Here One
is transforming the way we hear
Pushing Shopify Plus Boundaries for Here One
The Challenge
Here One revolutionized the audio world with its groundbreaking wireless earbuds, allowing users to control the sound around them with a smartphone app. With numerous accolades, including the Music and Audio Innovation Award and SXSW’s Best in Show, they needed an ecommerce platform that could keep up with their innovative product. Here One turned to Command C for a Shopify Plus implementation that could handle complex technical requirements while delivering a seamless experience for their global customer base.
Project Goals
- Automatic Currency Personalization: Display static, region-specific prices without live currency conversion across various global markets to allow customers to view and transact in their local currency.
- Automatic Product Personalization: Automatically adjust product SKUs for region-specific SKUs during checkout based on the customer’s location and shipping address.
- Frictionless User Experience: Ensure that customers perceive a simple, straightforward shopping experience, despite complex backend operations.
Our Approach
This project required leveraging the advanced features of Shopify Plus to develop creative solutions for Here One’s unique needs. Here’s how we tackled these challenges:
Implementing Automatic Currency Personalization: Here One wanted to display product prices in customers’ local currencies, but without the variability of live currency conversion. They needed static, region-specific prices that could be controlled manually. The challenge was to maintain this price consistency across the shopping experience, including checkout, order history, and transactional emails.
We used a combination of dynamically calculated and stored order attributes, along with custom frontend and template logic. This allowed us to store line item and order totals in the user’s native currency and display these totals throughout the entire order process—from cart to checkout, and even in post-purchase interactions such as transactional emails and order history.
This setup ensured that customers always saw consistent pricing in their selected currency, creating a smooth and transparent shopping experience, tailored to their region.
Automating Product Personalization Based on Location: Although Here One sells a single product, different regions require specific packaging and regulatory compliance, necessitating distinct SKUs for the same item. The challenge was to automatically swap out the product SKUs based on the user’s location and shipping address, ensuring compliance without disrupting the shopping experience.
We implemented a solution that geolocates users and displays the appropriate product version for their region from the start. If a customer selects a shipping address that doesn’t match the SKU in their cart, our custom logic swaps out the product for the correct regional version. This change occurs seamlessly in the background, updating the cart with the appropriate SKU and maintaining the correct pricing and order details.
This approach allowed Here One to manage regulatory and packaging requirements efficiently while providing customers with a consistent experience, no matter where they were shopping from.
Enhancing the Global User Experience: Despite the complex backend operations required to manage multiple SKUs and currencies, the frontend user experience remains simple and intuitive. Customers can shop, check out, and receive communications in their native currency and with the correct product specifications, without any indication of the complexities at play behind the scenes.
“The Command C team is trustworthy, knowledgeable and responsive. They alleviate stress and create efficiency by working directly with our 3rd party partners throughout the development process. I highly recommend Command C’s services to anyone seeking a strong development partner who can guide you through complexity.”
– Bentley Rubenstein, Here One
The Results
- Consistent Global Pricing: Customers see accurate, region-specific prices throughout their entire shopping experience, from browsing to checkout, and in all subsequent communications.
- Automated SKU Management: The system automatically adjusts products based on customer location and shipping address, ensuring compliance with regional requirements without manual intervention.
- Improved Customer Experience: Despite the intricate backend, customers enjoy a straightforward, user-friendly shopping experience, tailored to their location and currency preferences.
Looking Ahead
With these solutions in place, Here One has a robust, scalable ecommerce platform that can adapt to their evolving needs. The successful implementation demonstrates how Shopify Plus can be stretched to meet even the most complex requirements, providing a solid foundation for Here One’s continued growth and innovation.