Tangle Teezer, a multi-award winning, iconic, hair brush that started as an idea in a hair salon, and has since sold over 80 million units across 75 countries. From celebrities and hairstylists, to loyal customers, Tangle Teezer has become a staple in everyday life, while often being described as ‘life changing’. 

Considered a lifestyle brand, Tangle Teezer has made a name for itself through its innovative, patented two-tiered teeth technology, revolutionising the hairbrush. By expanding its range of products further than its flagship product, by introducing blow-drying and styling brushes, as well as a selection of detangling sprays, Tangle Teezer has become more ingrained in the consumers’ lifestyle, becoming an effective solution to managing all aspects of hair styling. 

By leveraging its social platforms to engage with its customers, often sharing tutorials, tips and tricks, and before and after content of the products being used, Tangle Teezer connects with its customers in a personable way, long after the purchase is made. 

Tangle Teezer’s website (Tangleteezer.com) currently represents only 1% of all business, with main UK competitors being LOOKFANTASTIC and Amazon. One of the key objectives of the migration from Shopware 5 to Shopify Plus was to establish a flagship store on the website, with every detail in place reflecting the Tangle Teezer brand.

Tangle Teezer had a very clear vision of needing to replatform as soon as possible, due to Shopware 5 becoming obsolete, as well as a range of difficulties such as:

• High development costs 
• Slow roll outs with limited developer support 
• Fewer integrations for third party plugins across several areas
• A poor checkout experience with limited payment methods 
• Lacking user friendliness with poor analytics and product and content management

The limitations with its current platform have impacted Tangle Teezer’s website’s competitiveness, user experience and conversion rates. 

After extensive research, Tangle Teezer decided to replatform to Shopify Plus, in search of a more efficient, cost effective and user-friendly solution, while integrating seamlessly with the current and future systems. 

Shopify Plus offered a solution to the difficulties faced by Tangle Teezer, through: 

• Theme customisation as well as greater control of the backend development 
• Checkout customisation with extensive options for the checkout process, including shipping methods, customer fields, payment methods and more
• Integrations with third party apps, alongside the possibility of integrating the brand's own apps, if the opportunity arises
• Up to 35% higher conversion rate over alternative platforms 

Once the challenges of Shopware 5 had been discovered and the solution was to replatform with Shopify Plus, the goal was to make the dream come true with Velstar, through design, front and backend development and SEO.

Given Tangle Teezer’s iconic status, it was important for the new website to reflect that, while addressing the brand’s concerns with its previous platform.

Our task was to create a website that not only resonated deeply with Tangle Teezer’s existing and future audience but also strengthened the brand's presence. This involved imbuing every page, element, and message with our brand's identity, ensuring a cohesive and impactful user experience from beginning to end.

Additionally, the new design aimed to

• Create an environment for customers to establish a trusted and emotional connection
• Align with its goal to continue marketing products that customers eagerly anticipate purchasing, share with their friends, thus expanding the network of loyal customers.
• Create a seamless user experience
• Enhance its messaging around sustainability
• House engaging and educational content

With all the above in mind, Tangle Teezer will naturally attract repeat, loyal customers, who are happy to spread the word of their product and purchase experience, ultimately growing the brand and revenue. 

Migration of backend 

From a backend perspective, the three major hurdles that were encountered as part of the migration process were product data, verifying products via QR codes and integrating Microsoft NAV. 

Migrating products from a simple platform into Shopify, we carefully structured product data to utilise variants, tags, metafields and metaobjects. To allow a customer to verify the authenticity of their Tangle Teezer product, a custom page was built which upon scanning the QR code displayed on their package, would confirm the product was indeed genuine (or not!). Finally, we worked with our friends at HighCohesion who were able to provide an integration between Shopify & Microsoft NAV.

SEO

As the website was migrating to Shopify, it was essential for SEO to be involved throughout the process. This was mandatory to ensure the site's visibility and performance were both carried over from the old site to the new. The key tasks were to map and implement the redirects from the old site to the new site, conduct thorough technical SEO audits and fixes and ensure the new website was optimised as best as possible for its desired key terms.

Following the complete redesign and platform migration, supported by Heur, Multiple Award-winning Fractional Ecommerce Agency, Tangle Teezer’s fresh new storefront was launched in March 2024. In addition to strategy and stewardship, Heur brought a depth of knowledge and expertise to the table to act as ‘the voice of the customer’ for Tangle Teezer, both keeping their internal teams on track and aligned with deliverables to support site migration as well as providing a layer of real world translation and facilitation between technical and non-technical stakeholders.

By embodying the brand’s values and interests through the messaging, imagery and general narrative of the website, Tangle Teezer is able to showcase its lifestyle, reinforcing its identity. With its content and imagery being lifestyle-focused, it resonates with consumers on a more personal level, increasing brand loyalty and building long-term customer relationships. 

Relocating to Shopify has given Tangle Teezer the building blocks needed to design a flagship store where every detail is in place to reflect the brand’s identity, while engaging and meeting all the customers’ needs. 

In addition to creating the store and website of dreams, we have been able to integrate a range of third party apps including: 

• Yotpo, for product reviews and collecting user generated content (UGC) to manage the customer experience
• Ometria, for automating email marketing
• Avalara, to provide real-time tax rates from more than 12,000 tax jurisdictions
• Octane, for customers to answer quizzes to find the best product for their needs
• HighCohesion, for Microsoft NAV integration

We look forward to seeing the results of the brand refresh in the coming months as Tangle Teezers continues to dominate the detangling space and provide over 75 countries with its must-have products.