DECKED was born in 2014, inspired by a sketch scribbled on a bar napkin in Ketchum, Idaho. Today, their HQ remains in Ketchum, literally five minutes away from world-class skiing, mountain biking, fishing, and hiking.
With a vision to transform the jumble of tools and gear in pickup truck beds into an organized dream that even Marie Kondo would envy, DECKED embarked on a journey of innovation. After countless iterations and a bonfire pile of plywood prototypes, the team created a groundbreaking, highly engineered design that today propels their business.
As DECKED expanded from B2B to DTC, it became clear that their previous platform, WordPress, was too rigid and limited for their growth plans. What they needed instead was more than just a new platform: they needed a partner capable of changing and growing alongside them.
With Shopify, DECKED found just that.
Since migrating to Shopify, DECKED has experienced significant growth in their DTC business, achieving remarkable results:
- 62% year-over-year growth on average
- 4% increase in revenue due to enhanced search and discovery tools
- 58% of GMV coming from Shop Pay
- 50% adoption rate on promoting compatible products in a new post-add-to-cart customizer
- Stronger dealer network by combining B2B sales with DTC efforts
The challenge: Not enough flexibility for an evolving business
Before migrating to Shopify, DECKED operated on a WordPress site that had reached its limit in terms of growth functionality. Several challenges cropped up along the way, highlighting the need to find a partner with features and capabilities that could propel their growth for the long term.
The search for a great omnichannel experience
As they expanded from B2B to DTC, DECKED wanted to create an omnichannel experience by giving all their customers the freedom to shape their purchasing journey: but offering this flexibility was virtually impossible with their previous site. The first challenge to tackle was the overly complicated checkout, a make-or-break feature of any ecommerce strategy and a key feature to build trust in their brand.
“I am a firm believer in offering customers the true ecommerce shopping experience,” says Taylor Straley, VP of ecommerce at DECKED. “When you're on a website and you get into a checkout that has a funkier flow, you lose trust in that company.”
The complicated checkout was just the tip of the iceberg, though.
To DECKED, their website needed to act as a central commerce hub to an overall omnichannel experience. Their vision was to create a destination for customers, so that whether they’re in the store, on Amazon, or even at their friend’s house—a friend with a DECKED system, of course—they can quickly immerse themselves in both the product and the brand.
Complex customer demands
Customers in the aftermarket auto industry have incredibly specific demands. Products require precise fitment and compatibility, making search more complicated than in other sectors. DECKED’s platform couldn't handle the nuanced, long-tail queries typical in automotive searches, limiting their ability to convert interest into sales. “For years we tried to implement a search experience and found that it wasn't intuitive or native for the customer,” says Taylor. “They would type in something and we'd send them to a PLP, which was just a horrible shopping experience. And so we felt like having no search was better than a search.”
Confusing financing options
What’s more, customers struggled early on to understand and select between various financing options during checkout. And if catering to precise fitment demands is DECKED’s top concern, providing financing options is a close second. Recognizing this, DECKED realized they needed to reimagine the entire checkout process in order to improve the customer experience.
Locating custom dealers
DECKED also offers their customers the option to either buy products online or visit a physical store. But they lacked a way that would help customers easily locate custom dealers—a vital piece of the experience puzzle that allows customers to physically inspect products at local dealers and confirm quality, size, and functionality. Plus, visiting a local dealer offers the added benefit of installation services, which often saves time and ensures the product is installed correctly.
Data limitations
To cap it all off? They didn’t have the data capabilities they needed to fuel their audience and insights engine. They needed comprehensive access to data that could inform their marketing and sales strategies.
All that to say, DECKED needed so much more than WordPress could provide. And they needed it to keep their customers—and their bottom line—happy.
The solution: A flexible platform to power seamless shopping experiences
With all this on their mind, DECKED made the strategic decision to migrate to Shopify in 2016, inspired by recommendations from their developers who recognized the platform's versatility and robust data capabilities. Taylor explains, “Our developers really enjoy Shopify. We originally chose Shopify at their recommendation. Shopify allows for in-house teams to be incredibly nimble and quick, without a ton of overhead.”
They quickly put Shopify to work across three core areas: product discovery, channel integration, and checkout.
