Glisshop consolidates its leadership position in the winter sports sector with its new e-Commerce website

Created in 1996, Glisshop is the historical brand of the group Lafreto. This family-run company based in Auvergne, France has established itself as a major player in the winter sports sector and an e-commerce pioneer. Its retail website was created in 1999, helping it shore up its position as the leader in France and Europe’s third largest online winter sports goods retailer. The website was showing signs of age, so the Lafreto group decided to give it an overhaul to ensure the longevity of its business.

Remaining a standard-setting pure player in the winter sports sector

Over the past two decades, the website glisshop.com has been the foundation for the retailer’s growth, enabling it to take a significant lead on its market. The solution developed by Glisshop had reached its limits however, encountering issues with upgradeability and performance. The new e-commerce platform, based on Proximis and integrated by SQLI, pursues three major objectives:

• Improve performance: Glisshop’s business is seasonal and 80% of its sales are achieved during the winter period. The website therefore experiences a significant spike in activity, which is amplified by Black Friday, Christmas and various sales. The website must be able to handle this major load increase.
• Search Engine optimization (SEO): Glisshop is a pure player whose business is entirely reliant on its e-commerce website. In a highly competitive environment, the brand’s visibility is crucial. The old website was an obstacle to its SEO performance.  
• International consolidation: With 40% of sales achieved outside of France, the company’s aim is also to continue to pursue international growth. The new website’s features include multi-currency and multi-language functionalities.
   

SQLI and Proximis: a perfect match for Glisshop

“We chose to switch from a custom tool to a publisher’s solution, which is more scalable and robust. In order to make the change, we were looking for partners – a publisher and integrator – that are on a human scale. The three-way relationship between Glisshop, Proximis and SQLI proved to be a resounding success,” explains Frédéric Morel, founder of Glisshop. “Beyond integration of the solution, SQLI‘s teams contributed their expertise in scoping and strategy formulation. ”

Since delivery of the website, SQLI has continued to provide assistance to the Lafreto group as part of a continuous improvement approach, including the addition of new functionalities, while a new project is in the pipeline and is set for completion in Autumn 2021.

“Glisshop was very impressed by the teams’ engagement. For a pure player, whose business relies on the website, it was vital for the project to succeed and we were able to count on the teams’ unwavering support in order to bring it to fruition. They remained fully mobilized and highly motivated throughout the project, which lasted two years,” states Frédéric Morel.
 

Promising results, both internally and externally

The customer experience has been improved and Glisshop’s teams have not been left out. They now enjoy the benefits of a well-structured ecosystem with tools dedicated to their individual needs: a CRM system to administer the customer database; a PIM system to manage the product catalog; and other tools for management of the checkout, stocks, deliveries and product returns.

In the first year since Glisshop’s website was brought online, the retailer has recorded a 15% increase in its conversion rate. Performance levels have also been significantly improved thanks to the use of Google Cloud. The website can now handle large loads and has greater scalability. The foundation developed with the Proximis solution has also enabled Glisshop to integrate new modules into its IS, such as the website lunettes-de-soleil.fr, brought online by SQLI in 2021, while remaining within a tight budget and deadline.