Multi-Store Infrastructure for Shark Tank & International Expansion

The Starting Point

Subo was facing a crucial growth step: The company had secured a Shark Tank sponsorship deal, with the prospect of massively increased attention and traffic. At the same time, it was clear that the existing e-commerce platform would not be able to handle the expected growth.

Beyond pure scalability, international expansion was also on the agenda. Subo wanted to sell specifically in Australia and Canada, each with their own stores that can handle market-specific requirements.

The challenge was twofold: find a platform that reliably handles sudden traffic spikes while enabling efficient multi-store management.

The Challenge

• Scalability for Shark Tank: The existing platform couldn’t handle sudden traffic spikes.
• International Expansion: Separate stores for Australia and Canada with local requirements.
• Multi-Store Efficiency: Avoiding triple maintenance effort with three stores.
• Time Pressure: Completion before the Shark Tank TV appearance.

Our Approach

The Results

Through migration to Shopify and multi-store setup, Subo was optimally prepared for the Shark Tank appearance.

• Infrastructure designed from the start for sudden traffic spikes
• Australia and Canada served with independent, market-specific stores
• Common theme codebase ensures consistency in brand experience
• Updates and customizations efficiently implementable through identical base structure
• Additional markets can be developed following the same pattern

Key Takeaways

• With high traffic potential: managed hosting (like Shopify) avoids scaling issues
• A universal theme saves development time long-term with multi-store
• Market-specific adaptations are more important than 100% identical stores
• Plan structure for scaling from the start. Retrofitting is more expensive.