How Girls with Gems automated its e-commerce platform to handle rapid growth
Since upgrading to Shopify, the high-end fashion boutique is working smarter, not harder, to scale the business in Australia and beyond.
Girls with Gems was started by mother-and-daughter duo Lefka and Lia Georgantis in 2012. They initially hosted jewellery parties at their home before expanding into fashion, and today the business is known for its curated collections of Australian and international designer brands, and its in-house brand, Sneaky Link.
Lia now runs the creative side of the business as CEO, while her husband, John Halias, oversees people and operations as COO. Girls with Gems stands out in the crowded fashion market thanks to its unique brand mix and personalised social media strategy.
In recent years, the retailer has expanded rapidly online.
“We began as a boutique retailer with our store in Double Bay, but as the business has evolved, our online presence has surged and is now a dominant force in how we connect with our customers,” Halias said.
To keep up with this sudden increase in demand, Girls with Gems upgraded its Shopify plan to Shopify Plus, tapping into the commerce platform’s powerful ecosystem of apps and tools to automate and scale its backend operations.
Navigating the challenge of rapid growth
As any retailer knows, managing rapid growth can be difficult. Technology is key to scaling operations efficiently.
Girls with Gems first started using Shopify in 2016 and benefited from the platform’s robust features and seamless integration of third-party solutions, which enabled the team to roll out new plug-ins themselves.
We’re not web developers – we are passionate about fashion and about sharing it with people. Shopify has made that possible, streamlining the digital side of the business in ways we never imagined,John Halias, COO, Girls with Gems
But as the business grew, it became increasingly difficult for Girls with Gems to perform certain tasks manually, such as launching new products and promotions, tracking stock across multiple channels and providing the level of customer service its shoppers expected.
Halias knew the business needed to automate some of its backend operations, but he was adamant about staying within the Shopify ecosystem and being resourceful.
Tapping into automation without needing to code
Since upgrading to the Shopify Plus plan, Girls with Gems now has access to powerful tools that are delivering greater efficiency and scale. Shopify Flow is one of the key solutions it uses. This allows Girls with Gems to automate tasks and workflows in the backend without needing to write any code.
“It’s about connecting backend ops and processes,” Halias said. “We run super lean, and the reason we can operate efficiently is because we have automations happening in the backend through Shopify Flow.”
Some of the business’s other plug-ins include Stocky for inventory management, Okendo for customer reviews and PostCo for returns and exchanges. It recently switched to Shopify POS to feed sales and data from its bricks-and-mortar store straight into the commerce platform.
Building a system where everything talks to each other
For Girls with Gems, ease of implementation is one of the major drawcards of Shopify, especially compared with a custom solution.
“As we grow, we hear the need to integrate into a custom warehouse management system (WMS), but I don’t think we need to right now,” Halias said. “We’re trying to keep everything on Shopify and just use different apps to help manage our inventory for as long as we can.”
This is because he knows everything within the Shopify ecosystem works seamlessly together; he doesn’t have to worry about making sure different systems can talk to each other.
Halias often researches new apps and solutions himself, depending on how sophisticated the technology is. “It’s all about us trying to work out how to optimise efficiency as best we can,” he said.
The beauty is in knowing that all of the apps the business uses will work together and talk to each other, without needing to invest in a bigger tech team.
“We work around every issue that we have. For example, we needed HS codes for international orders. It’s quite a laborious process, but because Shopify has open APIs, we realised we could build a solution that allows us to automate the input of all HS codes rather than doing it manually,” he explained.
GROWING REVENUE WHILE STAYING LEAN
So far this year, Girls with Gems has seen its online revenue increase by 57 per cent, and its mobile app revenue increase by 51 per cent.
Crucially, Girls with Gems has achieved this growth without needing to significantly expand its team, thanks to increased automation.
Going forward, the retailer aims to capitalise on its momentum, but given the economic uncertainty in the global market, the business is taking a ‘wait and see’ approach to any further expansion at the moment
Integrated and ready to scale
After experiencing a period of rapid growth online, Girls with Gems needed to automate its backend operations and processes to keep up with demand and scale the business sustainably.
The retailer decided to upgrade its commerce platform to Shopify’s Plus plan, gaining access to a vast range of apps and plug-ins that are helping it run more efficiently. Sales are up, yet the business has been able to maintain a very lean team.
For Halias, it’s all about staying within the Shopify ecosystem. This ensures the retailer’s solutions work together and the technology doesn’t become overly complicated, which would only increase the risk of costly glitches and workarounds.
Shopify has great customer support – I feel like they listen to their customers. And they’re releasing features at such a good speed, if something doesn’t exist, it probably will soon,John Halias, COO, Girls with Gems
“It’s just so easy to get up and running. Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have been able to set up or scale an e-commerce store like this,” he added.
“I would recommend Shopify to everyone.”
Recommended CASE STUDY
