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Consumer Goods How Wüsthof launched a global direct-to-consumer site in 3 months

Information

  • Headquarters: Solingen, Germany / Norwalk, Connecticut
  • Technology Stack: Next.JS, Vercel, and Shopify

Key facts (60 days post-launch)

39.24% +
Website users
50% +
Organic Traffic
50% +
In Revenue

As a historical tools manufacturer with over 200 years of experience worldwide, Wüsthof had little overall experience in direct-to-consumer and digital marketing. Working with the agency, Vividfront ensured their experience with Storyblok and Shopify for their new US eCommerce storefront was a success. The entire proposal to launch took just 5 days. 60 days post-launch, Wüsthof’s site saw a 39.24% increase in website users, a 50% increase in organic traffic, and an outstanding 50% increase in revenue. On top of that, their Google Lighthouse scores soared into the 90s, on par with precisely what they needed for a fast-performing site made for customer experiences.

  • Quote from Jamaliya Cobine, Executive Vice President Direct to Consumer & Digital Marketing at Wüsthof Global

    “Storyblok’s visual editor is a fit for a big consumer products brand, like Wüsthof. When you are trying to sell something on a global scale, having something as simple as the visual editor allows you to see the big picture, visualize what’s to come ahead, and connect our team with our customers a little closer.”

    Jamaliya Cobine
    Jamaliya Cobine
    Executive Vice President Direct to Consumer & Digital Marketing at Wüsthof Global

Challenges faced by Wüsthof’s global digital experience

In 2021, Wüsthof’s senior management aligned to reevaluate and ultimately relaunch the website that would best fit the ecosystem they wanted to be in. This meant finally taking back ownership of their brand and market space, elevating their brand experience globally and digitally, and streamlining internal processes. However, this came with its challenges rooted in their setup on Magento 1, including:

  • An initial eCommerce setup that needed more scalability: Having moved from the initial Javascript-based platform to Magento 1 and to Shopify, the brand quickly realized some limitations. While the Shopify site was successful, the brand realized it was not the “end-all-be-all” experience they wanted. Wüsthof and Vividfront knew they needed a scalable, future-proof option. Realizing this, a headless CMS paired with a Shopify integration would help gain access to global consumer markets quickly.
  • Misaligned infrastructures restricting growth: Wüsthof was new to the direct-to-consumer space and sat on completely different tech stacks in different regions. This led to those components, at times, not growing simultaneously in a streamlined way. The brand needed a unified and global infrastructure that could be managed efficiently.
  • The inability to streamline different product catalogs: Global product catalogs across various locations and languages were set up in different silos. To take back ownership of the brand, Wüsthof needed a centralized system that could allow such catalogs for different markets to exist in one location. 
  • The lack of a best-of-breed approach: Other CMSs that offered eCommerce options and their past setup needed to be more relaxed. The brand needed help to choose what kind of integrations they wanted to fit their needs, preventing their growth and scalability in the long run. 

Storyblok’s solutions for localized eCommerce capabilities

When Vividfront started searching for a CMS, the agency had two main criteria: 

  1. They wanted to provide Wüsthof with a content management experience that could scale and work globally across various regions and languages.
  2. Find a suitable CMS for Wüsthof that was explicitly not a typical headless system set up on fields because it is hard for a content manager to experience and visualize content for campaigns.

Storyblok was able to enable Wüsthof’s brand ownership to their new direct-to-consumer eCommerce store through: 

  • A Shopify setup for Wüsthof to work reactively with real-time customer input and easily create, adapt and edit new experiences and campaigns. 
  • A best-of-breed selection to connect any integrations to enhance Wüsthof’s eCommerce experience.
  • Robust documentation of support and features for global scalability and localization.  
  • The Visual Editor with a real-time preview to help users visualize the content experience and campaigns they build. 
  • Storyblok’s workflows which support cross-collaboration between Wüsthof and Vividfront’s users' access to a specific project or space within the site setup. That granularity level ensures teams are where they need to be in an organized workflow.
  • Managing multiple product catalogs from various markets and languages in a centralized place.

Diagram of Wüsthof's tech-stack

  • Quote from Joseph Testa, Managing Director of Development at Vividfront

    “The beauty of working with a setup that combines Storyblok and Shopify means we get to exactly keep the things that we like. For us, this lets us focus on each step of the customer journey, such as the checkout process with Shopify is safe and secure, and with Storyblok, that serves as our content management system designed for flexibility and scalability on a global scale and have complete control over the frontend that is our content and our customer’s experience.”

