How The Cambridge Satchel grew Black Friday sales

The Cambridge Satchel Company was founded in 2008. By 2013 turnover had reached ₤13 million and today the company sells to 100 countries, both online and in-store.

In 2014, the company was ready to take its omnichannel business global, and went live with us in October of the same year.

By partnering with us, The Cambridge Satchel Company was able to:

“Adyen went above and beyond our expectations to provide a seamless omnichannel solution, adding value throughout the process and working with us to improve our end solution.” - Jonny Wooldridge, CTO, The Cambridge Satchel Company

This partnership was also recognized by the 2015 Payments Awards and won 'Best Omnichannel Payments Solution'.

It was the second year running for us to win the same award following previous success in collaboration with UK menswear retailer Moss Bros. 

Read the full story of how The Cambridge Satchel Company increased their Black Friday sales by over 100%.

The Cambridge Satchel Company is a British business that produces handmade leather goods and satchels based on an original Oxford and Cambridge satchel design.

The company was founded in 2008, by Julie Deane OBE and her mother Freda Thomas.

By 2011, Cambridge Satchel was producing and distributing over 3,000 bags a week, to 86 countries worldwide.

In 2013 turnover reached ₤13 million and today The Cambridge Satchel Company sells to 100 countries, both online and in-store.

By 2014 The Cambridge Satchel Company was ready to start a global journey. They needed a solution that would allow them to scale internationally.

Their aim was to improve the user experience across all channels, including cross-channel returns.

The time had come for a digital transformation. And so, lead by a new CTO with over 15 years experience building multichannel systems to transform businesses, The Cambridge Satchel Company partnered with Adyen.

Things had to move fast. With two new stores opening in Glasgow and Edinburgh and Black Friday fast approaching, we had a 4-week window to complete a full integration. And, go live.

The Cambridge Satchel Company was out of time to procure more tills for their new stores. So, we introduced them to a cloud-based omnichannel commerce technology company.

We worked together to install endless aisle capabilities through a mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution in their pop-up shops and stores.

Customers were then able to order items no longer in stock or not sold in that store via in-store kiosks. Close collaboration made sure the company was set-up and ready to go just in time.

As a Salesforce Commerce Cloud partner, we were able to easily integrate a Commerce Cloud plugin. This saved a lot of time and money.

The whole project was a success and Black Friday sales increased by 124% that year.

“We had seriously strict deadlines. We needed a partner that we could rely on, and we were not disappointed. Adyen went above and beyond our expectations to provide a seamless omnichannel solution, adding value throughout the process and working with us to improve our end solution.” - Jonny Wooldridge, CTO, The Cambridge Satchel Company

Partnering with us enabled The Cambridge Satchel Company to effectively manage a seamless unified commerce solution across all channels (online, POS and mobile) from a single platform.

This gave them a 360-degree view of payment data, with a single customer record across multiple channels and territories.

We provide The Cambridge Satchel Company with a complete solution to accept payments in any major or emerging ecommerce market. This is through our global acquiring capabilities, and support of hundreds of local payment methods.

With local offices around the world, and a deep understanding of payment landscapes, we could effectively take The Cambridge Satchel company in to new markets.

The primary focus was China. And the company launched with a local website, supporting China UnionPay and major international credit cards.

Due to Alipay's high percentage of Chinese payments and growing share of the mcommerce market, it was the perfect time to offer this payment method.

In February 2015 The Cambridge Satchel company went live with Alipay.

With our direct connectivity to Alipay, the company benefits from an excellent integration for both online and mobile payments.

Transaction data collected a month following the Alipay launch showed that Alipay accounted for almost double the number of the transactions of all other payments methods combined. And within a 3 month period, authorization rates increased by 15% and checkout conversions by 5%.

“We are excited to be working together with Adyen who will continue to support The Cambridge Satchel Company’s international expansion. We are now discussing our options to expand into new markets and we are con dent that these will be rolled out successfully with Adyen.” - Jonny Wooldridge, CTO, The Cambridge Satchel Company

We were able to respond to The Cambridge Satchel Company’s growing needs quickly and efficiently.

With a single integration based on core in-house technology, we manage the company’s payment flow across multiple channels and payment methods.

We'll continue to grow with The Cambridge Satchel Company’s across channels and geographies.