How Little Dutch takes e-commerce to the next level with Shopify

The Dutch brand Little Dutch has grown from a kitchen table project into an international label in just fifteen years, now active in over fifty countries. With its distinctive style - soft, timeless, safe, and sustainable - the brand has won the hearts of young families worldwide. This rapid growth called for a technical foundation that could keep pace. That's why Little Dutch chose to replatform to Shopify, partnering with Code as their Shopify Partner.

CLIENT

Little Dutch

INDUSTRY

Lifestyle

TECHNOLOGY

Shopify plus webshops

PACKAGE

Webshop migration

Services we provided

Returner

Email Marketing

Store Development

Integrations

From slow and limited to scalable and stable

The key requirement? A platform that doesn't slow down, but accelerates. E-commerce Manager Babette van Waes explains: "We chose Shopify because we needed a platform that could grow along with us." The previous webshop could no longer keep pace with the brand's growth. The site was slow, occasionally crashed, and offered too little flexibility. During a selection process comparing five platforms (including Shopware), Shopify came out on top. Key deciding factors included its high level of flexibility, international scalability, favorable Total Cost of Ownership, and strong B2B capabilities.

According to interim e-commerce consultant Marleen Vonk, who oversaw the project on behalf of Little Dutch, hardly any compromises had to be made in terms of design or brand experience. "Shopify met our requirements surprisingly well - both technically and visually."

By utilizing standard functionality and smart integrations with existing systems, such as their PIM and PSP, the investment remained manageable. The result: a future-proof webshop, delivered on time and within budget.

Conversion up after migration

The impact of the new webshop became visible quickly. Not only did the site load faster and perform more reliably, the overall user experience improved significantly. The conversion rate from direct traffic increased from 4 percent to 6 percent. A clear sign that the new structure, content, and performance align well with the needs of the target audience.

Live in four months

How long does a migration to Shopify take? In this case: four months. From the initial kickoff in November to the launch in March. This speed was made possible by clearly defining in advance what was minimally required for launch. "By starting with an MVP, we were able to keep a tight grip on timeline and quality, without compromising on ambition," says Marleen.

The architecture was designed to facilitate further development, featuring a separate B2B and D2C webshop, with the D2C environment using Shopify Markets to enable localization by country.

Retaining SEO rankings during replatforming

A common concern when migrating to Shopify is the potential for an SEO dip. Little Dutch shared that concern, which is why SEO was built into the migration plan from the start. Thanks to a well-structured redirect plan, preservation of SEO-relevant content, and a logical site structure, organic traffic remained stable after the launch.

"SEO is often a concern during migrations, but we didn't see any drop in traffic from search engines. That confirmed for us that we handled it the right way," says Babette.

More control for the team

In addition to gains in performance and stability, Little Dutch also achieved greater flexibility. By restructuring content using product families, collections, and tags, the team was able to update content and set up promotions independently with greater ease. "Where requests used to pile up, we can now make optimizations in no time," says Babette.

Creating landing pages or campaigns now takes less time, and thanks to Shopify's intuitive interface, multiple team members can work without needing technical support.

Flexible and connected through the Shopify ecosystem

The Shopify app ecosystem also plays a key role in enabling that flexibility. "You can create much of the needed custom functionality with an app," says Marleen. "But you have to make choices. Don't start with too much at once."

With Shopify Markets, Little Dutch can adjust content, pricing, and language per country. New country stores can be launched quickly, without duplicating effort. This makes the platform especially well-suited for international growth.

And now: building further

The launch of the new store was just the starting point. The team is now working on optimizing the customer journey, expanding B2C and B2B email marketing through Klaviyo, and making use of advanced Shopify features. The first flows are live - including welcome series, checkout, and soon back-in-stock - and new email flows, like birthday automations, are in the pipeline.

The team is also exploring smart applications of AI, for example, in personalization and content management. Babette sees it as a natural next step: "Shopify is a strategic choice for us that accelerates growth and gives us the space to keep evolving."

The conclusion

Little Dutch successfully replatformed to Shopify Plus, building a scalable e-commerce infrastructure in just four months, without losing SEO rankings, staying within budget, and achieving measurable growth in conversion.

For Dutch brands considering a migration to Shopify, this case shows that the platform is mature enough for both B2C and B2B, and that with the right approach, you can go live quickly. As Marleen puts it: "Shopify has matured. It's not only a future-proof solution for D2C, but for B2B as well."

Thinking about migrating to Shopify?

Curious if Shopify is the right fit for your brand? Or want to know what to look out for in a replatforming project? At Code, we're happy to help brands like yours create a high-performing Shopify webshop. Schedule an introduction with Code.