Wheresaintsgo.co.uk: How We Scaled Client’s Magento Furniture Store

With technical expertise, transparent communication, and a proactive approach, MageCloud helped Where Saints Go turn their site into a scalable Magento furniture store, overcoming critical challenges and driving growth in a competitive market.

WEBSITE

wheresaintsgo.co.uk

INDUSTRY

Furniture

TEAM

Project Manager, Magento Developer

TRAFFIC

40K Monthly Visits

KEY SERVICES & INTEGRATIONS

Magento 2, Klaviyo

Why Where Saints Go Trusts MageCloud

Play Video

See how MageCloud helped Where Saints Go achieve 30% growth by stabilizing their Magento furniture store, improving site performance, and implementing custom features like trade accounts and a streamlined checkout. Through transparency, technical expertise, and a collaborative approach, MageCloud provided Where Saints Go with a scalable foundation for continued success in the competitive furniture market.

Mark Wilman

Co-Founder

Where Saints Go

Katrina Ellerton

Ecommerce Manager

Where Saints Go

About the client: Where Saints Go

Where Saints Go is a UK-based furniture company led by founders Mark and Tracy, who bring together unique strengths to create a distinctive brand. Mark has a deep personal history in the furniture and interior industry, with a family background in various aspects of interior design.

Tracy, with her eye for fashion, trends, and design, complements Mark’s expertise, making them a powerful team. Together, they have built a company known for sourcing unique furniture items, well beyond mainstream chairs and stools.

In the early days, the company quickly gained traction by aligning with the popularity of industrial design in the UK, which helped establish their first major successes. Their business model encouraged customers not just to buy single items but to mix and match multiple chairs and stools.

Like many new businesses, they faced challenges in the initial years, but the COVID-19 lockdown provided an unexpected boost. With more people at home, there was a massive interest in home improvement, and Where Saints Go saw a surge in traffic, sales, and popularity.

However, this growth came with challenges: stock became difficult to source as supply chains prioritized PPE, and they struggled to bring in new products without the ability to attend exhibitions. It was at this critical time that Katrina, Ecommerce Manager, joined the team to help guide the business forward.

The Challenge.

When Katrina joined, the website was treated as secondary, something nice to have but not central to their operations. Instead, the company relied heavily on marketplaces and other revenue streams.

This soon became unsustainable as they realized the importance of a reliable, customer-friendly online platform. However, the transition was not smooth. The website was plagued with issues, often going offline for days and costing the business thousands of pounds.

Their then-partner was in a different time zone, which resulted in delayed communication and quick-fix solutions that left the site unstable: any issues occurring later in the day couldn’t be addressed until the next morning.

Their solutions often felt like “band-aids” rather than permanent fixes—if there was a burst pipe, they’d cover it with a plaster rather than replace it. This made the site incredibly fragile; any attempt to fix one problem could cause another to break.

To make matters worse, during COVID, security vulnerabilities were exposed when their developers opened all ports to the website, leaving it open to potential attacks.

Technical issues, frequent downtimes, and security risks became recurring problems, costing the business thousands in lost revenue and eroding customer trust.

Additionally, their website had to adapt to new requirements—B2B trade accounts, a smoother checkout experience, and design improvements to stay competitive. The need for a stable, transparent, and collaborative technical partner became clear.

A brief attempt of Where Saint Go to work with a Manchester-based developer also proved ineffective, leading them to search for Magento specialists.

A Google search led them to MageCloud.

Why the client chose us.

We looked at many agencies before deciding on MageCloud, but after speaking with Paul, we realised that their expertise was exactly what we needed. We liked everything we heard, and we've never looked back. The service has been great, and we're very happy with what MageCloud has offered.

Mark Willman

CO-FOUNDER, WHERE SAINTS GO

From the initial consultation, it was evident that MageCloud team understood Where Saints Go’s needs and shared a practical approach to problem-solving.

While other agencies recommended a full site rebuild, the MageCloud team offered an alternative: a step-by-step approach that would address each issue as it arose, allowing for continuous improvement without a full overhaul.

This gradual improvement approach was highly appealing to Where Saints Go, as it allowed them to stabilize and enhance their site incrementally, keeping it fully operational while avoiding the expense and disruption of a complete redesign.

