Client Overview

GorillaSports is a leading fitness equipment brand in Romania, offering a wide range of strength, cardio, boxing, mobility, and home-gym products. With a fast-growing online presence and an active position across major Romanian marketplaces such as eMAG, Decathlon, Altex, and Sproutz, the brand needed a solid digital foundation to support both operational efficiency and long-term scalability.

Challenge: Modernizing an Outdated System and Building for Scale

When GorillaSports first approached us in early 2024, their online store was running on XTCommerce, a platform that could no longer support their growth.

The team faced several critical challenges:

• Difficult catalog management, especially with complex product variations

• Repeated sync issues between the store and marketplaces

• Slow performance and UX limitations

• No automated email marketing structure

• Lack of a reliable system for seasonal campaigns and frequent promotions

• The need to create a separate B2B ecosystem aligned with Shopify Plus requirements

Our goal was to help them modernize their infrastructure, simplify operations, and build a unified Shopify-based ecosystem that could handle both B2C and B2B at scale.

Phase 1: Shopify Migration & Foundational Automations

Although the project evolved significantly afterward, everything started with one major milestone:

Full Migration from XTCommerce to Shopify

We rebuilt GorillaSports.ro from the ground up, ensuring:

• A stable, scalable Shopify architecture

• A cleaner product catalog ready for structured growth

• Correct product assignments, collections, and tagging

• Marketplace-friendly structure for future integrations

• An intuitive admin panel to reduce operational friction

Essential Email Automation Setup

We implemented the core lifecycle flows, giving the brand a solid marketing foundation:

• Welcome Flow

• Browse Abandonment

• Site Abandonment

• Cart Abandonment

• Checkout Abandonment

• New Customer Flow

This setup enabled consistent revenue recovery and audience nurturing from day one.

Phase 2: Continuous Growth, UX Evolution & Operational Excellence

Over the next two years, our collaboration expanded into a comprehensive digital program encompassing UX, CRO, marketplaces, email marketing, mobile app alignment, SEO, campaign execution, and B2B development. The project evolved into a long-term partnership centered on continuous improvement and rapid execution.

Website UX, Performance & CRO Enhancements

Theme Optimization & Homepage Redesigns

We continuously optimized the theme and homepage structure to improve navigation, speed, and mobile experience, including:

• Relocating sections, fixing UX conflicts, and improving clarity

• Applying recommendations from Microsoft Clarity audits

• Creating optimized landing pages for sales and campaigns

• Enhancing collection pages, variation selectors, and metafields

• Enabling animations, countdown timers, and mobile-friendly components

Speed & Performance Upgrades

Improved PageSpeed scores and reduced scripts, optimized images, cleaned apps, and removed conflicting code.
We also addressed Safari-specific performance issues and conducted ongoing audits.

Marketplace Synchronization & Operational Improvements

GorillaSports sells across multiple Romanian marketplaces, requiring flawless sync of:

• Product data

• Variations

• Stock levels

• AWB updates

• Order imports

• Pricing changes

We managed:

• BaseLinker integrations

• eMAG, Altex, Sproutz, and Decathlon catalog sync

• Issue resolution for SKU mismatches, missing metadata, product linking

• Automation of exports/imports via Matrixify

This ensured daily operational stability and reduced manual errors.

Advanced Campaign Management: Sales, Flash Deals & Seasonal Activations

Gorilla’s growth relies heavily on recurring campaigns such as Flash Deals, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Summer Sale, Stock Clearance, Back to Workout, Christmas Sales. We handled end-to-end execution for each campaign.

Landing Pages & UX

• Creating campaign landing pages with countdowns
• Adding dynamic banners, badges, and menus for desktop/mobile/app
• Designing sale-specific templates for product pages
  

Operations & Pricing Automations

• Editing and importing complex pricing structures via Matrixify
• Ensuring “compare at price” accuracy
• Tagging products correctly across collections
  

Marketing Assets

• Designing all banners in multiple formats (desktop, mobile, app, email, push, ads)

• Implementing push notifications and email campaigns

• Coordinating all teams (design, dev, email, marketplaces) end-to-end
  

Quality Assurance

Every campaign involved testing:

• Links

• Templates

• Scheduled banners

• Checkout

• Dark mode email rendering

• Marketplace discount accuracy

This ensured flawless execution across all touchpoints.

Email Marketing: Growth & Optimization

Beyond the initial automation setup, we supported Gorilla with:

• Monthly newsletter campaigns

• Product promotions

• Push notifications

• A/B testing across flows and campaigns

• Klaviyo segmentation and cleanup

• Integrations with Doofinder and app triggers

• Seasonal pacing strategies and monthly planners

This contributed to consistent retention and repeat purchase growth.

SEO Support & Structured Content Implementation

We collaborated closely with the SEO team to:

• Implement structured data

• Fix canonical and redirect issues

• Optimize blog categories and product descriptions

• Apply monthly recommendations

• Ensure collections and metafields are aligned with Google requirements

Phase 2.5: Building the GorillaSports B2B Ecosystem

One of the most strategic expansions was creating a dedicated B2B store with Shopify Plus capabilities.

B2B Functionalities Implemented

• Hidden pricing unless logged in

• Dynamic pricing and discount rules

• Custom homepage with brand visuals and testimonials

• Video banners

• Separate navigation and branded assets

• Structured metafields

• Migration of products, collections, and variations

• Importing and tagging B2B customers

• Custom forms and account logic

• Payment and shipping configurations specific to wholesalers

This expansion unlocked a new business model and positioned GorillaSports for wholesale growth.

Functionalities & Departments Involved

Marketplace Integration

• Sync automation

• SKU linking

• Order troubleshooting

• AWB sync

• Catalog optimization
  

CRO & UX

• Heatmap audits
• Experimentation
• Conversion suggestions
• Mobile-first adjustments
  

Data Work

• Matrixify imports/exports

• Product catalog cleanup

• Price adjustments

• Variation restoration

Conclusion: A Long-Term eCommerce Partnership Built for Growth

What started as a simple Shopify migration evolved into a full, multi-department digital transformation program.

Across nearly two years, GorillaSports moved from an outdated, restrictive system to a modern and fully scalable Shopify ecosystem that supports:

• high-volume campaigns,

• structured catalog management,

• reliable marketplace operations,

• automated marketing,

• strong UX,

• and a fully functional B2B environment.

The collaboration continues to grow, with ongoing improvements across UX, CRO, marketplaces, email, SEO, and campaign execution. GorillaSports is now positioned for stable, long-term expansion in Romania’s competitive fitness market.