A Case Study of Billingham Bags

Refreshing the E-commerce Experience for an Iconic 50 Year Old Brand

Billingham Bags is a respected British brand known for making premium camera bags and accessories. With decades of experience and a loyal customer base, the company is recognized for combining high-quality materials with classic, functional design.

They sell directly to consumers through their online store and also support wholesale relationships with global partners. As a heritage brand, preserving their reputation while modernizing their digital presence was a top priority.

Billingham's Business Challenges

1. Broken product architecture
2. Poor product discovery
3. Suboptimal site performance
4. Wholesale and D2C conflicts

Billingham's previous site was built in a way that made product management and discovery unnecessarily complex. Variants like size or color were shown as entirely separate products across different collections, leading to confusion for shoppers and inefficiencies for the team.

The site also lacked tools for filtering or sorting, which made it difficult for customers to find what they needed. Combined with slow load times and weak SEO setup, this hurt both the shopping experience and visibility in search results.

Finally, the site did not effectively separate wholesale and direct-to-consumer experiences. Important wholesale features were hard to access, while retail customers could easily land in dealer-focused areas. A clearer structure was needed to serve both groups without friction.

Engineering the Solution

In mid-2024, ShopCreatify and Billingham committed to a full rebuild. The goal was not just to fix the problems but to future-proof the store and make it easier to manage. Every part of the store—from product setup to design and performance—was reconsidered and improved.

#1 Restructured Product Catalog

We reorganized how Billingham's products were built in Shopify. Instead of having each variant as separate items and a faux-product created as a collection, we brought them together under single PDPs (product detail) pages.

This new structure allowed us to build products not only with variants but also with colour matched optional extras that swop out when a different variant is selected.

We made great use of Shopify's Metaobjects and MetaFields that dynamically creates relationships between products. This made browsing simpler for customers and managing products faster and more logical for the Billingham team.

"Shopify actually launched Metaobjects during this project, so thankfully with our agile approach and working relationship, we were able to incorporate the improvement made to the platform and made Billingham one of the first stores with the new feature."
–Ross Allchorn, Founder of SCF.

#2 Storefront Redesign

We redesigned the entire shopping experience with a cleaner layout, clearer navigation, and better visual hierarchy.

The result was a site that feels easier to use, highlights the quality of Billingham's products, and keeps shoppers focused on buying. The new design was also built with SEO in mind to help attract more organic traffic.

#3 Reduced Operational Overhead

Over time, the old store had become bloated with extra apps and workarounds that were hard to maintain. We removed unnecessary tools and simplified the backend setup, which now means fewer things to break and lower ongoing costs.

#4 Smarter Navigation and Sizing Filters

One of the major improvements was the introduction of filters based on bag size and type. This helps customers find the right product more quickly.

To make it more engaging and relatable, we even included a quirky but effective measurement—how many cups of chickpeas fit in a bag—alongside standard metric and imperial units.

#5 Dual-Audience Optimization

We gave careful thought to how the store could serve both individual customers and business buyers. For example, Leica-branded products now include a smart link to Leica’s own dealer list, helping wholesale buyers get what they need without confusion, while still letting retail customers browse the full Billingham range.

The Definition of Success

From the outset, Billingham and our team aligned on clear, measurable goals to guide the project. These included delivering a cleaner, more premium visual experience while staying true to the brand's heritage, along with making the site easier for non-technical staff to manage. The key criteria were defined to be:

1. Enhanced visuals and user experience
2. Simplified store management
3. Improved speed and UX metrics
4. Modern Shopify infrastructure
5. Efficient development processes
6. Stable and predictable platform
7. Focus on improvement, not debugging

We also prioritized performance, scalability, and future-readiness. The updated store is faster, more stable, fewer apps, and built on the latest Shopify tools—enabling quicker updates and fewer issues. This stable foundation now allows the team to focus on enhancing the customer experience rather than troubleshooting technical problems.

Results

Sales and Conversion Uplift

Within the first seven weeks of launching the new store, Billingham saw a 25% increase in sales and a 14% improvement in conversion rates.

These gains were achieved without any changes to advertising or marketing, showing the power of better design and structure alone.

Improved Site Performance

Performance scores from Google's Lighthouse tool went up by almost 14%, with the biggest improvements in SEO and loading speed. These changes help attract more visitors and keep them engaged.

Enhanced Cross-Selling

Product pages now show related accessories that match the exact color or style a customer is looking at. This makes it easier for shoppers to complete their purchase and helps increase order value.

Lowered Operational Costs

By removing redundant apps and simplifying the setup, Billingham reduced monthly operating costs and freed up time that was previously spent managing tools and fixes.

Data-Driven Improvements

With tools like Hotjar and GA4 now properly set up, the team can see how customers are using the site, test new ideas, and continue to optimize for better performance and growth.

Ongoing Partnership

This project was run in an agile way, meaning the team could respond quickly to new information and adjust priorities as needed. That flexibility helped us focus on what mattered most at each stage.

Billingham continues to work with ShopCreatify on testing, improvements, and strategic growth. With a strong foundation now in place, the brand is positioned to scale confidently—both online and in their global wholesale network.

The Hadley One from a review by Philippe Castagna.