When Scott and Missy Tannen learned about the unethical and polluting practices in the home-textiles industry, they saw an opportunity to make better sheets by making a better company. In response, the Tannens launched Boll & Branch in 2014, the first fair trade home textiles brand that met strict standards for labor practices and sustainability. Thanks to their relentless obsession to detail and commitment to directly sourcing top-end raw materials, Boll & Branch is now one of the most beloved bedding brands on the planet.
Their daring approach to production paid dividends quickly. In its first three years, Boll & Branch achieved more than $27 million in annual revenue. As the business grew, so too did the challenges it faced with its technology stack, which grew into a complex behemoth that couldn’t keep pace with customer expectations or handle bursts of traffic during high-visibility events. Boll & Branch also sought to increase its return on ad spend (ROAS) with ad experiences that were equal parts authentic and consistent with their brand.
To solve these challenges, Boll & Branch switched from its custom headless stack to Shopify.
Since migrating to Shopify, Boll & Branch has achieved:
- Faster load times, leading to a more seamless shopping experience.
- A more connected back end system that streamlines its complex business processes.
- Annual revenue exceeds $100 million; over a 4x increase prior to ERP integration
- A 12% increase in ROAS with Shop Campaigns, which contributed to over $800,000 in sales.
Boll & Branch chooses Hydrogen and Oxygen for faster load times and peak-traffic stability
The challenge: Transitioning from a complex headless stack
Before moving to Shopify, Boll & Branch faced several challenges with their existing ecommerce platform. Their previous setup, which relied on a custom headless stack using Vue.js, introduced significant complexity and hindered performance. Jay Chinthrajah, VP of Engineering at Boll & Branch says that each iteration of its customizations produced “slower and jankier” customer experiences.
Every custom solution ended up requiring a combination of pulling data from various sources and crafting an API for us to consume.
This complexity made it difficult to implement changes quickly and effectively, prompting the team to consider a more efficient platform.
The solution: Leveraging Shopify’s more user-friendly and performant headless toolkit
Boll & Branch chose to migrate to Shopify’s headless commerce toolkit, which includes Hydrogen and Oxygen, to streamline their ecommerce operations and enhance site performance. The decision was driven by the need for a more robust and scalable solution that could support their growing business. Jay adds, “Site reliability and stability is critical for our organization and Shopify has a whole team dedicated to that.”
Boll & Branch partnered with FormFactory, which provided expertise and support throughout the migration process. “We worked with them to answer critical questions around how we should pull collection data out of Shopify and which CMS we should use, which was key in allowing our team to build seamless experiences with Shopify’s capabilities.”
Through this transition, Boll & Branch also moved from Contentful to Sanity as their content management system, further optimizing their data management. This collaborative effort ensured that every detail was planned thoroughly, allowing for a smoother implementation process.
The result: Enhanced performance and customer satisfaction
After migrating to Shopify, Boll & Branch experienced significant improvements in their ecommerce performance. The transition led to faster load times, improved conversion rates, and a more stable site, particularly during high-traffic periods such as Black Friday.
We really wanted to have our best foot forward during Black Friday, and that was why we wanted to be on Shopify’s infrastructure as quickly as possible. We wanted this thing to be live and stable, and we felt Shopify would allow us to sleep comfortably at night.
Jay says that migrating to Shopify has positioned Boll & Branch for continued growth and success. He adds that while any migration can be a daunting task, Shopify’s commitment to innovating its infrastructure on their behalf gives everyone at Boll & Branch the confidence it needs to pursue aggressive business goals now and years in the future.
Now that we’re on Shopify, we don't have to worry about how our data scales on that sort of infrastructure. We sleep better at night because Shopify has to worry about this.
A more unified back end helps Boll & Branch achieve a 430% increase in revenue
At Boll & Branch, sustainability isn't just a marketing camapaign—it's a hard business constraint. The company's unwavering commitment to transparency and ethical practices eliminates shortcuts that competitors use to drive down supplier costs.
The challenge: Building back end operations to support an increasingly complex business
When David Reid stepped in as COO and CFO in 2016, Boll & Branch had outgrown its single Shopify store and warehouse, transforming into a complex ecommerce ecosystem with branded storefronts and retail partnerships. Reid's mandate upon joining was brutally clear: maintain profit margins while scaling the business through new product lines and sales channels—without compromising the ethical standards that defined the brand.
Boll & Branch implemented NetSuite as their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to manage operations. This solved one problem, but exposed another. Boll & Branch discovered that an ERP alone couldn't deliver what the seamless ecosystem the company needed, where actions in one system automatically triggered appropriate responses everywhere else.
The solution: A more comprehensive ERP integration on Shopify
In partnership with the Diff Agency, Boll & Branch built a comprehensive ERP integration that orchestrates complex processes across Boll & Branch's entire operation, from order sources to supply networks, eliminating the manual intervention that typically hinders growth. Together, they built a suite of interconnected tools that eliminated several toilsome manual processes.
