Executive Summary

Founded in 2014, Kapten & Son has quickly become a leading lifestyle brand across Europe, specializing in high-quality backpacks, glasses, watches, and jackets.

With the tagline “we are not just a brand, we are an experience” – customer experience is at the very core of everything Kapten & Son do. So when it came to choosing a platform to elevate their online retail experience, the Kapten & Son team knew they had to partner with a provider that could deliver something special for their audience. 

In partnership with SCAYLE, the brand transformed its operations, simplifying the backend complexity that previously drained valuable time and budget. This allowed their teams to focus on creating outstanding frontend experiences and launch record-breaking campaigns with 100% uptime.

Going live just six months after kickoff, Kapten & Son have experienced significant results:

• +12% average order value (AOV)
• +10% conversion rate
• +20% overall sales
• +22% Black Friday campaign sales YoY
• +32% Christmas campaign sales YoY
• 32 countries shipped to

“SCAYLE’s reliable shop system enabled us to easily handle traffic surges that previously caused significant issues. This allowed us to focus on our main goal – creating outstanding experiences for our customers.”

Patric Bökemeyer – Vice President eCommerce & Operations

About Kapten & Son

Kapten & Son is a prominent lifestyle brand that serves customers throughout Europe. Their offerings range from stylish backpacks to elegant watches, all designed to meet the demands of modern, trend-conscious consumers.

Challenge 1. A Complex and Slow Backend

Before migrating to SCAYLE, Kapten & Son were using a microservices architecture. The technology promises retailers can flexibly assemble their platform from a collection of specialized components, each designed to perform specific functions, such as product catalog management, order processing, checkout, payments, content management, and customer service. 

But this “flexibility” soon turned to frustration for Kapten & Son. The tech team struggled to weave these functionalities into one coherent system, leading to implementation hurdles, delays, and instability at the core of the platform.

The tech teams were often bogged down with troubleshooting, leaving little time for data-driven decisions or innovation. To manage this complex system, they needed to grow their team larger and larger – increasing the brand’s total cost of ownership (TCO).

“Instead of scaling a fashion brand, we felt like we were building a software company.”

Patric Bökemeyer – Vice President eCommerce & Operations

Solution: A Composable & Unified Platform For High Performance

Kapten & Son knew they needed a total overhaul of their digital commerce architecture. 

With SCAYLE’s headless composable platform, Kapten & Son could choose from a suite of out-of-the-box (OOTB) modules unified on one interface. Purpose-built for the SCAYLE platform, all modules were fully adjustable to meet the brand’s specific needs. With feature releases every two weeks, SCAYLE continuously introduced new innovations, delivering on the SaaS promise of constant improvement. 

To complement the setup, Kapten & Son integrated Actindo’s order management and operations systems – they slotted right into the stack using lightning-fast APIs.

The composable and unified architecture allowed the brand to move from a complex jumble of microservices to one feature-rich platform with integrations from one third-party provider. 

SCAYLE Features Chosen by Kapten & Son

Results: Super-Fast Onboarding and Backend Agility

Kapten & Son kicked off migration to SCAYLE at the end of April 2022. The store went live in October 2022 – just six months later. SCAYLE managed the project end to end with our own teams, building the frontend and integration middleware. And the lightning-fast rollout was just the start of Kapten & Son’s digital acceleration.

After the migration, the tech team had one unified setup – massively reducing complexity and speeding up innovation. This allowed them to focus resources on enhancing the frontend experience. The SCAYLE storefront made it easy to integrate new features from the backend, allowing for continuous cutting-edge development. 

This newfound agility enabled Kapten & Son to swiftly respond to market demands and trends, leading to a massive sales increase of 20% after onboarding with SCAYLE. And the platform’s cutting-edge features started to drive stronger results. For example, the SCAYLE Checkout increased conversions by 10%.

Kapten & Son simplified workloads and sped up processes because of SCAYLE’s unified and composable architecture. Read more about this unique architectural approach in our vision white paper: The Future of Digital Commerce Architecture Is Already Here.

Challenge 2. Providing Outstanding Customer Experiences

Kapten & Son’s complex and fragmented system, composed of multiple interfaces, made it difficult for their teams to quickly execute the frontend projects they wanted. They were unable to keep up with market trends or add engaging new customer experiences. 

Maintaining the complex backend system consumed resources to such an extent that Kapten & Son’s team were unable to focus on the shopping experience for their audience.

“We were unable to focus on customer experiences as we were always tied up by the backend”.

