Gymshark moved to Shopify Plus after its previous store crashed on Black Friday. Here is what the brand says it changed, and how a small store can copy the useful parts.
Gymshark is a British fitness apparel brand that Ben Francis founded in a UK garage in 2012, when he was 19. According to Shopify's published case study, the brand moved from Adobe Commerce (previously known as Magento) to Shopify Plus after its store crashed on Black Friday. This article walks through what Gymshark reports, what it uses, and what a small online store can learn from it.
Gymshark's early growth needed a platform that could handle big spikes in traffic. Ben Francis says the Adobe Commerce build took six to eight months, and by the time it was finished the company had already doubled in size and outgrown it.
Then the store went down on Black Friday. In Shopify's case study, Ben says the site was offline for eight hours and cost Gymshark an estimated £100,000. He also says the brand took the blame from customers, even though the platform was at fault.
Shopify reports that Gymshark replatformed to Shopify Plus ten months after it started with Adobe Commerce. The case study names three parts of the setup:
Note that the case study is several years old. Shopify has been changing how checkout customization works, so check Shopify's current documentation before you plan the same feature.
These figures come from Shopify's case study and describe Gymshark around 2017. They are not Gymshark's current numbers, and they are Shopify's own marketing, so treat them as the company's reported results and not as independent proof.
Gymshark's problem was not a slow ordinary day. It was the one day of the year when everyone showed up at once. If you run a store, decide before the sale, not during it, whether your platform can handle several times your normal traffic.
Ben Francis's point about Scripts is that small improvements were quick to make on Shopify. A store where every change needs a developer and a few weeks is a store that tests fewer ideas.
Gymshark connected its events to the same Shopify system. If you sell at markets or pop-ups, running them through the same platform keeps your stock and customer records in one place.
You can read how Shopify performs for smaller stores in our full Shopify review.
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Gymshark runs Shopify Plus, which is built for high-volume brands. Most small stores start on a standard Shopify plan and move up later. Here is a small-business version of the same ideas.
Rough cost: from $39 per month for the plan, plus any paid apps you choose. Check our Shopify review and Shopify's pricing page for current prices.
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