Better product discovery
A key transformation for DECKED was implementing the Shopify Search & Discovery app. Because it allowed DECKED to respond to complex search queries more effectively, the entire customer journey became more streamlined overnight.
We wanted to be able to get in front of our customers when they’re looking. So we relaunched Search & Discovery and have seen incredible results.
Taylor adds, “Customers are becoming more aware of not only buying online but discovering online. The customer journey has changed, and Shopify has allowed us to keep up with that.” And with features like custom filters, synonym groups, product boosts, and more, DECKED is now able to direct customers to the exact products they’re looking for.
And on the discovery front, Taylor says, “We understand that our products work better when they’re together. So we can provide someone with truck bed storage and organization. And then we can provide them with different accessories to elevate that experience. And it was really guided by what we previously saw customers purchasing.”
In other words, they’ve made finding—and discovering—products a whole lot easier.
Seamless channel integration
Likewise, DECKED has made finding dealers a whole lot easier.
By capitalizing on the flexibility of the Shopify platform, DECKED was able to integrate their custom dealer locator that, by allowing customers to find local dealers, bridges the gap between DTC and B2B channels. This app not only provides geographic search data but also facilitates connections by ensuring that customers can conveniently locate and interact with local dealers.
"We can match dealers not just by proximity and location, but also based on those who have our product displays or only carry specific items from our range,” says Taylor. “This capability allows us to tailor our customer experience and product discovery recommendation efforts more effectively. Importantly, it benefits the customer by enabling us to gather and utilize search and contact data, ensuring a direct connection from our website to the appropriate dealer.”
Now, instead of simply “selling $1,500 black boxes on the internet,” as Taylor puts it, DECKED is giving their customers every chance to see these products in person—to try them out and make sure it’s exactly what they envisioned before sealing the deal.
Smoother checkout
The move to Shopify also gave DECKED the tools they needed to customize their checkout experience, allowing them to promote compatible products and accessories effectively.
And what a welcome relief that was.
DECKED adopted Shopify’s intuitive one-page checkout, easing the transaction flow and increasing customer confidence. They also introduced a post-add-to-cart customizer tool that appears once a customer chooses a hero product. This tool guides customers through compatible accessory selections, enhancing the shopping experience while eliminating the need to return to product pages.
Aware of our endless dedication to innovation and adaptation to changing audiences, DECKED successfully implemented Shop Pay Installments. The integration was seamless, giving customers the flexibility of financing without detracting from other payment options.
Today, customers can fly through checkout with ease, confident in their financing and happy with their purchase.
Stronger data tools
Finally, DECKED was an early adopter of Shopify Audiences, quickly implementing its ability to fuel targeted marketing through lookalike audiences based on high-intent purchase data. Taylor says, “Given that most people have just one truck, they only need a couple of our products. So we’re always looking out for new customers and better ways that we can prospect and get the brand in front of more customers. And using Shopify Audiences has been great for that.”
We look at 3 audiences that we’ve used in the past, and it allowed us to hit 20 million people that we might not have been able to hit before. And they’re not just some people that another tool is showing us. These are people that are in-market and thinking about this product, whether they’re in the discovery phase or they’re visiting similar websites.
Whether those lookalike audiences are used in advertising or email, the goal is the same: acquire new customers.
To inform these segments even further, DECKED brought their customer experience team into their ecommerce team to create faster feedback loops. The result? They’ve been able to not only improve the customer experience faster, but they’ve also become more intuitive and respond to what their customers want more quickly.
And with Shopify, it’s never been easier.
The result: More engagement, more revenue, more growth
DECKED's partnership with Shopify has been a journey to create a true omnichannel experience. And the results speak for themselves.
With adding Search & Discovery, we were able to see a 4% revenue lift.
The combined power of Shop Pay Installments and Search & Discovery has resulted in a 4% increase in revenue for DECKED. And because DECKED can now much more easily adapt to their customers’ changing needs, they’ve witnessed an incredible 62% average annual growth in their DTC business since transitioning to Shopify in 2016.
Unlocking more with data
By moving to Shopify, DECKED has also opened up new possibilities through better data and analytics. Thanks to the real-time functionality of the Shopify platform, DECKED is able to make in-the-moment decisions, keeping them agile, nimble, and future-focused.
