For more than three decades, CALPAK has built a reputation as a trusted name in travel accessories and luggage, combining quality craftsmanship with innovative design. What started as a wholesale business has evolved into a leading direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand known for products that blend striking aesthetics with unexpected functionality. The brand's evolution from wholesale to DTC, and subsequent expansion into physical retail with the launch of their first store, required a platform that could scale with their growing ambitions.
With Shopify, CALPAK has met their customers' evolving needs and achieved great results including:
- 9X higher conversion rates in-store compared to online
- 2.5 month implementation timeline with internal team handling full POS deployment
- Enhanced customer experience with cross-channel loyalty program and real-time analytics
- Improved operational efficiency through single-platform management eliminating complex integration
The Challenge: Maintaining operational excellence with retail expansion
With an online store powered by Shopify, CALPAK's digital business was well-established and growing. As they planned to open their first retail location, they were determined to avoid the missteps that often plague retailers expanding into new channels.
The path to retail had been years in the making. An early popup in New York proved extremely successful, keeping retail expansion top of mind, but timing remained elusive. Their plans were stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they didn't lose sight of their goals in the years that followed. "We always understood the importance of retail," says Elaine Lee, Executive Director of DTC at CALPAK. "And when we think about retail, our primary goal has always been customer lifetime value."
Executing on this vision meant addressing the unique needs of travel customers who often require last-minute purchases before trips, while ensuring the expansion wouldn't disrupt their proven DTC operations. As they ventured into physical retail for the first time, they needed a technology solution that would enable a seamless launch without fragmenting their carefully built systems or requiring complex integrations.
Most critically, CALPAK needed a solution that would preserve their team's ability to work efficiently across channels. With a "homegrown team" that had grown with the company, introducing complex, disconnected systems would have undermined the operational excellence they had built over years of growth.
The Solution: A clear choice in Shopify POS
With their technology requirements established, CALPAK decided to extend their existing Shopify ecosystem into physical retail, ensuring unified operations that could support their customer lifetime value objectives while avoiding the integration complexity and operational overhead that can undermine retail expansion efforts.
Elaine's decade of Shopify experience across multiple companies provided the foundation for a confident technology decision. "I've been working with Shopify for ten years, and from a general perspective, Shopify definitely is a very turnkey platform," she says. "When we launched retail, Shopify POS was the clear choice."
CALPAK managed the entire POS deployment internally. A project lead on Elaine's team handled the setup and testing before training the incoming retail staff on the solution. "The Shopify UX is simple," says Elaine. "There's not a huge learning curve." She adds that once they had the foundation set, they "were able to get everything up and running in two and a half months."
For a brand without a dedicated retail department, managing the new sales channel came with its own set of challenges. But having operations unified on a single platform helped keep complexity to a minimum. "The actual setup of the product catalog, all of that is turnkey," says Elaine. "Even the Shopify apps that we use for inventory management specific to retail are not hard for everyone on the team to understand, as long as you're familiar with Shopify."
CALPAK created a separate storefront within their Shopify subscription to give retail flexibility while keeping both channels on one platform. The unification drives consistent experiences and directly supports their goals around customer lifetime value. "Our loyalty program lives within both, so customers can still use their loyalty points everywhere they shop," says Elaine.
Shopify's analytics and reporting capabilities also provide the team with crucial insights across all channels. CALPAK relies on daily reporting and real-time metrics to monitor performance. "We're all referencing analytics whether that's at the corporate level or retail level. We know exactly what's happening at the retail store. When we launch an event or a promo, we can watch the store performance in real time," says Elaine. "It's really exciting to have that visibility."
The Results: All roads leading to growth
CALPAK has quickly seen superior conversion rates in-store versus online. According to Elaine, in person, CALPAK customers average just one or two touchpoints to buy, compared to six to eight online. This efficiency stems from the fact that so many in-store shoppers are already familiar with the brand. "There's such a strong overlap between our existing customers and customers who shop in store. They're very in tune with online and offline—even more so than I thought," she says. Shopify helps enable this experience by seamlessly tying each channel together.
Running everything on a single platform lets CALPAK avoid the headaches of juggling multiple systems. "All in all, there's so much that goes into opening our first retail store, and the fact that we didn't have to think about an alternate platform is a huge ease in itself," says Elaine.
CALPAK's retail location has become a destination for their biggest fans. "We had a customer from Canada who was doing a road trip in California and she drove three hours out of her way to come visit our store to purchase one item," Elaine recalls as she highlights how the brand's physical presence deepens loyalty and brings the digital experience to life.
Shopify's enterprise-grade reliability means CALPAK can stay focused on growth rather than technical concerns. "There are no questions or concerns about security or reliability," says Elaine. "In our day-to-day, we don't have to worry about that." This confidence in their technology stack has positioned CALPAK for continued expansion. "We definitely plan to expand. This was our foundational store," she adds. The simplicity that enabled them to launch their first store so quickly provides strong assurance that they will be able to continue to scale at a pace aligned with their goals. The team is already eyeing new cities, and with Shopify as the foundation, they can focus on growing the business the way they want, without distractions.
All in all, there's so much that goes into opening our first retail store, and the fact that we didn't have to think about an alternate platform is a huge ease in itself.