Launching an Outdoor Apparel Brand on Shopify Plus

An outdoor apparel brand founded by two experienced climbers approached us to build their Shopify store ahead of their first product launch. They had strong product design, a manufacturer relationship developed over two years, and a community of 12,000 Instagram followers built on content alone. What they needed was commerce infrastructure that could convert that audience and scale.

Why Shopify Plus from Day One

For most brands, Shopify Plus is unnecessary at launch. For this client, there were two compelling reasons to start there: they planned to launch with a wholesale programme from month three, requiring B2B functionality, and they had a US market ambition that needed Shopify Markets' full feature set. Starting on Plus avoided a disruptive migration six months in.

The Build

We built a custom theme that balanced editorial ambition with e-commerce performance. Outdoor apparel is an aspirational category — the lifestyle story matters as much as the product. We built dedicated 'activity pages' (climbing, trail running, hiking) that led with editorial content and surfaced relevant products contextually rather than sending all traffic to a standard collection grid.

• Custom activity landing pages with editorial + commerce hybrid layout
• Fit guide section on every product page with garment measurements
• Size recommendation tool using height, weight, and fit preference inputs
• Technical spec accordion showing fabric composition and certifications
• Community feature on homepage pulling UGC from Instagram via API

Launch Strategy

The launch was structured as a pre-order campaign: a landing page captured emails for two weeks before launch, promising first access and a 10% founder discount. 3,800 email subscribers were captured. On launch day, the first-access email went to that list 24 hours before the store opened to the general public. 22% of subscribers purchased within the first 48 hours.

Year One Results

• Year one revenue: £406,000
• Launch week revenue: £61,000 from pre-order list
• Wholesale revenue contribution: 22% of annual total
• Email list at year end: 22,000 subscribers
• Repeat purchase rate: 31% — strong for an apparel brand