The partnership between Skistar and Omniarch began in mid-2022, with Skistar seeking support to scale up e-commerce on Skistarshop. This effort focused heavily on UX improvements, alongside e-commerce optimization, and initiated the development of digital sales for their own brand, EQPE.

Early on, Skistar chose to follow Omniarch’s recommendation to pursue an international e-commerce initiative for the EQPE brand. The project began with a thorough analysis of the prerequisites for an independent e-commerce platform. The next steps involved determining the need for system support—whether to build a new platform or adapt and expand the existing tech stack (already powering Skistarshop).

The decision was ultimately made to prioritize quick delivery. In just three months, a new e-commerce site for EQPE was built, using Centra as the foundation, Voyado Elevate for search and merchandising, Turnr for returns management, Testfreaks for reviews, and integration with the existing WMS, Ongoing.

Omniarch’s role throughout this process was to act as project manager and requirements specifier, liaising with the web agency and other suppliers. The new e-commerce site, eqpestore.com, was launched in January 2023. Mia Kamlén, a senior consultant at Omniarch, commented on the high level of ambition from the start:

“One of the primary goals of having an independent e-commerce site for EQPE was to establish a presence in markets beyond Skistarshop’s existing ones. Therefore, we launched the site early in countries outside the Nordics, such as Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, and Italy.”

In May 2023, Omniarch was entrusted with an expanded role, taking over sales responsibility for eqpestore.com with the goal of significantly increasing sales for the new fiscal year 2023/2024. The results of this expanded responsibility were quick to materialize, with sales taking off after the summer due to a series of actions and the implementation of best practices for digital growth.

“We took over the sales responsibility for eqpestore.com with a requirement from Skistar not to build growth through discounts. So, what we did was perform profitability calculations for each market instead of just looking at the overall picture. We increased our local focus on business in Germany and Austria, ensured that marketing channels were aligned, and focused on building a customer database for important engagement between purchases. We also invested in SEO to increase organic traffic and sales with lower CAC,” said Mia Kamlén, Omniarch AB.

Throughout 2023, Omniarch continued to work closely with Skistar and partners to develop the site from a technical perspective, all with the aim of creating a world-class customer experience. A noteworthy aspect of this work was the introduction of a customer-adapted KPI framework to support data- and profitability-based decisions when the return rate proved high in Europe.

“EQPE has developed according to plan and beyond in 2023. Allowing the sub-brand spin-off idea to grow into a reality and enabling it with a multi-competent company like Omniarch has proven to be a sound business decision. Today (Q4, 2023), Skistar is well on its way to achieving the high growth targets for Eqpestore.com, and both Germany and Austria have now surpassed the home market of Sweden in revenue,” said Anders Aspgård, GM EQPE/Head of SkiStarshop, Skistar AB.