Delugs, a fast-growing luxury watch strap brand based in Singapore, began as a leathercrafting hobby for founder Kenneth Kuan. When watch strap requests from family and friends gave way to broader demand from a larger audience, the business quickly expanded to serve customers all over the world with their unique brand of fine accessories for luxury watches.
From their founding in 2018 to claiming customers across the globe, including musician Ed Sheeran and a retail outlet, Delugs has grown fast, and needed a platform that could scale with their expansion ambitions. Upgrading to Shopify’s Plus plan allowed Delugs to elevate their customer experience, power seamless international expansion, and build a robust B2B business.
Since moving to the Shopify Plus plan, Delugs has seen:
- 58% year-over-year increase in checkout conversion rate
- 14% year-over-year increase in returning customers
- 13% year-over-year growth in total orders
The challenge: Manual processes hampered personalisation at scale
Delugs was born online, with a strategic focus on global reach from day one. But as the business matured, manual ecommerce processes such as personalised customer emails made scaling difficult. Delugs needed to offer a more tailored shopping experience for a niche product line, simplify international selling, and reduce friction for their growing base of retail partners.
Given Delugs’ range of strap sizes and styles, it wasn’t uncommon for customers to struggle finding the best strap for their watches. International pricing and duties created confusion, and wholesale buyers had to use discount codes on the B2C site to obtain a volume-based reduction from the usual retail price—a workaround that lacked personalisation. Delugs was ready to scale, but they needed a platform to support this expansion.
Before moving to Shopify’s Plus plan, we didn’t even know what was possible when it came to customer personalisation. We had customers making incorrect orders, which would result in returns. But now, with added features on Shopify Flow, which lets us send emails automatically to customers upon their first order to make sure they’re getting the right strap for their watch, we can catch these issues before they become a problem.
The solution: Three storefronts, one seamless experience
Already on Shopify, Delugs upgraded to Shopify’s Plus plan. Implementing the new solution in partnership with Jumpstart Commerce, Delugs built a personalised, multi-channel experience that helped customers navigate the company’s strap vast range with ease and speed.
Specifically, Delugs and Jumpstart Commerce created custom tools for product discovery. Using Shopify’s metaobjects capabilities and the Plus plan’s higher application programming interface (API) call rates, Jumpstart developed an automated “Watch Finder” tool that allows customers to select their watch model and instantly view compatible straps.
Delugs used Shopify Markets to localise pricing, currency, and duties for international markets. With over 40% of business coming from the US alone, and growing markets in the Middle East and Hong Kong, Shopify Markets made it easy to expand without managing separate sites, thanks to Shopify’s unified back end. Plus, Shopify Payments made fraud detection easy while expanding payment options for customers in different markets.
Delugs also used a Shopify expansion store with B2B on Shopify to create a dedicated wholesale portal for their retail partners. Retailers now enjoy ordering from a website designed for them specifically, with tailored catalogues, the ability to add multiple product variants to the cart at once, simplified reordering, and custom pricing—all built for their respective needs.
The B2B store we launched on Shopify was very easy to set up, taking less than a month from planning to launch, and it allows Delugs to accomplish everything in the same instance, meaning the B2B, DTC, and retail sales data can easily be consolidated. Because B2B on Shopify also lets Delugs create unique company profiles, wholesale buyers get a personalised profile with their own price catalogue, making ordering clear, fast, and easy.
Likewise, Delugs used a Shopify expansion store to support the launch of their inaugural retail store in Singapore. Because their main store was focused primarily on the North American market, with relevant currency settings, Delugs needed a dedicated store for transactions in Singapore Dollars. The new store was integrated with Shopify POS, ensuring sales and inventory data were synchronised across all three sites in the back end.
Automation has played a major role, too. Thanks to Shopify Flow, Delugs has built automation logic to prevent sizing mistakes, bundle products, segment users, sync data across storefronts, and streamline backend processes. For instance, Delugs has built Flows to identify first-time buyers of their Deployant Clasp product and automatically send them an email with installation and usage tips, helping users avoid errors.
The results: Global scale, personalised journey
On the Shopify Plus plan, Delugs has transformed how their customers shop for luxury accessories. The unique Watch Finder tool delivers confidence for customers, while international shoppers have transparent pricing and can prepay duties with one click. This streamlined experience has seen growth in total orders and improvement in checkout conversion rates.
Meanwhile, B2B buyers now enjoy a highly curated, frictionless ordering experience, with faster reordering rates and fewer queries to deal with. Operationally, automation and integration have streamlined back-end workflows, reduced errors, and enhanced customer satisfaction—while also helping the company to scale and enjoy international sales growth over the past few years.
Delugs is now in the process of working with Jumpstart Commerce to merge their Watch Finder tool with their “Strap Finder” tool, which lets customers visualise a strap on their watch. The new tool is aimed at further improving the customer experience by transforming Delugs’ online product discovery into an intuitive, guided journey that reflects the company’s luxury offering.
With the tools, apps, and custom development we can do on the Shopify Plus plan, we can tailor the website according to how customers shop. One of the biggest outcomes for Delugs has been the customer experience and the shopping journey. It’s easier now for customers to find the right watch, find the correct size, and then find complementary products such as buckles suitable for their timepiece. Before Plus, there was no easy way for us to do that.
