Castore cuts pricing execution from five hours to minutes on 35 Shopify stores

In the fast-paced world of retail, the ability to execute pricing, promotions, and product data quickly and accurately is crucial for success. Castore, a global performance sportswear brand, faced significant challenges in managing pricing across its 35 Shopify stores operating in international markets. With high SKU turnover, intense seasonality, and promotional pressures, the need for pricing accuracy during peak trading periods became a business-critical issue.

The Challenge of Pricing Execution

Historically, Castore relied on a labor-intensive process for pricing execution. The merchandising teams prepared pricing data using spreadsheets and SharePoint, which were then manually imported into their systems via CSV uploads. This process often took six to seven hours overnight, with two team members dedicating their time to manage these imports. Despite their efforts, the success rate during peak trading periods was only 60 to 70 percent, with error rates ranging from 30 to 35 percent.

Andy Richley, Head of Tech at Castore, noted, “We were in a place where a 30 to 35 percent error rate was considered acceptable simply because the process was so long and so manual.” This reliance on manual processes not only created operational strain but also led to fatigue among employees, diminishing their confidence in the organization’s scalability.

Identifying the Root Cause

The core issue was not the ERP system itself, but rather how it was utilized. Pricing data was being routed through the ERP system, which was at the center of Castore’s retail architecture. This approach placed a sustained load on APIs for hours, risking degraded performance and forced license expansions during peak periods. Richley explained, “We were using a system of record as an execution engine simply because it was there.” This misalignment highlighted the need for a more effective pricing execution model.

Implementing a New Solution

To address these challenges, Castore partnered with Patchworks, a retail-first integration platform as a service (iPaaS). By rethinking how pricing data flowed through its retail architecture, Castore was able to separate pricing governance from execution. This allowed the core systems to focus on their strengths while moving high-volume data movement and orchestration to Patchworks.

Jim Herbert, CEO of Patchworks, emphasized the significance of this shift: “Castore’s results highlight a broader trend among retailers reassessing integration performance as a strategic capability rather than a background function.” The implementation process was remarkably efficient; the solution moved from concept to live deployment in just days, with the workflow designed, tested, and deployed in under two weeks without the need for bespoke development.

Measurable Gains in Performance

The impact of the new pricing execution model was immediate and transformative. Pricing execution times were reduced from approximately five hours to just two to three minutes, with worst-case execution times of 6.5 minutes during peak periods. Pricing error rates plummeted from 30 to 35 percent to an impressive 1 to 2 percent, with zero-error days achieved during peak trading.

Operationally, concurrency remained stable throughout peak periods, eliminating the need for emergency license expansions. The introduction of formal approval workflows significantly reduced the risk of pricing fraud, and customer service issues related to mispriced promotions were substantially decreased. The manual overnight pricing work was entirely eliminated, allowing data and eCommerce teams to transition from execution to oversight roles.

Richley reflected on the experience, stating, “What surprised me was just how straightforward it became. Once the data was prepared properly and approved upstream, Patchworks moved it into Shopify incredibly fast. That was the moment we knew we had the right execution layer.”

Conclusion

Castore’s collaboration with Patchworks not only streamlined their pricing execution process but also enhanced their overall operational efficiency. By leveraging a retail-first integration platform, Castore has positioned itself to handle peak trading periods with confidence, ensuring accuracy and speed in pricing execution. This transformation showcases the importance of rethinking traditional processes to meet the demands of modern retail.

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Note: This article highlights the importance of efficient pricing execution in retail and how innovative solutions can transform operational processes.