Founded in 1987, Car Toys is the largest independent specialty car audio and mobile electronics retailer in the United States. Customers across the western United States know Car Toys for its high-end product offerings and award-winning installations that produce concert-quality sound at a wide range of price points. Car Toys also sets industry standards in customizing and enhancing the driving experience for automotive enthusiasts.
Before switching to Shopify, Car Toys launched its ecommerce website on Magento. However, high fees and unnecessary complexities hindered the team's ability to provide consistent experiences across online and in-store channels. “Our business is very custom-oriented,” says Shelly Fuller, Car Toys’ Director of Operations. “Each customer's installation and parts package is unique, so we wanted to simplify the entire process for them.”
Since moving to Shopify, Car Toys has created a more unified commerce experience for its customers across all shopping channels through:
- Improved operational efficiency and reduced technical complexities
- More consistent customer and sales data via Shopify POS
- A unified gift card experience where gift cards can be purchased and used online or in-store
- Better store information on the website, enabling customers to identify the closest location and check product availability
The challenge: Unnecessary complexities and disjointed shopping experiences
High platform fees hinder innovation
Despite Car Toys’ clear vision for a more unified shopping experience, Shelly says they faced several challenges while trying to build it on Magento. Not only were the licensing fees high, but unexpected changes to the platform required Car Toys to allocate additional resources to manage and troubleshoot issues.
Magento's limits on customization were particularly challenging for our unique audio setup needs. Every installation is personalized; the lack of support made maintaining quality across all channels difficult.
Persistent integration issues
Car Toys also faced persistent integration issues with marketplaces on Magento, which required a bridge that allowed payments to transfer into its point of sale (POS) system. Even with the support of a technical partner, Shelly says its marketplace workflows on Magento would often break. She adds, “Finding the root cause of where the break was so we could quickly resolve it created quite a challenge. There were many times when there was an abrupt break that we couldn’t identify.”
These back end issues were an ideal recipe for internal engineering toil and a clunky buying process online and in-store. When Car Toys’ contract with Magento came up for renewal, Shelly says it prompted the team to consider its options, which ultimately led the business to choose Shopify.
The solution: An accelerated migration to Shopify
Shopify's adaptability was essential for Car Toys, which needed to facilitate real-time inventory tracking across multiple showrooms and enhance the precision of custom installations.
After choosing to migrate to Shopify, Shelly tells us several factors required the team to consolidate a six-month implementation plan into just 30 days. With the help of Teifi Digital, Car Toys adopted a phased rollout in which the teams worked tirelessly to migrate critical functionality from Magento to Shopify while also keeping the doors open so it could continue selling during the initial 30-day phase.
Five months later, Car Toys launched its full platform on Shopify, which includes an online appointment booking system, in-store inventory visibility across channels, and a more integrated sales process powered by Shopify POS. Car Toys also offers better store information on its website, allowing customers to quickly locate the closest store and providing real-time product availability across all of its locations.
The result: More consistent shopping experiences everywhere
A more unified platform for customers and employees
Since migrating to Shopify, Car Toys has unlocked its unified commerce vision in several ways. In addition to reduced technology costs, Car Toys now has more straightforward paths for integrating with marketplaces on Shopify. Transaction data moves directly from the marketplace into Shopify, which Shelly says makes it easier for her team to reconcile on the back end.
Shopify also allows Car Toys to give its non-technical business users more autonomy over their work. Employees can make quick promotional updates or create and launch educational landing pages without additional engineering support. “We've been able to get pages built that are up with the times,” Shelly adds. “Making changes in a simpler platform really helped us show customers why to buy from Car toys, but also how it has many avenues from which they can make appointments and reach out to our locations for that additional service."
Improved buying experiences online and in-store
For customers, this adds up to a more consistent shopping experience everywhere they interact with Car Toys. “We were able to remove the previously required bridge into our back end and create a straight flow into Shopify for our customers,” says Shelly. “That has really smoothed out our buying experience"
Shopify POS powers a more robust gift card program that enables customers to buy and use gift cards online or in-store. While this might sound like a minor update, Shelly says Magento did not have functionality for online gift card redemptions.
Overall, Shelly believes the combination of Shopify and Shopify POS gives Car Toys a clearer vision for what unified commerce can be—and what it can look like in the future.
Moving to Shopify has fundamentally redefined our vision for unified commerce, showing us what’s possible when technology aligns with business goals.
Watch the full video interview with Shelly Fuller, Director of Operations at Car Toys, for a deeper dive into the business’ journey with Shopify.