Forever New moved four markets off Magento and onto Shopify this year, for a brand in more than 25 countries. The aim was to build as little as possible: less development, more configuration and out of the box wherever they could.
Robert Lupone is Chief Information Officer at Forever New, and was CIO at Lovisa before that. Andrew Waite is CEO and Founder of Convert Digital, the Shopify agency that led the build. Andrew’s been on the show before, talking about Ghanda’s growth. Here’s how a 20-year-old fashion retailer replatformed its global business in months.
In this article, we cover three things ecommerce teams can take into their business:
- Why Forever New built as little custom tech as possible
- How to choose partners over vendors, and roll out market by market
- The non-negotiables for a big replatform with an agency partner
Why Forever New Left Magento
Forever New was founded in Melbourne 20 years ago. It’s known as a brand where mother and daughter can shop in the same store. It started in eventwear, and has recently moved more into everyday and lifestyle on the back of customer feedback. Today it has about 400 stores, concessions and marketplaces in more than 25 countries.
Magento served the business well for a long time, with a big internal development team behind it. But Rob wanted to lift the brand, simplify the stack and move faster.
We wanted to move to Shopify to allow for those synergies, less development, more configuration and greater speed. And for me personally, being able to standardise globally in all of our markets on Shopify.
An internal scan of the platforms put Shopify first. A rigorous agency review followed, and integration depth was a big factor. Convert won the work. It was a tight timeline too. Rob says it was nine months of work, but really a fifteen or sixteen month project crammed in.
Andrew had history with the brand. His test orders from 14 years ago still sit at record number one in its systems.
Build as Little as Possible
Andrew says the principle that made the project work was how little got built.
We are not building custom technology. In fact, we don’t necessarily want to buy technology either. We’re using out of the box Shopify where possible.
Anything custom had to be a real point of difference. Anything bought had to prove it belonged in the stack. Rob’s view is that custom tech weighs you down over the years and builds up tech debt.
There’s an art to being simple. The closer we can align to out of the box means a lot more sustainability and continuity. How can we be as light as possible?
The business still had a wish list. Rob’s team reviewed it item by item, ruled a lot out and added a few things in. The rest became fast follows after launch, including a wishlist app and checkout upsells. A dedicated returns platform, Loop, came in as part of the build.
Partners, Not Vendors
Integrations were the biggest part of the job, and Rob knew it going in. One rule was to use Shopify connectors and Shopify apps wherever possible. Using Shopify Markets also pushed some vendors to build new features so they could support it.
The difference for me between a vendor and a partner is a partner is strategically aligned to the outcome of what we’re trying to achieve.
Rob spoke to vendors’ leadership teams about their roadmaps and AI plans. Some vendors were dropped. For the big ones, the team built custom apps.
The back end got the same care. The team changed the integration pattern to pull stock data as close to the customer as possible, using Shopify’s capability. Real-time stock checks in checkout let the team cut stock buffers. Checkout components carry the brand right through to payment, so the experience doesn’t fall off a cliff at checkout.
Our cancellation rates are lower than we’ve ever had before.
Every market has also seen growth in organic traffic and sales since launch. And AI sped up the build. Rob gave his integration manager a week to try Claude, and it cut integration build time by about 70 to 80%.
One Storefront, Many Markets
Shopify Markets let Forever New run one storefront across regions, each with its own pricing, tax and duties. That replaces the old way of running a separate Shopify Plus store for each country.
The rollout went market by market, about a week apart. New Zealand, the UK and Canada went first. Australia was last, going live about a month before recording. In the US and Canada the brand trades as Ever New. In the US it’s in Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, is about to sign another big department store, and has board approval for its own stores.
In the Middle East, Forever New works through a joint venture with Apparel Group. It’s adding 20 to 30 stores there and launching its own Shopify site. In harder markets, Rob says a local partner makes sense.
Asked for his rollout tip, Rob’s first answer was: don’t do it. His real advice is to leave more time between markets if you can, and tailor each one. Andrew adds that each market needs its own strategy for price, content and seasons.
I don’t think it’s turn it on, build it, and they will come. There has to be a broader strategy.
Lessons From Lovisa
Before Forever New, Rob was CIO at Lovisa, which now has about 1,200 stores in 50-plus markets. When he joined, IT was holding the business back. He moved it to AWS, lifted the ERP and changed the culture. The business went from opening about three US stores a month to opening eleven stores in five markets in one week.
The lesson he took was simplicity. Lovisa standardised on English, even in countries that don’t speak it. Nathan asked if that clashes with being customer first.
Generally you don’t compromise the customer. It’s more the internal. Internally we’re happy to make concessions, but from a customer perspective you always stay true to being customer first.
The Non-Negotiables for a Big Replatform
Andrew says the governance only works if leaders turn up. Forever New’s leadership sat in steering committees, asked questions and challenged people. Convert also worked inside Forever New’s own Teams, Jira and Confluence from early on, which kept everything visible. Near the end, the team ran showcases at the Forever New office.
Rob’s non-negotiables:
- A clear business case and clear requirements
- Frank conversations, including about the bad stuff, early
- Strong governance and clearly defined roles
- The right partners, and senior-level alignment
- Hard work
Shopify’s solution architect joined the steering committees too. On budgets, Andrew says agency models are shifting. Convert has mostly priced on outcomes for builds, with a fixed price, a fixed end date and penalties if the date is missed.
What’s Next for Forever New
Forever New is now in the optimisation phase. The focus is hyper-personalisation. The team has built a composable CDP on Databricks, linked to its customer engagement platform and loyalty program, and has about 50 projects lined up. It also has an AI team working on what an AI stylist could do for a customer with a wedding in three weeks. Rob sees GEO becoming as big as SEO.
Andrew’s warning for everyone else is to fix the foundations first. He calls it AI curious versus AI readiness. Brands buy AI tools and plug them in, but have no data to make them work.
The Takeaway
Forever New went global on Shopify by saying no to most custom builds. Keep it simple, pick partners who share your goals and give each market room to land. Then put the time you saved into the customer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Forever New move from Magento to Shopify? Forever New wanted to lift the brand, simplify its tech stack and move faster. CIO Robert Lupone wanted less development, more configuration and one global standard across all four markets, for a brand in more than 25 countries.
What is Shopify Markets? Shopify Markets lets a brand sell into multiple countries from one storefront, with local pricing, tax and duties for each region. It replaces running a separate Shopify Plus store per country.
How long does an enterprise Shopify migration take? Forever New’s took about nine months, but Robert Lupone says it was really fifteen or sixteen months of work. Contract timing with Magento set the deadline, and the team rolled out market by market, about a week apart.
What’s the difference between a tech vendor and a partner? According to Robert Lupone, a partner is strategically aligned to the outcome you’re trying to achieve. Forever New spoke with vendors’ leadership about their roadmaps and AI plans, and dropped some that didn’t fit.
If you’re weighing up a move off an ageing platform, Convert Digital has led Shopify migrations for brands like Chemist Warehouse, Showpo and Lorna Jane. Get Convert’s Salesforce to Shopify migration guide.
