Global fashion brand Princess Polly was founded in 2010 on Australia's Gold Coast. The brand has transformed from a purely digital business into an omnichannel powerhouse since launching in the US in 2019. Today, the company employs a thriving team of 300+ employees collaborating across multiple countries.
Originally operating on Magento in Australia, the brand made the strategic decision to launch their US operations on Shopify, and soon migrated their Australian operations six months later. Fully replatforming to Shopify helped the brand solve three critical challenges: creating seamless customer experiences that unified online and in-store shopping, meeting Gen Z's sky-high expectations for instant, personalized service, and scaling operations efficiently with a lean team across multiple markets.
Princess Polly implemented Shopify POS as the backbone of their retail expansion, allowing them to maintain consistent customer data and provide personalized experiences everywhere customers shop. The results have been remarkable. With Shopify's unified commerce platform, Princess Polly has:
- Scaled from 0 to 7 retail stores in just over one year, with several more planned
- Onboarded up to 50 new team members simultaneously using streamlined Shopify POS training processes
- Maintained CSAT scores above industry average across both Australian and US operations
- Integrated omnichannel returns processing with QR code functionality, connecting online purchases to in-store drop-offs
- Automated backend workflows for tagging, inventory management, and customer segmentation to support lean team efficiency
The Challenge: Meeting Gen Z Expectations Across Channels
Princess Polly built their reputation as a premier Gen Z fashion brand through digital-first experiences. But when they decided to expand into physical retail, the team faced a unique set of operational challenges that threatened to make or break their brand promise.
Princess Polly's core demographic has notoriously high expectations. "Gen Z's attention span is quite small. You really have to hit the mark, and you have to hit it right. So you've got to be where they are exactly when they are expecting you to be there," says Alex Collis, Senior Director of Operations and Customer Experience at Princess Polly. The brand needed systems that could deliver the instant gratification their customers expected, whether they were shopping online, in-store, or making a return.
"When the customer comes into the store, you're expecting the team to almost know you," says Alex. "You're following us on social media, you've been a customer of ours for several years, maybe prior to us even launching in the US."
With rapid retail expansion came other challenges as well. As Alex puts it, they had to ensure that "store teams are well equipped with the ease and the user experience for them to make those customer experiences similar to what they would get in the digital space." By taking a unified commerce approach with Shopify, they managed to do just that.
The Solution: Unifying Commerce with Shopify POS
Princess Polly solved their channel fragmentation challenges by building on their existing Shopify foundation, implementing Shopify POS as the backbone of their retail expansion. This strategic approach prioritized unification over replacement, allowing them to maintain their digital-first strengths while adding physical retail capabilities.
Implementation and Leadership
Alex personally led the Shopify POS implementation, drawing on years of Shopify expertise to ensure seamless integration. "I myself physically was the one that read through all the documentation and all of the training for Shopify POS," she says. "My brain already was so in Shopify, so it was very easy for me to kind of build what the roadmap will look like for us to implement it." This hands-on leadership approach, starting with their first store opening, created internal expertise that enabled smoother rollouts across multiple locations.
The decision to use Shopify POS was strategic rather than convenient. "If we were to go outside and use any other POS, it splits the customer journey in half," says Alex, emphasizing how using a different POS would have created disconnected customer data and fragmented systems. With Shopify POS, everything stays connected. When a customer walks into the store, the team can see their full purchase history, loyalty status, and preferences, creating the seamless omnichannel experience Princess Polly envisioned.
Unified App Ecosystem Integration
Rather than treating retail as a separate channel, Princess Polly integrated Shopify POS with apps from Shopify's third-party app ecosystem to create truly unified experiences. "We're able to do that through Shopify's amazing app ecosystem," says Alex.
It all came down to the easy app integrations. We were able to get up and running really quickly. We were able to integrate everything very seamlessly through the Shopify app ecosystem, and it made it really easy then for our customers to have positive experiences.
"Everything from our returns platform with Loop, our mobile app with Tapcart, our customer experience with Gorgias, there's all these really awesome plugins that have been really easy for us to just plug and play," Alex explains.
Loop provides a key integration with POS for unified return experiences across online and in-store channels. "We really believe in a seamless returns experience and one that not only continues to create ease for the customer, but excites them to come back," says Alex. The integration enables customers to generate QR codes for in-store returns and access Shop Now functionality to exchange items for completely different products rather than just refunds.
Princess Polly also leveraged Gorgias for consistent customer service across channels, ensuring the same level of support whether customers contacted them online or needed help in-store. For social commerce, they integrated TikTok Shop through AfterShip, connecting their social media presence to seamless order fulfillment.
Single Customer View and Automation
Beyond providing unified customer data, Princess Polly leveraged Shopify's automation capabilities to scale their operations efficiently. "We have the ability to create workflows that help drive efficiencies," Alex explains. These Shopify Flow automations streamline backend processes, from automatic product tagging to creating differentiated customer journeys for VIP loyalty members versus first-time shoppers.
The automation extends to synchronizing stock levels across all channels in real-time. This prevents overselling and ensures accurate product availability whether customers shop online or in-store. Princess Polly also built their mobile app with TapCart, which delivers consistently higher conversion rates and average order values compared to mobile web.
These automated workflows free up their lean team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than manual processes, enabling the brand to open several new stores in a short amount of time without proportional increases in operational overhead.
The Results: Scaling toward a Retail Empire
Princess Polly's retail expansion has generated unprecedented customer excitement and measurable business impact. "We didn't even hardly announce our Soho soft opening," says Alex. "But I was there for the soft opening and there was a line out and around the corner." Each new store opening creates social media buzz and drives customer acquisition beyond the immediate geographic area. The stores feature photo booths, curated music, and influencer events that translate the brand's digital energy into physical spaces.
The unified platform has enabled Princess Polly to scale their team efficiently while maintaining service quality, and the Shopify ecosystem has supported rapid expansion. "Our CSAT scores are well above industry average. Our NPS scores are really strong," says Alex, with these metrics holding true across both Australian and US operations.
Operational automation has delivered significant efficiency gains. "We are automating a significant amount of customer inquiries, and it's created really positive customer experiences," says Alex. This automation allows Princess Polly's lean team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine tasks.
Shopify has helped position Princess Polly for continued retail growth. "We're going to open several more stores this year," says Alex. "We are already seeing new customer acquisition from it." The physical retail presence exposes Princess Polly to entirely new audiences who discover the brand through foot traffic in malls and shopping centers—customers who might never have found them online but now engage across multiple channels.
Looking ahead, Alex's vision is clear: "We're already the globally recognized brand, but we are going to be recognized for those retail stores, I'm telling you." With Shopify POS as their foundation, Princess Polly is well-positioned to build an iconic retail empire.
When a customer walks into our store, our team can quickly access their purchase history, loyalty status, and preferences. That unified view helps create the personalized experience our Gen Z customers expect, and Shopify makes it possible.