What makes a race car so fast? The first things that come to mind might be the engine block, pistons, wheels, and tires. But what about the exhaust system?
In 1962, George "Papa Kook” Kryssing used a gas torch to build some custom headers for his family race car. Kooks Headers & Exhaust was born out of this project—building precision-built exhaust components that make cars faster by improving engine efficiency through better exhaust flow. From humble beginnings, the family business grew into a precision-parts manufacturing powerhouse, supplying custom headers and exhaust systems to speed fanatics in everything from drag racing and NASCAR to offshore boats, cheering along as their customers notched up win after win.
Then came a bump in the road. Ecommerce was taking off, and Kooks was limited by one key component of the business that was not built for high performance: their website. Despite their engineering prowess, Kooks' digital presence lagged behind their manufacturing process in terms of speed, efficiency, and the customer experience. Their custom-built site had limited product search, poor performance metrics, and no way to serve wholesale online. To overcome this friction and build a digital experience worthy of their high-performing brand, Kooks partnered with Uncap, a Shopify Platinum Partner specializing in B2B and unified commerce for manufacturers and industrial brands.
Since implementing Shopify with Uncap, Kooks Headers & Exhaust has achieved:
- A 22% increase in conversion rate
- 38% reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO)
- A significant boost in average order value (AOV)
- A streamlined B2B ordering process for wholesale customers
- Real-time inventory visibility via seamless integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP)
The challenge: Not all custom builds are built for speed
Kooks Headers & Exhaust built their reputation on engineering precision products that made fast vehicles faster. But as the business grew, the brand’s custom-built website had become a drag on their forward momentum, its rigid piecemeal assembly preventing the team from responding quickly to emerging opportunities and evolving customer needs. Ironically, the website was in need of the very thing their exhaust parts provided customers: the speed and efficiency that come from the right parts in the right places.
Before switching to Shopify, our old website held us back—we lacked analytics, marketing tools, B2B capabilities, had no live inventory or search functionality, and were stuck with a platform that was restrictive and hard to scale
For a manufacturer of high-performance automotive components, product fitment is a critical requirement. As more customers took their shopping online, Kooks’ ecommerce site needed to be able to quickly show customers the parts that would precisely fit their vehicle's year, make, and model (YMM). The existing site’s limited capabilities to search and filter products by vehicle specifications led to confused customers, increased support calls, and more delays. Needless to say, customers looking to shave a fraction of a second off their race time aren’t thrilled when a crucial step in their preparation is stalled by days or longer.
The absence of B2B functionality created additional friction, but on a larger scale. Wholesale customers and dealers had no self-service options, forcing Kooks' sales team to process orders manually—and that’s after going back and forth responding to buyer questions that could be answered easily on a well-architectured website with navigable data. Even worse, without ERP integration, inventory information was hit-or-miss, leading to backorders, cancellations, and disappointed customers. Meanwhile, the marketing team struggled to build effective campaigns due to a lack of insightful analytics to help them learn what their customers were looking for.
As an industrial manufacturer with highly specialized products, multiple sales channels, and customers with very specific needs, Kooks needed a partner who understood the complexities of their business, and knew how to take advantage of Shopify's built-in ability to eliminate inefficiencies and open up the flow of data—and revenue—for manufacturing businesses. They selected Uncap for their deep expertise in B2B commerce, their transparent approach to project scoping, and their experience integrating Shopify with key manufacturing systems like ERP and product information management (PIM) tools.
The solution: Operate like a well-built engine, not a collection of parts
Uncap approached Kooks' replatforming as an opportunity to build them a dynamic ecommerce machine, not just fix their website. They addressed the immediate pain points while building a durable infrastructure with the flexibility to scale and adapt with a fast-moving company in an ever-changing industry.
The core of Uncap’s solution was a unified B2C/B2B engine built to serve both direct consumers and wholesale customers a fast and satisfying shopping experience through a single Shopify platform. Combining data from previously siloed channels into a single source of truth increased operational efficiencies and closed the communication gaps that could otherwise lead to inaccurate inventory counts and canceled sales. For wholesale buyers, the implementation included custom company portals with accurate negotiated pricing, streamlined reordering, and intuitive account management features—all accessible through a 24/7 self-service interface.
Uncap paid special attention to product discovery, integrating Kooks’ vehicle fitment system with the specialized PIM platform PDM Automotive, allowing retail and B2B customers to easily filter Kooks' extensive product catalog by year, make, model, and engine specifications. And since great product discovery doesn’t work if it offers customers products that aren’t available, Uncap created a custom integration between Shopify and Kooks' Infor Visual ERP system for real-time inventory visibility, automated order synchronization, and streamlined fulfillment processes, eliminating costly mistakes and hours of staff time previously spent on reconciliation.
To ensure Kooks’ new business engine was a pleasant ride for customers, Uncap implemented a complete overhaul of the user experience, optimized for desktop and mobile. The shiny new “exterior” amplified Kooks' brand identity while improving site speed, navigation, and conversion paths. These upgrades amped up Core Web Vitals and mobile performance—critical factors for search ranking and user engagement in the automotive aftermarket sector.
We helped Kooks design a modern tech stack that accelerated their GTM strategy, leveraging unified commerce and emerging technologies while reducing their TCO by over 38%
The results: An efficient ecommerce engine drives win after win
Kooks' migration to Shopify delivered major improvements across both customer-facing metrics and internal KPIs. The first big win was a 22% increase in conversion rate—clear evidence that the smooth user experience, powerful product discovery, and lightning-fast mobile performance made it easier for customers to cross that finish line and click “Buy.”
The unified commerce engine transformed how Kooks operates. With less time spent fielding phone calls from confused customers and manually processing wholesale orders, the sales team can focus on building relationships and developing new business opportunities. The integrated ERP offers real-time inventory accuracy that reduces the workload of order management, while the marketing team has a powerful new set of tools at their fingertips thanks to the robust analytics built into the Shopify platform and ecosystem.
Transitioning to Shopify has given us the functionality we needed to scale—real-time inventory, integrated analytics, and B2B capabilities that streamline operations. It's freeing up our account managers to spend more time prospecting and helping us grow not only Kooks Headers & Exhaust, but also the performance manufacturing side of the business
Kooks keeps making parts that make engines run more efficiently—and now their commerce engine does too. Even with all of the powerful new capabilities it provides, their new platform runs with a 38% lower TCO. And with their powerful ecommerce engine humming along on Shopify, Kooks and Uncap continue their winning partnership through ongoing managed services and support—ensuring the platform evolves alongside the dynamic business that Papa Kook started with a gas torch and a spark of inspiration over 60 years ago.