Case Study

Schwalbe Tires is a German manufacturer of bicycle and wheelchair tires. Founded back in 1922, Schwalbe is best known for commuting, touring and utility tires and sells its products around the world. Schwalbe Tires North America is located in Victoria, BC and represents Schwalbe in the USA and Canada, with sales of tires through bike store dealers as well as direct sales via e-commerce.

The Challenge

In 2016, Schwalbe North America approached Caorda looking for website support for its existing Drupal 6 website. The design was out-of-date and required a re-theming to bring the look-and-feel current to match the worldwide corporate Schwalbe website. Schwalbe was also looking for a web firm that they could trust to become their go-to technology and marketing partner. Utilizing the Drupal 6 platform, Caorda implemented the updated design and re-launched the existing website. This fresh new look helped Schwalbe maintain its presence in the market with a visually modern website.

The Solution

A Complex Foundation Upgrade

In January 2017, Caorda upgraded and rebuilt the backend of the website using Drupal 7, as the existing Drupal 6 website had reached end-of-life status.  The new Drupal 7 backend maintained all existing functionality including e-commerce store using Ubercart, payments integration with Authorize.net, customer accounts and order history, Schwalbe Points Program and Business Works accounting integration. 

In 2019, Caorda assisted Schwalbe with the implementation of its increased marketing services by utilizing the Mailchimp email platform. Schwalbe had been using a built-in Drupal email module, however, migrating to Mailchimp offered advanced newsletter presentation and an easier on-site sign-up method.

Caorda provides ongoing support to Schwalbe with Drupal security updates as part of a monthly maintenance program to ensure security patches are applied on a timely basis. This peace-of-mind service allows Schwalbe to focus on their tire business and taking care of their customers, while Caorda ensures their back-end systems are safe and secure.

A Website Design Update

 In October 2018, Caorda implemented a new visual design to ensure the site continued brand consistency with Schwalbe’s corporate worldwide website.

The Schwalbe Tires North American website is a separate entity from the European, corporate website but they share all of the branding, marketing assets and look and feel. So, when the corporate website went through a restructuring and design exercise, it was up to Caorda to mirror these new layouts and marketing materials into the Schwalbe Tires NA website.

Given our experience with the Drupal CMS update, our team was able to migrate the design with efficiency and confidence.

Custom Application Development

Schwalbe is one of the most trusted names in the bike market and their retail bike dealership network is an important partner channel. To assist these unique groups of customers, Caorda developed and implemented a ‘quick parts ordering’ feature that allows dealers to enter specific part numbers and build custom orders. This new method of product ordering dramatically reduced the order request time for the busy dealers. The positive feedback Schwalbe received was tremendous. 

When the global pandemic hit in 2020, Caorda was ready to support Schwalbe as its online sales began to grow. The eCommerce foundation that had been built into the website was now being leveraged by customers worldwide from the safety of their homes. The ease of online ordering for tires, tubes and accessories allowed customers to place orders and enabled Schwalbe to withstand the impact of the global disruption from COVID-19.

Google Analytics eCommerce & Conversion Tracking

With the significant shift in how shoppers have had to change how they purchase goods, Schwalbe saw a significant increase in their eCommerce market share. With that, the company needed to learn how their customers arrived at their website and converted.

Caorda’s digital marketing team set to enabling and configuring eCommerce tracking through the website with custom code used to capture purchase data and integrating the revenue into Google Analytics reports. The sales team at Schwalbe can now run reports with accurate revenue data that they can match up to traffic channels such as organic traffic or paid traffic in order to prioritize offline marketing efforts.