Founded in 2019, Tella & Stella designs premium accessories for dogs and cats, combining refined branding, attractive designs, and high-quality materials. The Quebec-based brand quickly gained traction through direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales, building a loyal customer base in their local market. As they matured, they set their sights on expanding beyond Quebec across North America—a growth strategy that required adding wholesale distribution to their established DTC model.
This expansion introduced new complexities. Serving retailers and veterinary clinics demanded different systems and processes than selling directly to pet owners. To manage this transition effectively, Tella & Stella partnered with Novatize, a Shopify agency with B2B expertise, a bilingual team, and a long history of supporting the brand's digital evolution.
Since unifying their commerce ecosystem on Shopify, Tella & Stella has achieved significant year-over-year results:
- 23% increase in total sales across all channels
- 36% repeat customer rate, up 17% from the previous year
- 3% increase in average order value
- 76% growth in sessions from targeted new territories
The challenge: Building a wholesale channel without disrupting DTC success
As Tella & Stella expanded beyond direct-to-consumer sales, their existing processes couldn't accommodate the complexities of wholesale distribution. They struggled to manually process orders from retail partners, creating inefficiencies for both the brand and their B2B customers.
The brand's systems lacked essential B2B functionality like order grids, negotiated pricing options, and net payment terms. As wholesale volume increased, these limitations created operational bottlenecks that threatened to undermine the quality of service for both retail partners and direct consumers.
The rapid pace of expansion also introduced new challenges around inventory management across channels. Without real-time visibility and synchronization, the brand risked overselling products or disappointing consumers with stockouts and delays—issues that could damage their reputation for premium quality and service.
Tella & Stella chose Shopify as their unified commerce platform because of its built-in B2B capabilities, flexible point of sale (POS) for events and pop-ups, and scalable infrastructure to support their territorial expansion across North America. With a long history of partnering with Novatize, they got right to work.
Our business is growing and diversifying, and Novatize is helping us navigate the challenges that come with B2B and managing multiple sales channels. Likewise, Shopify’s unified platform makes it ideal for fueling that growth.
The solution: One brand, multiple channels, all on a single platform
The first step was to get organized. Novatize developed a comprehensive solution that unified Tella & Stella's direct and wholesale channels within a single Shopify ecosystem. Building on five years of collaboration, their approach addressed both immediate needs and long-term growth objectives.
At the core of the implementation is a custom wholesale portal on a dedicated B2B domain. Now, retailers start with a streamlined account request and approval process before gaining access to negotiated price lists, custom payment methods, and an ordering experience tailored specifically for wholesale. The order grid format eliminates manual back-and-forth and accelerates processing times for both the brand and their retail customers.
Our work with Tella & Stella is a true growth partnership. We're proud to collaborate with their team and watch their business model and distribution strategy evolve continuously on Shopify’s flexible and scalable platform.
To support in-person sales at events and pop-ups, Novatize integrated Shopify POS, which now ensures real-time inventory synchronization across all channels. This cross-channel approach allows Tella & Stella to maintain consistent inventory visibility whether selling online to consumers, through the wholesale portal, or at physical events.
Novatize also took advantage of Shopify's platform extensibility to help Tella & Stella expand globally. They implemented Shopify Markets, simplifying expansion into new territories while adapting to regional requirements without added operational complexity.
To further enhance the customer experience, Novatize added strategic integrations from within the Shopify ecosystem. Rebuy enables personalized bundles and recommendations, while Sezzle provides flexible payment options that reduce purchase barriers. Klaviyo powered targeted lifecycle marketing to strengthen customer retention. Additionally, Gorgias centralized customer service—including an AI chatbot—which significantly improved response times.
The results: Growth across every channel
The numbers clearly show this premium pet accessory brand’s success. After unifying their commerce operations on Shopify, Tella & Stella achieved a 23% year-over-year increase in total sales, fueled by their successful wholesale expansion and entry into new global markets.
Their customer loyalty metrics show similar improvements, with repeat consumers now accounting for 36% of their business—a 17% increase from the previous year. This retention boost reflects the impact of more sophisticated lifecycle marketing through Klaviyo and enhanced customer service via Gorgias.
"Since launching our wholesale distribution and B2B platform on Shopify, our sales have grown steadily and we've been able to diversify our revenue streams," says Alexandre.
The unified platform has also improved the efficiency of their marketing and merchandising efforts, contributing to a 3% increase in average order value. Meanwhile, sessions from targeted new territories have grown by 76%, demonstrating the effectiveness of their geographic expansion strategy powered by Shopify Markets.
This is just the beginning. Tella & Stella plans to continue building on this foundation with new product collections and expanded points of sale across North America—supported by Shopify's flexible commerce platform and Novatize's ongoing strategic partnership.
