Solving the Eternally Damp Beach-Towel Problem

The idea for the Dock & Bay towels came from an all-too-common problem: you go on vacation taking one towel (if any), and you quickly end up with a wet and dirty mop of cotton. We’ve all been there.

One night, while experimenting with curtains and toilet paper, Andy and Ben found a solution: lightweight, absorbent, and quick-drying microfiber towels you could slip unnoticed into your luggage. Yes, it meant the end of that unwieldy bulk of cotton-made towels.

After agreeing on designs and material composition, Dock & Bay launched their towels on Amazon. The sales soon skyrocketed, and Dock & Bay were selling plenty of merchandise.

But for a company that wanted to establish itself as a globally recognized brand, the branding options on the popular marketplace were insufficient.

Dock & Bay needed to expand.

Entering the Dragons’ Den

Seeking funding for expansion and mentorship, Andy and Ben took part in the Dragons’ Den 2017 edition. 

Andy and Ben received a total of three offers. They decided to enter partnership with Deborah Meaden. The £75.000 investment went to Dock & Bay.

There was now only one thing left for the blooming company to do: become a widely recognizable brand with an international presence. But for that to happen, Dock & Bay needed to replace their existing online store, which couldn’t handle the brand’s fast-growing business requirements.

Docking at Polcode

When Andy and Ben reached out to Bartosz Tyborowski, our developer, he thoroughly analyzed their business needs and cross-checked them against capabilities of various ecommerce frameworks.

An in-depth consultation and analysis revealed that to meet their business expectations, Dock & Bay needed an advanced and custom ecommerce platform equipped with tailor-made features facilitating international purchases.

In addition, the new Dock & Bay’s store should:

• handle a greater number of products and support possible quick sales and turnover growth
• possess a wider variety of user-focused functions compared to the old store
• have one administration panel for managing 6 markets on 3 different continents
• include advanced marketing features  
• be in line with the latest UX design trends and requirements

Because Dock & Bay were targeting the global market, their new platform required integration with various internal finance and logistics systems as well as external sales portals. It was also important to ensure lossless data migration from the old store to the new platform.

The necessity for custom modules to accommodate all the requirements suggested Magento 2 as the optimum technology for the new Dock & Bay store.

Coding Away for Dock & Bay

Bartosz Tyborowski and Marcin Michalak, developers on Emilia Jabłońska’s team responsible for the project, took the challenge with enthusiasm and began working without further ado.

From creativity to experience to critical thinking and problem-solving, in complex projects like this one, developers have a chance to utilize the full spectrum of their skills. Such combination often sparks innovative solutions. With Dock & Bay it was no different—the team built a modern, functional, and effective e-commerce multistore with a global reach and plenty of UX-friendly features.

Here are just a few of the functionalities and custom made modules incorporated into the store:

• Custom single-page checkout facilitating purchase
• Automatic recognition of visitor’s country to suggest the fastest shipment and convenient payment options
• Currency recognition
• Advanced product search engine
• Full integration with external systems and portals
• High-quality product gallery
• Fixed mini-checkout bar at the bottom of every page for speed purchases
• Cross-device store accessibility

To read about all of the functionalities, visit our Dock & Bay project site.

Custom Ecommerce Solutions Offer Limitless Branding Options and Can Improve Customer Experience

The new Dock & Bay shop is in-tune with the brand’s image and vision—the design breathes the spirit of freedom, carefreeness, and travel.

From the point of web development, the webshop is full of features aimed at improving customer experience. Scalability and custom modules in Magento 2 guarantee that the store will meet the increasing demand for these innovative towels.

We hope the new store will help Dock & Bay steal the hearts of new customers from across the globe, just as they stole ours 🙂

Polcode is an international full-cycle software house with over 1,200 completed projects. Propelled by passion and ambition, we’ve coded for over 800 businesses across the globe. If you want to talk in detail about your IT project, contact us. We’ll be happy to help you get your idea off the ground.