FILA Australia

Chris Bright

GM of eCommerce, FILA Australia

Introduction

International sportswear giant Fila was established in Biella, Italy in 1911, nestled among the foothills of the Italian Alps. A worldwide leader in sporting and lifestyle shoes and apparel, Fila champions its heritage Italian design DNA while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of modern performance wear.

Fila gained global attention for its instantly recognisable tennis apparel in the 1970s, and has since expanded their design portfolio to include sporting apparel across a wide range of codes including golf, training, running and compression wear. While their technical processes are at the forefront of sporting design, the brand remains true to its time-honoured European aesthetic and outfits professional artists and athletes from around the world.

Pipelabs won the right to work with Fila on their new Shopify Plus integrated eCommerce platform through a highly competitive tender process, where we were successful both through our strong commitment to a detailed vision of the successful project’s outcomes would look like and also because of our success in painting a picture of what a collaboration with Pipelabs on the project would look like.

Pipelabs worked closely with both the Fila team and 6R Retail to deliver a Shopify Plus-based platform that integrated FILA’s ERP system (Styleman by Option Systems), PoS (OsiPOS) Klaviyo for growth marketing and Gorgias as the customer support solution - providing a high-availability, highly integrated and customer and data-centric solution.

The Challenge

Launch the new FILA Australia eCommerce presence on Shopify Plus, integrating ERP and point of sales solutions alongside best-of-breed solutions for growth marketing (Klaviyo) and customer care (Gorgias) to ensure a high quality, highly-available omni-channel outcome.

Our Approach

The project began with a highly engaged bid process that saw Pipelabs re-envisioning FILA’s eCommerce platform on Shopify Plus, integrating both current systems (Styleman, OsiPOS) to more effectively support the business’ digital goals and also new omni-channel offerings such as Click and Collect, while also implementing new offerings (Klaviyo, Gorgias) to ensure the growth opportunity can be fully realised.

The approach meant first ensuring a clear, shared understanding of the project’s goals and objectives was developed collaboratively, then building on these to create a Shopify-based platform that supported the needs of the team on both a local and global level.

An agile, sprint-based approach ensured continuous feedback and that all project goals were aligned. Flexibility was key for the project’s success and the integrated approach with the Tommy Bahama team has helped to foster a long-term, growth focused partnership that has continued to grow and develop over time.

The Result

FILA Australia’s new Shopify Plus eCommerce store was launched in September 2021, and as always we worked collaboratively with the FILA team, 6R Retail and other partners to ensure a well-tested, issue free and successful launch.

The whole, combined team have been really pleased with the project’s result, which is already providing strong returns on investment as far as reduced manual labour via automation, more efficient, better supported business processes and, most importantly, a growth-focused platform that the FILA team can build their business on.

Pipelabs and FILA Australia are continuing to work together to grow and enhance the platform.