Executive Summary
KURU is an online-only footwear retail store founded in 2008, specializing in high-performance shoes designed for foot health and comfort. As the brand grew, they required a more robust digital foundation to support their expanding catalog and increasing customer demand.
In 2018, KURU migrated their existing store to the Magento 2 platform. However, the initial build was problematic, leaving the brand struggling with severe site issues for two years. Critical flaws were found throughout the ecosystem, including checkout friction that directly impacted sales and limited the brand’s ability to capitalize on market growth.
Onetree partnered with KURU to stabilize the platform through a focused maintenance and optimization strategy. By deploying a dedicated team of certified Magento developers, we implemented quick, daily solutions to resolve technical debt, improve site performance, and introduce customized functionalities.
The engagement was executed as a part-time assignment focused on delivering weekly progress and measurable site improvements. This targeted approach allowed KURU to quickly stabilize traffic and reach record revenue figures by the eighth month of the partnership.
The Challenge: Stabilizing a critical e-commerce engine
After migrating to the Magento 2 platform in 2018, KURU faced a period of technical debt that lasted two years, preventing the brand from reaching its commercial potential. The build was inherently problematic, creating a sales bottleneck rather than a growth engine due to issues found all around the site.
The complexity of the project was defined by several critical constraints. From an organizational perspective, KURU required a shift away from traditional, slow development cycles toward a model capable of delivering quick solutions to problems on a daily basis. Technically, the legacy of the initial build meant dealing with widespread errors that directly impacted the checkout process. Regarding scale, the business needed to stabilize and handle increasing traffic and transactions while ensuring total operational continuity.
To restore growth, the retailer needed to resolve critical issues within the checkout flow to stop the direct impact on sales. It was also essential to improve site speed and performance to meet modern consumer expectations. Additionally, the brand needed to implement customized functionalities to better serve their specific footwear niche and establish a reliable cadence for weekly progress and improvements.
The objective was to transform the existing site into a stable, high-performance platform capable of supporting millions of consumers and achieving record-breaking revenue figures.
The Solution: Targeted maintenance and agile development execution
To address the site’s instability and technical debt, Onetree implemented a high-cadence maintenance model focused on continuous, incremental optimization. KURU was provided with a small, dedicated team of certified Magento developers capable of delivering quick, daily solutions to technical issues. This team functioned as an integrated extension of the brand’s operation, working under a part-time assignment structure that allowed for high-impact results without the overhead of a traditional full-scale project.
The execution focused on resolving the most critical “leaks” in the conversion funnel, specifically targeting the checkout experience and general site performance. By tackling multiple items every day and delivering weekly progress reports, the team moved the platform away from its problematic state toward a reliable production environment. This approach not only stabilized traffic and revenue but also allowed for the implementation of customized functionalities tailored to KURU’s specific e-commerce needs.
Results & Impact: Driving record-breaking revenue through optimization
The transition from a struggling platform to an optimized store delivered measurable improvements in business performance and operational efficiency.
33%
Conversion rate improved 33% in 2020 versus 2019.
13.44x
Site speed improved 13.44x in 2020 versus 2018.
Record revenue figures were reached by the eighth month of the collaboration.
Stable traffic and conversions were achieved shortly after the technical stabilization.