Today, customer service representatives manage orders and process refunds through a purpose-built panel that provides complete visibility into the customer journey. The system automatically flags potentially fraudulent orders for human review, preventing losses without creating unnecessary friction for legitimate customers.
Boll & Branch also built an intelligent routing system that automatically determines the optimal fulfillment path for each order. Mattresses that require white-glove delivery go through its ZIP code mapping workflow, which routes production to the factory closest to the delivery address. To support the company’s retail partnerships, Diff implemented virtual warehousing capabilities that allocate inventory specifically for these channels, ensuring Boll & Branch can meet its wholesale commitments without compromising direct consumer availability.
"We built in override capabilities throughout the system," David tells us. "Automation handles 99% of processes, but we recognize that human intervention is sometimes necessary. The platform makes these exceptions easy to manage without disrupting the overall workflow."
The results: A more seamless customer experience that drives exponential revenue growth
The work Boll & Branch did to improve its back end operations on Shopify has also made a big impact on the customer experience.
When customers visit Boll & Branch’s online store today, they get visibility into real-time inventory levels, ensuring they never order out-of-stock items. The revamped checkout process handles remarkable complexity without burdening the customer. A single transaction might include sheets from a Boston warehouse, rugs from another location, and a mattress that hasn't even been manufactured yet—all delivered through different shipping methods with varying timelines.
Boll & Branch’s ERP integration on Shopify has also unlocked modern customer experiences such as location-based shipping options that automatically select the lowest-cost carrier, comprehensive order tracking with real-time updates, and even personalized gift cards—physical cards with handwritten notes or instant digital options for last-minute shoppers.
With a stronger technical foundation in place on Shopify, Boll & Branch has grown its annual revenue to exceed $100 million—a remarkable 430% increase that further cements it as the largest direct-to-consumer bedding brand globally.
With operations running so smoothly on Shopify, we can focus on big strategic initiatives that impact the bottom line and set us up for long-term success instead of fighting daily operational fires.
Shop Campaigns: how Boll & Branch drove $800K in sales with a 12% ROAS lift
The challenge: Finding new, cost-effective customer acquisition channels
Boll & Branch’s commitment to ethical production practices and premium quality bedding creates a fundamental tension in their acquisition strategy.
"Our goal is to acquire customers at the most efficient cost possible while still maintaining a strong average order value," explains Leanne Barbarito, Senior Associate of Acquisition at Boll & Branch. "The challenge is finding channels that can deliver both."
Most acquisition channels force a trade-off: lower customer acquisition costs typically mean lower-quality customers with smaller basket sizes. Higher-quality customers often come with prohibitively expensive acquisition costs. This tension becomes particularly acute during high-traffic periods like Black Friday, when competition for attention drives up advertising costs across platforms.
The solution: Connecting with new customers through more flexible campaigns on Shopify
Boll & Branch initially approached Shop Campaigns as an experiment, but it wasn’t long before it became a critical customer acquisition channel for the business.
"We saw promising results almost immediately," Barbarito notes. "But what really convinced us to invest more was the control it gave us over our acquisition economics."
Rather than accepting the typical trade-offs between acquisition cost and customer quality, the team found they could optimize for both simultaneously. They methodically tested different customer acquisition cost (CAC) and return on ad spend (ROAS) targets until they identified the optimal campaign structure for their business model.
Shop Campaigns allowed Boll & Branch to build a flexible system that could adapt to changing business needs. During high-volume periods, they increased budgets to capture additional demand without sacrificing efficiency. When they needed to prioritize profitability, they could adjust targets accordingly.
The ability to control our customer acquisition cost while maintaining strong average order values is what makes Shop Campaigns different. We've finally found a channel that doesn't force us to compromise.
The results: an almost immediate improvement in ROAS and attributed sales
The team's willingness to experiment extended beyond campaign parameters. When Shop introduced the ability to extend campaigns to external channels, Boll & Branch was quick to test the feature.
The results were immediate and significant: a 12% increase in ROAS and a noticeable acceleration in sales velocity.
"We definitely saw an uptick in purchase volume and budget utilization since more eyes were on our channel," Leanne explains. "The external extension essentially amplified everything that was already working."
What makes this particularly remarkable is the minimal effort required from Leanne and her team. On average, Leanne reports it takes just two minutes to set up a new campaign, which allows everyone to focus more on strategy rather than execution.
Ultimately, Shop Campaigns has contributed over $800,000 in sales for Boll & Branch in less than a year. More importantly, it's done so while maintaining the acquisition efficiency and customer quality the brand requires.
Shop Campaigns quickly evolved from an experimental channel to a permanent fixture in our acquisition strategy. It's now a direct contributor to our revenue goals and a key component of Boll & Branch’s wider growth plan.
Sustaining exponential growth today and in the future
After migrating to Shopify, Boll & Branch has proven that ethical business practices and operational excellence aren't competing priorities, but complementary forces that drive sustainable growth. Their technology stack—from Hydrogen and Oxygen to their custom ERP integration and Shop Campaigns—forms an interconnected ecosystem that enables them to focus on creating exceptional products through ethical means.
