Tom Bihn

is designing and making bags you are proud to own

Shopify Plus

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  • Technical Discovery
    Discovery
  • Ecommerce Platform Migrations & Builds
    Migration
  • Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization
    Ongoing Support & Optimization

Tom Bihn is a Seattle-based designer, manufacturer, and online retailer of bags, but that’s not the full story. The most important thing to know about Tom Bihn is that people love their bags – and the company gives the love right back to their customers.

When Tom Bihn first came to Command C, they were experiencing issues with site speed and performance. To solve this, we began by migrating the site to Shopify Plus.

In the time since, our teams have collaborated to prioritize, plan, and implement site optimizations to keep strengthening the customer experience. The features highlighted in this case study include bundled products, restock notifications, and pre-orders.

Before making the platform switch, we had server problems, blocked traffic — it was frustrating for us and our customers. Since Command C migrated us and set us up properly, it’s been much easier. I’m relieved to finally be getting back to the work I enjoy!

– Nik Dukich, Tom Bihn

Ecommerce Platform Migration

Challenge: Optimizing the Platform for Marketing Driven Traffic Swells

Solution: Migrate to Shopify Plus

It really can’t be overstated: customers love Tom Bihn products. This is definitely “a good problem to have,” but on their old site, sometimes this popularity was tough to manage.

For example, the company would release a new bag and notify customers of its launch. Then multitudes of shoppers would rush the site. But the previous site was unreliable. Customers experienced issues, including difficulty in checkout. It was frustrating for everyone.

By replatforming the site to Shopify Plus, we were able to correct this instability. Now, when large followings of customers are notified of new products, the site can handle the increase in traffic seamlessly.

As a part of the rebuild, Command C created a custom theme on Shopify Plus based on designs provided by the Tom Bihn team. Since then, we’ve gradually layered in enhancements that improve the customer experience, while maintaining the look and feel of the site that people love.

Some of the theme and development customizations to this migration project included customer and product migration, discount codes, gift cards, a blog, a custom app for restock notifications, and a Shipworks integration.

We've consistently received stellar service from day one. The Command C team continues to exceed our expectations with their organization, communication and talent.

– Darcy Gray, Tom Bihn

Technical Optimization

Challenge: Leveling up functionality to improve customer experience

Solution: Implement site updates to enhance customer experience in new ways

Command C works with Tom Bihn in ongoing site optimization. Guided by the company’s spirit of service, every single change that we make to the site is about improving the customer experience. To this end, some of the features we have implemented include:

Product bundles
We collaborated with the team at Tom Bihn to develop a strategy that allows them to use the tools we built to create bundled products. Now a customer can add a bag to their shopping cart, and all the accessories that go with that bag can easily be added to the purchase as well. This happens right from the product page. Further, if the cart items are changed, both the bag and accessories will reflect the change in the appropriate way.

Restock notifications
Command C built a custom restock notification app for Tom Bihn. For this project, they had a unique request: they wanted to set a threshold for notifications. For instance, if the company restocks two dozen bags, they may not want to notify thousands of customers about the restock. Their previous app did not allow for this level of agility, so we built an app that could administer restock notifications in this way.

Pre-orders
We implemented new pre-order functionality, so the company could sell bags that they were in the process of making. To finalize this feature, we collaborated closely with their operations team to determine the scheduling. We also gave special attention to making the customer experience as easy as it could be, given that people are buying something they are not going to receive for a while. As Tiffany, Command C’s Tech Lead, explains,”They never want to disappoint their customers. If I could say one thing about Tom Bihn, it’s that they love their customers.”

They’re prompt, courteous, and they know and “get” us — that’s something that we’ve found isn’t necessarily easy to come by when working with outside firms, but when we can find it, it makes all the difference. You can tell they really care about the quality of work they do and each client means a lot to them.

– Darcy Gray, Tom Bihn

  • Technical Discovery
    Discovery
  • Ecommerce Platform Migrations & Builds
    Migration
  • Ecommerce Conversion Rate Optimization
    Ongoing Support & Optimization