    Joseph Testa
    Joseph Testa
    Managing Director of Development at Vividfront

Challenges faced by Wüsthof’s global digital experience

In 2021, Wüsthof’s senior management aligned to reevaluate and ultimately relaunch the website that would best fit the ecosystem they wanted to be in. This meant finally taking back ownership of their brand and market space, elevating their brand experience globally and digitally, and streamlining internal processes. However, this came with its challenges rooted in their setup on Magento 1, including:

  • An initial eCommerce setup that needed more scalability: Having moved from the initial Javascript-based platform to Magento 1 and to Shopify, the brand quickly realized some limitations. While the Shopify site was successful, the brand realized it was not the “end-all-be-all” experience they wanted. Wüsthof and Vividfront knew they needed a scalable, future-proof option. Realizing this, a headless CMS paired with a Shopify integration would help gain access to global consumer markets quickly.
  • Misaligned infrastructures restricting growth: Wüsthof was new to the direct-to-consumer space and sat on completely different tech stacks in different regions. This led to those components, at times, not growing simultaneously in a streamlined way. The brand needed a unified and global infrastructure that could be managed efficiently.
  • The inability to streamline different product catalogs: Global product catalogs across various locations and languages were set up in different silos. To take back ownership of the brand, Wüsthof needed a centralized system that could allow such catalogs for different markets to exist in one location. 
  • The lack of a best-of-breed approach: Other CMSs that offered eCommerce options and their past setup needed to be more relaxed. The brand needed help to choose what kind of integrations they wanted to fit their needs, preventing their growth and scalability in the long run. 

Storyblok’s solutions for localized eCommerce capabilities

When Vividfront started searching for a CMS, the agency had two main criteria: 


  1. They wanted to provide Wüsthof with a content management experience that could scale and work globally across various regions and languages.
  2. Find a suitable CMS for Wüsthof that was explicitly not a typical headless system set up on fields because it is hard for a content manager to experience and visualize content for campaigns.


Storyblok was able to enable Wüsthof’s brand ownership to their new direct-to-consumer eCommerce store through:  

  • A Shopify setup for Wüsthof to work reactively with real-time customer input and easily create, adapt and edit new experiences and campaigns. 
  • A best-of-breed selection to connect any integrations to enhance Wüsthof’s eCommerce experience.
  • Robust documentation of support and features for global scalability and localization.  
  • The Visual Editor with a real-time preview to help users visualize the content experience and campaigns they build. 
  • Storyblok’s workflows which support cross-collaboration between Wüsthof and Vividfront’s users' access to a specific project or space within the site setup. That granularity level ensures teams are where they need to be in an organized workflow.
  • Managing multiple product catalogs from various markets and languages in a centralized place.
  • Quote from Nicolas Coia, Global Director of User Experience Design at Wüsthof

    “We’ve never had this much control over the products and campaigns we design and publish. The ability to view, change and control based on workflows is also impressive, allowing us to streamline processes across teams and certain users”

    Nicolas Coia
    Nicolas Coia
    Global Director of User Experience Design at Wüsthof

Throughout Wüsthof’s onboarding process with Vividfront, the agency went through a collective onboarding process on how Storyblok worked. As a result, the Wüsthof team was onboarded in just one week while simultaneously completing QA with finalization in development and design. This proved a testament to Vividfront’s transfer of knowledge and the simple learning process users would have using Storyblok. 

Such simple learning processes and rapid onboarding process ultimately set Wüsthof’s site up for success in bringing their German-based entity to Storyblok. Wüsthof is working on bringing together two different product site catalogs on two different navigation systems between the North American and EMEA systems. 

  • Quote from Nicolas Coia, Global Director of User Experience Design at Wüsthof

    "Because Storyblok is very nimble we are able to react to marketing demands with immediacy. We have a strong bank of components that allow us to design and publish new customer experiences with ease and speed."

    Nicolas Coia
    Nicolas Coia
    Global Director of User Experience Design at Wüsthof

Bringing razor-sharp eCommerce performance

A perfect sync between an eCommerce integration such as Shopify with Storyblok’s user-friendly setup allowed the brand to grow continuously. Vividfront’s expertise helped launch Wüsthof’s new eCommerce direct-to-consumer site that was scalable and performed beyond expectations in just 3 months. This created a perfect opportunity for Wüsthof to take advantage of such a direct-to-consumer approach and streamline their cross-team collaboration internally.

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