Background & Challenge
Thomas Cook Boot & Clothing Co. is a heritage Australian apparel brand with a twist – it operates eight distinct brand websites under a larger family of labels (including Hard Slog, Pure Western, Wrangler Western, and more). Their customers often browse across multiple brand sites for boots, clothing, and accessories.
Thomas Cook faced a major pain point: if a shopper added an item to their cart on one site, then visited another of the sister brand sites, their cart would not carry over. This siloed experience was frustrating users and causing lost sales, as no existing e-commerce solution easily enabled a shared cart across multiple domains. Multiple developers had tried to solve this cross-site shopping cart challenge and failed.
Solution
Programmable Soda engineered an innovative unified cart system that links all eight brand websites into one seamless shopping ecosystem. Using clever web development (and a bit of technical wizardry), we created a solution where a customer’s shopping cart “follows” them across all the Thomas Cook family sites. For example, a shopper can add a pair of boots from Thomas Cook, then click over to the Pure Western site and add a shirt – all in one combined cart, without losing any items. Behind the scenes, the system keeps track of the user’s session and cart contents securely as they navigate between the different brand domains, something no off-the-shelf platform could handle out of the box
Key Features & Benefits
-
•
Seamless Multi-Brand CartShoppers enjoy a continuous experience – one login and one shopping bag across all brands. This convenience encourages customers to explore the entire product range, increasing cross-sells
-
•
Consistent Look & FeelWhile each brand site maintains its unique style, we ensured a consistent underlying UX. The unified cart icon and checkout process is familiar no matter which site a user is on, reducing confusion and cart abandonment.
-
•
Centralized Checkout & PaymentAll items from different brand sites can be purchased in a single transaction. Customers enter their details and payment only once, which streamlines the process and improves conversion rates.
-
•
Scalable ArchitectureThe solution is built to handle high traffic and is scalable. As Thomas Cook adds new brands or runs big promotions, the unified system remains fast and reliable.
Project gallery
Results
The cross-brand cart integration has been a game-changer for Thomas Cook and its sister brands. Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive – users love the freedom to shop the entire collection without extra hassle. The company noticed immediate improvements: multi-brand order volume increased as shoppers now commonly buy products from multiple labels in one go. Cart abandonment dropped significantly since the friction of starting a new order on each site was eliminated.
This project not only solved a unique problem but also showcased Programmable Soda’s ability to create truly custom e-commerce solutions that drive sales and user satisfaction.
“No other developer could make this happen. Programmable Soda delivered what we dreamed – our customers can shop across all our brands as if it’s one big store.”
