OACE: A Shop That Keeps Up With One of Europe's Fastest-Growing Activewear Brands
OACE launches every two weeks and sells out within minutes. tante-e has created a technical shop foundation that supports the rapid development of the brand and does not slow it down.
„We need a stable shop that we can rely on for our bi-weekly launches. In addition to reliable performance, tante-e proactively supports us with shop optimization and the systematic implementation of our ideas."
Cindy Wieghardt
Head of E-Commerce & Performance Marketing, OACE
OACE x Aunt E
Profile: OACE
OACE ist eine 2019 gegründete Sportswear-Marke, die Fitness und Fashion verbindet. Über Social Media und eine aktive Influencer-Community erreicht OACE monatlich rund 20 Millionen Menschen in Deutschland. Die Brand vereint Women- und Men-Sortiment in einem Shop, mit klarem Schwerpunkt auf der weiblichen Zielgruppe, und erwirtschaftet im D2C-Geschäft einen mittleren zweistelligen Millionenumsatz bei einem schlanken Team von rund 30 Mitarbeitenden. Seit 2024 arbeitet OACE mit tante-e als E-Commerce-Partner zusammen.
The starting position
Pain points:
OACE grew from around 3 million to around 23 million euros in revenue between 2021 and 2023. The online shop could not keep up with this pace. At that time, it was still not running on Shopify OS 2.0 and was prone to bugs in its day-to-day operations. Around the influencer discount codes, there were already individual, very specific special solutions, but these had grown in isolation and did not follow a uniform logic. Overall, marketing campaigns could only be implemented with great effort and were heavily dependent on external support. At the same time, the operational burden increased: OACE launches a new collection on average every two weeks. Each drop generates enormous short-term demand in the shop, for which the previous structure was not designed.
Aspiration:
OACE needed a clean, stable foundation that could reliably support campaigns and product drops. Central to their needs was the desire for greater independence: the team wanted to manage discounts, bundles, and launches themselves in the future, without relying on external development for every change. For influencer marketing, OACE required an intelligent, uniform discount logic that would function reliably even with several hundred active codes. Additionally, the shop needed to convey OACE's brand identity and appealingly address both female and male target groups within a single shop.
Expectations for tante-e as an agency:
OACE initially expected a clear recommendation to establish a structured foundation for the shop, rather than merely patching isolated problem areas. Instead of individual implementation tasks, tante-e was to act as an extended e-commerce team. OACE contributes the vision and requirements from daily operations, while tante-e translates them into robust technical solutions, incorporating its own experience – for example, when a customized approach is more sensible than a standard solution.
The Strategy
The shop must handle every bi-weekly launch without failure
Replacing Shopify Scripts with Shopify Functions to ensure stability of discount & cart logic under high traffic. Supplemented by a code freeze 48 hours before each launch, a clear rollback strategy, and the deactivation of traffic-prone third-party apps.
Over 200 influencer codes are to remain constant for each partner, even though the discounted products change with each campaign.
Replacement of grown individual solutions by a central, individually programmed discount logic. The codes remain stable, OACE centrally controls the discount rate and products in the backend.
Discounts should be visible in the shopping cart and on category and product pages, not just during checkout, and remain combinable with bundles and strike-through prices.
Consistent discount display throughout the entire customer journey, technically compatible with bundled discounts and reduced prices during sales.
Unisex products should automatically appear with the appropriate model image depending on the target group, consistently from the menu to the shopping cart.
Individually programmed Men/Women logic: The selected target group is retained throughout the entire customer journey, from the menu to the shopping cart; for unisex products, the shop automatically displays the appropriate model image.
Combine bundles with up to three product dimensions across multiple products, including flexible, independently controllable discount logic
Individually programmed Bundle Creator instead of the Shopify Bundles app, which reaches its limits with multiple combined variant dimensions.
Reduce return rates in the textile sector, especially due to incorrect size selection
Integration of Reviews.io with structured fit questions, model references and Leggings Guide on the product page, as well as the returns portal 8returns.
Highlights from the Collaboration with OACE
Phase 01
Concept phase
Phase 02
Material phase
Phase 03
Design phase
Phase 04
Implementation
Phase 05
Launch
Requirements Analysis
Tool stack
Shop architecture analysis
Roadmap
Product data and imagery
Discount code history
Styling & CI
Wireframing
Conception of theme customization
System Integration
Programming
Data Migration
Testing & QA
Onboarding
Growth Retainer
Requirements Analysis
Tool stack
Shop architecture analysis
Roadmap
Product data and imagery
Discount code history
Styling & CI
Wireframing
Conception of theme customization
System Integration
Programming
Data Migration
Testing & QA
Onboarding
Growth Retainer
The results
A mature, error-prone shop setup has become a resilient Shopify Plus foundation that keeps pace with OACE instead of slowing it down. The switch from Shopify Scripts to Shopify Functions exemplifies this: where the former discount logic reached its limits during heavy load peaks, today the discount and cart calculation runs reliably even during the biggest rush.
In the ongoing Growth Retainer, OACE and tante-e are continuously developing the shop. With the Mobile Shopping App, OACE has established another sales channel without additional maintenance effort, which strengthens ties with its own community. As a proactive sparring partner, tante-e helps to continuously tailor the shop to the needs of the team and the growing community.