Where Did They Start

SchoolWear is a Canadian school spirit wear retailer offering optional, school-branded apparel such as T-shirts, hoodies, track pants, caps and backpacks. Each product is customized with individual school logos and colours. 

Before 2015, Marchants sold school apparel alongside sports equipment and other merchandise to a broad audience. Recognizing the need for a dedicated school spirit wear e-commerce platform, where each school could operate its own custom store, SchoolWear was created. 

The platform provides students, parents and staff with easy access to high-quality branded apparel through a centralized school-specific online shopping experience.

When SchoolWear partnered with 6ixSenses, the brand had a strong concept but required a scalable digital commerce foundation to support long-term growth across multiple schools.

Problem and Solution

The Challenge

As demand increased, SchoolWear encountered several challenges common to high-growth e-commerce platforms:

• Creating and managing 100+ unique school web stores efficiently
• Handling high daily order volumes without operational breakdowns
• Preventing product crossover between different school stores
• Improving mobile usability for parents shopping on the go
• Reducing checkout friction and abandoned carts
• Replacing email-based workflows with integrated digital systems
• Maintaining engagement for non-mandatory spirit wear purchases

To support continued growth, SchoolWear needed a fully connected e-commerce ecosystem.

The 6ixSenses Solution

6ixSenses partnered with SchoolWear to design, build and continuously evolve a scalable e-commerce platform purpose-built for school spirit wear.

Foundation & Platform Architecture

6ixSenses delivered a custom shop-in-shop e-commerce architecture on BigCommerce. This allows each school to operate as a standalone branded store within a single platform.

This included:

• Custom web store design for each school
• Structured product architecture for school-specific apparel
• Centralized management with decentralized storefronts

This work was supported by e-commerce development and dev & engineering expertise.

Systems & Operational Integration

To eliminate manual processes and support scale, 6ixSenses implemented fully integrated digital systems, including:

• E-commerce, ERP and customer service integration
• Automated order workflows
• Ticket-based customer support replacing email
• Inventory oversight, reporting and quality control dashboards

This created a reliable backend capable of processing 1,000+ orders per day during peak periods, powered by digital systems & infrastructure.

UX, Mobile & Conversion Optimization  

As SchoolWear matured, 6ixSenses led a major UX and performance evolution in 2022 to support conversion at scale.

Key improvements included:

• Full website redesign and relaunch
• Upgrade to the BigCommerce Stencil theme
• Mobile-first UX optimization
• Homepage video integration to increase engagement
• Improved FAQ and How-to-Order pages
• A clearer school store onboarding pathway

Most importantly, 6ixSenses engineered school-locked shopping journeys, ensuring:

• Customers only view products from their selected school
• School context remains consistent across browsing, cart and checkout
• Clear prompts to keep customers within their school store
• Zero product mix-ups between schools

These improvements were driven by web & digital experience development and supported by media for engagement focused design elements.

Where Are They Now

Today, SchoolWear operates as a high-performing national e-commerce platform, supported end-to-end by 6ixSenses.

• 400+ school web stores live across Canada
• 1,000+ orders processed daily during peak periods
• Seamless school-specific shopping experiences
• Strong mobile performance and reduced checkout friction
• Integrated systems supporting operations, service and reporting
• Over 7 years of continuous partnership with 6ixSenses
• Recognized as a leader in the Canadian school spirit wear category

The Sum Up

We transformed SchoolWear from a concept into a nationwide, scalable e-commerce platform. SchoolWear now offers easy school spirit wear programs thanks to custom web store design, strong operational support and fully connected systems. Students, teachers and parents can show their school pride without any hassle.