better adjust the tendencies and parameters of the shop to their needs.
Advantages of Using Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce solution well known for its usability, cost-efficiency, and functionality. Its several merits make any brand adopt the platform for their online store, as shown below.
1. Ease of Use
The inherent positive feature attributable to Shopify is its ease of use. Despite the lack of technical skills, anyone can easily design and run their online store. This makes Shopify the most effective and friendly platform for small businesses, startups, and other entrepreneurs who want to create their online store.
2. Flexibility
It has various tailored themes and countless options to choose from, enabling businesses to build an online store with the culture they want. Similarly, the supported payment gateways make it possible for merchants to receive payments from their customers globally. In addition, Shopify integrates a variety of Apps created by third parties who visit the Shopify App Store, hence boosting the versatility of this platform.
3. Powerful Features
Shopify offers several robust tools that help manage any aspect of e-commerce. For example, the inventory system of this platform helps businesses monitor their stocks, sales, and orders simultaneously. In addition to the above, the platform offers tools for printing search engine optimization (SEO), customer management (CRM), customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, and reports.
4. Customer Support
Shopify also provides customer support throughout the day so that any problem related to business technicalities can be easily fixed. It also has instructional articles, tutorials, and other materials to help merchants fully utilize the Shopify environment.
Pitfalls of using Shopify
Shopify, like everything else, has many benefits, but it also has unique disadvantages that may not suit every company.
1. Scalability
With this comes the need to expand your e-commerce needs as a business expands. Shopify is not well suited for bulk merchandise sellers or companies with a very high selling capacity or complex operations. When selling a high volume of products, the platform becomes expensive, and other features are available at a fee in other apps or subscriptions.
2. Limited Design Customization
Shopify has several choices for changing the website’s appearance, but they are stock themes that may not match a given brand’s design. Others may feel the current design solutions lack sufficiency and flexibility to custom-make a brand experience that is both integrated and compelling to customers.
3. Insufficient Management Corrective Capacity of the Backend
In Shopify, businesses can only access frontend code and not the backend code of the business’s online store. At the same time, this can be a disadvantage for those companies that need more possibilities to configure the store layout, set custom code or integrate with other applications.
Fabletics decided to partner with a custom-built platform
Based on the peculiarities of Fabletics operations and the specific focus on the approach to customers, it was appropriate to develop a portal from scratch.
Some of the reasons why Fabletics chose this route include:
1. Personalized Experience
Fabletics claims it to be a brand that aims at providing the unique outfit for every woman who buys Fabletics clothing. An in-house built platform was used to make Fabletics create specific customer journey that would help the clients get the outfits and recommendations tailored to their needs and wants.
2. Customization of Design and Function
The firm has distinguished itself and designed its unique brand image and design pattern in the e store. A platform that is developed from scratch allowed the brand to have better integrated online buying experience and maintaining its consistency with the whole brand look.
3. Improving Company Performance and Velocity
This is why Fabletics is one of the most successful companies: the company learned how to react to the changing market and cutomer’s preferences within mere months. Since Fabletics has had its own platform, the work on perfecting and the further optimization of the website and the speed of its loading were presented as a successful experience for the brand’s buyers.
4. Increased Possibility to Control the Interface
Fabletics also focuses a lot on customer satisfaction that ranges from the recommendation of clothing pieces based on everyone’s unique body shape and size to the way customers pay for their orders. One key advantage of using a platform built specifically for the brand was that it granted the company more direct control over certain aspects of the user experience, which in turn provided a better framework from which the implement particular features and functions based on the company’s operating model.
The brand therefore decided to contract unique solution that will meet its business requirements while at the same time provide the clients with the best experience when using the applications. Despite all these benefits that Shopify has to offer, terms of usability, flexibility and strong features, it is not necessarily the same fitting for all businesses.
So, for businesses that possess specific requirements of design or functionality and performance, it is possible to argue that their own platform allows them to build a tailored and flexible environment to attract more customers to the online shops.