Patric Bökemeyer – Vice President eCommerce & Operations

Solution: A Strong Backend Enhancing Customer Experiences

With SCAYLE’s out-of-the-box modules, Kapten & Son’s commerce team could choose from a range of cutting-edge features to create outstanding customer experiences.

They were able to plug and play the features they wanted to test – enabling the brand to curate the perfect experience for their customers. 

From brand-new promotions features, like Buy X Get Y, to SCAYLE’s out-of-the-box Glasses Configurator, Kapten & Son’s team could flexibly tailor their frontend to wow customers.

“SCAYLE provides a scalable and trouble-free shop environment, so we can focus on our main goals – creating outstanding experiences for our customers.”

Patric Bökemeyer – Vice President eCommerce & Operations

Results: A Christmas Miracle – 32% Sales Increase vs. Previous Year

Freed from the constraints of their previous system, the commerce team could launch massive campaigns with exceptional results – fast. 

With SCAYLE’s Promotion Engine, the team executed the most successful Christmas campaign in the brand’s history.

Leveraging SCAYLE’s Buy X Get Y promotion feature, shoppers were encouraged to spend more to receive a free gift. This helped the brand increase average order size at the same time as unloading slower-selling stock. 

Key results included:

• +32% YoY sales
• 49% marketing quota improvement
• 45,000 promo items sold

And they didn’t stop there. Kapten & Son permanently upgraded their entire frontend online shopping experience. For example, the Glasses Configurator empowered customers to buy prescription eyewear online – something they’d usually need to go in-store for. Customers could choose to add the following adjustments to any frame:

• Prescription for each eye
• Blue light protection
• Glass thickness
• Scratch protection
• Tinted lenses for sunglasses

As customers could purchase and upgrade glasses from the comfort of their own home, the average order size (AOV) for eyewear increased by more than 25% – contributing to an overall AOV growth of 12%. This frontend upgrade meant Kapten & Son got happier customers and increased revenue – a real win-win!

Challenge 3. Ensuring Reliability During Peak Traffic

Peak sales periods are the backbone of every retailer’s success. If an online store can’t handle the traffic, it puts a brand’s profitability at risk.

During major marketing campaigns, Kapten & Son’s online store suffered from extremely low performance – and even had total outages. Every sales campaign became a high-risk project where teams were more focused on keeping the site online than capitalizing on the success.

“Our previous system just couldn’t handle the traffic. Every campaign became a high-risk project and we missed out on key sales.”

Patric Bökemeyer – Vice President eCommerce & Operations

Solution: Event-Driven Architecture With Unlimited Autoscaling

SCAYLE’s robust architecture was designed to handle massive API calls with low latency at high speed. Kapten & Son chose our platform as it offered unbeatable uptime with AWS-backed, cloud-native technology built for enterprise.

The event-driven architecture has unlimited autoscaling to handle extreme workloads. It provided flexible options based on Kapten & Son’s needs to improve responsiveness and overall performance.

Results: A Record-Breaking November – 22% Growth vs. Previous Year

From stress to success: After onboarding with SCAYLE, Kapten & Son got the rock-solid stability they needed during promotions – and that translated into big financial gains. 

SCAYLE’s stability was tested just four weeks after go-live with Kapten & Son’s “Bigger Than Black Week” campaign – a Black Friday-related promotion. 

During the sale, their online store processed more than 100 orders per minute with the order lead time reduced to less than three minutes from checkout to warehouse. Despite the massive traffic spike, the store achieved 100% uptime with zero emergency calls. 

This stability combined with their newly improved frontend, meant Kapten & Son achieved their highest Black Friday sales ever – boasting a massive 22% increase in sales vs. the previous year.

“There are no more sleepless nights when we’re running big campaigns. And we get better results thanks to the super-targeted, stackable, and hype-engaging campaigns that we run with SCAYLE’s Promotion Engine.”

Patric Bökemeyer – Vice President eCommerce & Operations

Overall Results

With SCAYLE, Kapten & Son are continuing to grow – pushing out ever-bigger campaigns and expanding their international presence. To date, the brand has achieved exceptional results with SCAYLE’s composable and unified architecture, including: 

• +12% average order value (AOV)
• +10% conversion rate
• +20% overall sales
• +22% Black Friday campaign sales YoY
• +32% Christmas campaign sales YoY
• 32 countries shipped to

Do you want a taste of Kapten & Son’s record-breaking success?

Contact us today to learn how you can SCAYLE your business.