The first tasks MageCloud undertook were to stabilize the website and keep it running reliably.

Solution.

MageCloud has solved many problems for us, but the main one was stability. Our website used to go down, and we were losing business. Since MageCloud got involved, we haven’t had any downtime.

Mark Willman

CO-FOUNDER, WHERE SAINTS GO

After stabilizing the site, MageCloud implemented several key features that greatly improved Where Saints Go’s online experience:

Implementing Core Improvements:

One of MageCloud’s first steps was to establish proper infrastructure that Where Saints Go had previously lacked.

We introduced tools like GitHub and Bitbucket to track changes, set up a dedicated staging environment, and ensured that updates went through rigorous testing before going live.

This marked a major shift in workflow: instead of reacting to problems on the live site, the team could proactively address potential issues.

This upgrade resolved long-standing PCI compliance issues, improving payment security.

In addition to stabilizing the site, MageCloud implemented new core functionalities.

Third-Party Integrations:

MageCloud handled several important third-party integrations, including an ERP system, which streamlined inventory and order management.

In early 2022, MageCloud addressed the challenge of registering users as trade accounts, which had previously been a complicated process. The enhanced trade account functionality enabled B2B users to register and shop more easily.

Introducing a dedicated B2B trade account systemallowed Where Saints Go to capture an important segment, which accounts for approximately 12% of revenue.
The new B2B capabilities not only increased sales but also allowed the team to manage trade customers more effectively.

Each of these integrations added incremental value, and together, they have made a substantial impact on Where Saints Go’s bottom line.

New Features and Redesign:

With stability achieved, MageCloud and Where Saints Go began focusing on enhancing user experience. MageCloud redesigned the site’s user interface, creating a cleaner and more modern look that aligned with Where Saints Go’s brand.

A custom checkout process was also developed to replace the old, glitch-prone version. This new checkout significantly reduced friction in the purchasing process, resulting in fewer abandoned carts and a smoother customer experience overall.

In addition to the checkout improvements, MageCloud created a new product page layout that presented items more effectively.

Combined with other minor design updates, gave the site a polished and cohesive look, strengthening the brand’s competitive position.

Results.

Since partnering with MageCloud, Where Saints Go has seen impressive growth.

The site’s stability and new checkout process contributed to a 30% year-over-year increase in revenue.
Unlike in the past, the website no longer experiences significant downtime, allowing the business to operate without disruption.

In November 2023, Where Saints Go achieved record-breaking traffic and sales numbers without any technical issues—a notable achievement given the site’s previous instability.

Katrina highlights that this growth has come from consistent month-over-month increases rather than seasonal spikes, indicating a sustainable upward trend. The confidence in the website’s performance has allowed Where Saints Go to expand their digital marketing efforts, further contributing to their growth.

Why Where Saints Go team recommends MageCloud

Where Saints Go praises MageCloud for transparency, responsiveness, and proactive approach.

Unlike previous developers who withheld access to crucial systems, MageCloud ensured that the Where Saints Go team retained full control over their website. By providing tools like GitHub and staging environments, MageCloud ensured complete visibility into the development process, fostering a strong sense of partnership and trust.

MageCloud’s responsiveness has been another standout quality—the Project Manager, the primary point of contact, typically responds within minutes, allowing for quick issue resolution. This high level of communication is rare and has proven invaluable, especially when site issues could otherwise lead to immediate revenue loss.

When we come to MageCloud with a challenge, we don’t have to provide a complete solution—they collaborate with us. We present the challenge, and they help us explore options.

They never say, “No, you can’t do that.” Instead, they offer solutions, such as “You could do it this way,” or “We could try a custom development solution.” They come back with ideas and multiple options.

This proactive approach and collaborative mindset are qualities that set MageCloud apart from other agencies.

Katrina Ellerton

ECOMMERCE MANAGER, WHERE SAINTS GO

MageCloud also brings a refreshing “can-do” attitude to problem-solving. While previous agencies often dismissed new ideas, MageCloud is open to exploring innovative solutions. When Where Saints Go encounters a challenge, MageCloud doesn’t respond with limitations; instead, we propose practical, actionable options.

This collaborative, solution-oriented mindset has enabled Where Saints Go to implement features and functionalities that previously seemed out of reach, unlocking new opportunities for growth and differentiation.