Shopify is huge for us, especially for real-time data. We’re able to look in real time whereas some of the other platforms don’t let us do that. We have that opportunity in Shopify to make decisions.
A key benefit of Shopify’s data capabilities is that DECKED doesn’t have to source data from many other sources—they have all they need right in front of them to drive a strong growth strategy.
Strengthened B2B relationships
Their custom dealer locator app has strengthened their B2B relationships, ensuring the dealer network remains a vital part of the sales strategy while complementing DECKED’s DTC efforts. Plus, the app collects valuable data, providing insights into where and how customers search for products. This geographical and contact data has been crucial for refining marketing strategies and inventory planning.
We can respond to what customers are asking and make iterative and fast changes over time. Shopify has scaled with us as we've grown 62% and has kept up with that growth and led some of that growth.
Tapping into partnerships
Another key benefit of moving to Shopify has been exploring more brand partnerships, especially with the added value of Shopify Collective. Through Collective, DECKED is able to partner with other businesses on Shopify, opening up new ways to acquire customers and reach new audiences—a key benefit given DECKED doesn’t rely on discounts to woo new customers. Of this new range of opportunities, Ashlee says, “There are a lot of brands on Shopify, there are a lot more that are growing, and having those partnerships is really important to us.”
Ultimately, community is everything to DECKED. Whether it’s through partnering with other brands or building a place for customers to connect and discuss the products, they’re all about creating a space where brand loyalty can skyrocket. All thanks to Shopify.
Post-add-to-cart customization
And their checkout? Once a pain point, today’s streamlined one-page process—coupled with customization options after adding to cart—have increased transaction efficiency, leading to higher conversion rates. This post-add-to-cart customizer, available directly in checkout, has resulted in a 50% adoption rate on promoting compatible products and accessories. A sure sign that their customers appreciate the added value of such seamless customization.
What’s more, the DECKED team is able to use the vast amounts of data they get from this customizer to both improve the experience and chart a course into the future. Taylor says, “We use all that data not only to spot check customer orders or make sure they’re getting the right product for the fitment, but also to inform our product development for future trucks we’d like to fit.” They can also use that information for cross-selling, upselling, or future segmentation—which really speaks to the power of a strong, performant checkout.
The strength of Shop Pay
Underpinning it all is the power of Shopify, with Shop Pay at the forefront.
Shop Pay makes up about 58% of our GMV, and it’s our number-one payment method.
Personalizing the experience
Beyond customizing the experience after adding products to the cart, DECKED has also invested in making every moment feel more personal.
Ashlee mentions how helpful it’s been to combine the native features of Shopify with DECKED’s in-house development team to test new experiences for different segments with targeted moments on the site like a personal homepage banner. One thing Ashlee’s really proud of is their new dual CTA strategy, which has become a best practice for the marketing team.
How it works is that DECKED is able to showcase different offerings to different audiences. For example, a visitor can customize the experience from the jump: DECKED will surface a “better together” story with both the Drawer System and CargoGlide from the home page. From there, the visitor can choose their own adventure. Do they want to shop Drawer Systems? Or would they rather start with exploring CargoGlide? Either way, Shopify has allowed DECKED to make sure their customers get the best shopping experience every time.
Real-world engagement
Besides digital enhancements, DECKED has successfully bridged the gap between seamless online experiences and engaging real-world events. At the Red Bull Rampage in October 2024, DECKED promoted their D-co Cases, a perfect storage solution for nearly any environment, from campgrounds to garages. Thanks to Shopify’s split checkout feature, not only could customers purchase D-co Cases directly on-site, but they could also arrange for larger DECKED items to be shipped directly to their homes. A testament to the value—and power—of in-person and online shopping working together to serve the customer.
Building a better tomorrow—together
One of DECKED’s mottos is “Build for tomorrow.”
At Shopify, we take that sentiment to heart every day. With innovation at the core of everything we do, we’re proud to work with future-forward brands like DECKED—and help bring their vision to life.
As Taylor puts it, “In everything we’re doing, we’re thinking, ‘How do we build this better for tomorrow? How do we make products that are better tomorrow for our customers?’ I think I’m most proud of being a part of that, and truly building a brand that stays true to that identity.”
So are we.
Check out the full video interviews with Taylor and Ashlee to learn more about their stories:
Watch Taylor's interview
Watch Ashlee's interview