TYLER’S Creates a One-of-a-Kind Customer Experience Online

If you see TYLER’S, you know you’re in Texas.

In 1978, Racquet and Jog opened its doors to sell running shoes and to string tennis racquets for citizens in the local community. Now, some 40+ years later, Racquet and Jog is still serving that same community, but also has expanded into five more Texas cities and eight stores, proudly donning the name TYLER’S. TYLER’S is famous throughout Texas for their athletic and lifestyle apparel, shoe selection and accessories, including the highly-popular TYLER’S tees.

But TYLER’S has a connection to the community that goes beyond clothing. Their stores support schools and organizations within their communities though fundraisers and events. Flatwater Foundation’s Dam That Cancer presented by TYLER’S is a 21-mile paddle boarding fundraiser to raise money for the Flatwater Foundation, which provides mental health and family support for those diagnosed with cancer, where TYLER’S has been the title sponsor for 14 years.

CHALLENGE

A cumbersome platform made growth a challenge.

After years managing their physical retail locations, TYLER’S decided to make the move to ecommerce. They built their first online storefront using Magento 1. Although the platform offered a lot of room for customization, they quickly realized that there was also a lot of maintenance and upkeep involved.

“When it came to the functionality and flexibility of Magento, it seemed like, for everything we wanted to do, we had to buy a plugin to make it happen. That gets expensive over time,” said Justin Dermit, Director of Ecommerce at TYLER’S.

Instead of Magento 1, TYLER’S needed a platform that would give them greater ability to market to their customers, improve customer experience, and not keep internal teams bogged down with time-consuming maintenance and upkeep.

SOLUTION

Gaining agility and speed on BigCommerce.

The TYLER’S team began looking for a new home for their ecommerce store, and found it on BigCommerce. Working with the BigCommerce team, they were able to migrate over their catalog and improve internal operations. “Not only did BigCommerce work directly with us,” Dermit explained, “the team was free-flowing with a world of insights into the larger landscape of ecommerce. They played a huge role in guiding and teaching us and have bolstered the team we have here, which has really gotten us to the next level.”

Since originally migrating from Magento to BigCommerce, their team has been able to make a number of improvements and innovations to their ecommerce experience.

Fighting fraud with Bolt.

On their previous platform, TYLER’S was also experiencing challenges when it came to ecommerce fraud. “One day we started to see an increase in fraud and it just kept getting worse,” Dermit explained. “We literally found ourselves spending more time managing fraud than growing our business. The breaking point came when we discovered the software was approving fraudulent transactions and we weren’t catching them until after they shipped.

“So, we were out the credit card processing fee, the product we just shipped, the shipping cost incurred, and we had to refund the money back to the customer of the original account and then get hit again with another credit card transaction fee. When you count the cost, it was considerable. We needed to make a change,” he continued.

Once they were on BigCommerce, the TYLER’S team turned to their Customer Success Manager for help. “They suggested Bolt, which we ultimately chose and it did not disappoint,” said Dermit.

Bolt is a lightning-fast checkout provider that offers customers the ability to checkout with just a single click. Bolt also protects merchants from fraud by using their machine learning tool to search for 200 real-time signals and flag suspicious activity. They offer 100% chargeback protection on qualifying fraudulent chargebacks so customers can stop worrying about fraud and start growing their business.

“BigCommerce and Bolt have been absolutely phenomenal for TYLER’S. Together the two solutions are helping us get our conversion rate up while keeping the fraud rate down,” Dermit explained. “We rely on Bolt’s decision making probably about 99.9% of the time. We trust the software. Going with them is one of the best decisions that we’ve made as a business.”

Creating the best possible customer experience online.

Anyone who’s been inside a TYLER’S storefront knows that they put customer experience front and center. The sights, the sounds, and the service are all part of what has made TYLER’S the state-wide sensation that it is.

“We want our physical stores to be down to earth,” Dermit said. “We want our customers to feel comfortable with seeing our name and knowing that it’s not just a brand, not just another store they get 20 ads from a week. We want a shop that people can go to and feel comfortable, like home.”

Taking that in-store experience and translating it to ecommerce is no easy feat, but the TYLER’S team has taken a unique approach to customer experience online.

“Just like in our stores, we don’t come right out and annoy you with a million emails or throw social stuff in your face. We create a space where it’s easy for our customers to find what they’re looking for and make a purchase.

“We show off some new brands, new products, put some stuff out there, and let them come to us. A lot of brands nowadays are pushing so hard to constantly be in front of people. But we don’t have to have your attention 24/7. We think the ‘lower frequency, higher impact’ marketing model actually makes our brand stand out more,” Dermit explained.

Improving service across channels.

While managing in-store customer interactions can be done personally, managing customer experience online can be a lot more challenging. You can give your customers all the tools they need to find the right product or answer their own question, but sometimes they still need that personal touch. For a brand like TYLER’S, this level of service is paramount, and they needed to find a tool to help them deliver that customer-centric experience online.

To do this, TYLER’S integrated their online store with Gorgias, a customer support service that helps streamline and centralize customer inquiries. “Our team uses Gorgias to streamline customer inquiries, allowing us to respond with unmatched efficiency and precision,” Dermit explained. “Since integrating Gorgias, we’ve seen a marked improvement in our support response times, leading to increased customer satisfaction and retention. It’s allowed us to significantly enhance the overall online shopping experience for our valued customers.”

RESULTS

An efficient ecommerce platform is fundamental for growth.

Since migrating to BigCommerce, TYLER’S has seen massive growth, increasing their cart-to-order conversion rate by 127% in the last year alone. Dermit attributes that success to his relationship with BigCommerce. “BigCommerce has been absolutely fundamental to our growth,” he said.

Their team has also been able to become more efficient and agile when it comes to ecommerce. “The biggest success for our team has really been the ability to cut down the excess work that we originally had,” said Dermit. “Whether that’s using Bolt with checkout, with fraud, or just the entire BigCommerce platform. We’re actually able to get products up on our site faster than some of the vendors we purchase from. We can move that quickly.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Expanding in the physical and digital world.

As TYLER’S looks to their future, they want to continue creating a one-of-a-kind experience that blends their physical and digital channels. “We are looking at a few technologies that we need to adopt for our customers, like buy online, pickup in-store. The kinds of things that have really evolved over the last few years,” Dermit explained. “Since COVID, we’ve made a lot of growth in areas like shipping and fulfillment and marketing. We’re really focusing on the technology side of things and aligning offline and online into an omnichannel approach.”

And as they continue providing that exceptional service and customer experience, they know that they can expect the same from their ecommerce platform. “The BigCommerce team has been paramount in helping us understand and navigate the ecommerce landscape,” said Dermit. “We know we can look to them to help us not only figure out where we are now, but where we want to be in the future.”

Published: November 2023