Case Study — Accent Group / Platypus Shoes

Built for Momentum

Platypus Shoes was one of the first Australian retailers to embrace Magento 2.0. Years on, that early bet had grown into a maze of custom code. Here's how we worked with them to reset architecture — without stopping the business.

CLIENT

Platypus Shoes

GROUP

Accent Group

SECTOR

Retail/Footwear Ecomm

PLATFORMS

Adobe commerce,

Mulesoft, Apparel 21

↑ Conversion rate +31% ↑ Return visitors +50% ↑ Time on site +30% ↑ Average order value +14% ↑ Add-to-cart rate +68% ↑ Conversion rate +31% ↑ Return visitors +50% ↑ Time on site +30% ↑ Average order value +14% ↑ Add-to-cart rate +68%

The Situation

A site that outgrew its own architecture

In 2016, Platypus Shoes was one of the first Australian retailers to embrace Magento 2.0. Fast-forward, 'n' years and the original build had grown more bespoke than the business ever intended - years of custom work layered on top of custom work.

The brief was three things at once: reset the base architecture so upgrades stopped being a fight, lift the customer experience with better UX and smarter prompts at the right moment, and give the internal team tools that actually made their day easier.

Architected with scalability and reusability in mind; a site that needed to work harder for the business and the people running it.

What 6R focused on

1. Alignment across vendors

Every third party pulling in the same direction, on the same timeline.

2. Consistent communication

One clear line of truth across the project team and business.

3. Reduction of customisations

Less bespoke code to maintain, more platform doing the heavy lifting.

Problem to Solution

One project, many parts

Migrating a mature ecommerce site has a lot of moving parts. Here's where the pressure showed up — and how it was worked through.

Challenge - Complexity

Too many moving parts

Solution

Cross-functional & vendor working sessions, clear escalation

Every vendor partner became part of the migration strategy, not an afterthought.

  • Clear lines of communication and escalation across agency and vendor partners

  • Shared clarity on the customer-facing outcome and intent

  • A hard line between "critical now" and "could come later" features

Challenge - Middleware

A brand-new integration layer, with reusable APIs

Solution

Reusable APIs on a tier-1 middleware platform

Previous integrations were point-to-point. This was the first time working with this type of middleware — so the core got protected first.

  • Product, inventory and customer built into MuleSoft as the foundation, reducing the load on the ERP

  • Integration work pulled early in the timeline, not left to the end

  • Time built in to test throughput and measure capacity and speed

Challenge - Customer Experience

An early adopter's site had collected friction points

Solution

Fixing the path to purchase, not just the front end

Smart search was a non-negotiable "must have." Orders were failing in the integrations, creating a daily manual monitoring task for the business apps team.

  • Fewer customer calls needed for help placing orders

  • Fewer failed orders

  • Improved search and better stock availability visibility

Challenge - Employee Experience

Sale prep meant midnight take-downs

Solution

Scheduling, better data, a CMS that flexes

The win wasn't just customer-facing — it changed how the ecomm team's days ran.

  • Sale activity scheduled instead of manually triggered at odd hours

  • Sharper reporting accuracy from an improved data layer and tag management

  • A CMS content builder flexible enough to keep up with the business

The Results

Momentum you can measure

The numbers that showed up in the P&L in the first six months.

31%

Increase in conversion rate

50%

Increase in return visitors

30%

More time spent on site

14%

Increase in average order value

68%

Increase in add-to-cart rate

And behind the scenes: a streamlined merchandising process that's lifted overall team productivity, not just the storefront.

In their words

What the business gained

What did the business gain from the new website?

"With enhanced customer experience and operational excellence at the core of this project, we strategically defined the features and functionality that deliver a modern customer experience — while unlocking and elevating our back-office team's experience."

"The technology and innovation at the heart of this project form the foundations of our success, giving us scalability, flexibility and speed, while delivering excellence for our team through improved processes and ways of working."

Accent Group

Where did 6R add the most value?

"The 6R team have been key to the success of this project. With multiple vendors and stakeholders, 6R ensured clear communication and collaboration across all of them."

"Leonie empowered the team, driving accountability and discipline from discovery to delivery; continuously aligning us to the goal and long-term vision, and keeping the project moving through covid, conflict, and everything in between."

Accent Group

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