Drake Related
The 'Experience-first Storefront
A Unique Blend of E-commerce, Media, Art, and Games
Drake, one of our time’s most influential musicians and cultural icons, needs no introduction, but did you know he is also a world-class serial entrepreneur?
In 2011 he launched his record label, OVO Sound, followed by October’s Very Own (OVO), a premium lifestyle brand offering streetwear clothing and accessories with limited edition collaborations. In 2020 he launched Better World Fragrance House, a line of luxury scented candles, and NOCTA, a signature collaboration with Nike.
Drake Related, Drake’s official site, is the hub that brings all his projects together, including his collaborations with brands, fellow artists, and entrepreneurs.
The Drake Related team’s vision was to design a site that was half a storefront and half an experience. The ‘Experience’ side represents Drake’s Toronto residence, “The Embassy,” through a series of isometric rooms littered with shoppable items, experiences, and media. The ‘eCommerce’ side is a more traditional experience augmented by a layer of archive information (album info + media).
The Challenges
Building such an unconventional site introduced several complexities:
- Simplifying operations and logistics. The site needed to launch activations faster and minimize overhead tasks so the team could connect with and source brands directly from the site admin.
- Implementing Alternative Sales Mechanisms: The site needed to accommodate unique product releases methods such as cross-store sales, raffles/lotteries, auctions, giveaways, and shoppable video clips.
- Maintaining Continuity: Ensuring seamless integration between shopping experiences and multimedia in different rooms was crucial.
- Backend Functionality: The site required a granular ability to modify each room’s multimedia, place individual items, and seamlessly integrate them into the experience.
- Creative and Interactivity:
- The site aimed to host exclusive live streams, concerts, or video teasers.
- Mimic real-time light conditions of Toronto in the room.
- Incentivize and encourage visitors to stay on the site and engage in shopping, editorial and games.
- Schedule content and product deployments, along with keeping staging environments in sync.
- Advanced Analytics: To understand site navigation and transaction behaviours, the platform required sophisticated analytics.
The Solution
As a technical partner, Tidal Commerce worked closely with Shopify to develop an innovative solution using Contentful as a Content Management system, Shopify Hydrogen as a headless frontend framework and Shopify Collective.
Shopify Collective is a new native Shopify tool that enables the Drake Related team to discover, source, and sell unique products from independent brands without the up-front hassle of managing, strong and shipping goods.
The focus was on delivering a high-quality digital property resilient enough for the next few years and ensuring the underlying technological choices would be future-proof.
The Results
Drake Related stands at the intersection of commerce, media, art, and gaming, providing a unique web experience for Drake fans. Everywhere you go on the website, there is something to look at, engage, or purchase. The site provides an experience like no other.
The site has overcome significant challenges through a well-planned and executed strategy, creating a platform that engages, entertains, and transacts. The time saved on operations and logistics has decreased dramatically since using Shopify Collective.
Since expanding its product offering with more partnerships and collaborations, Drake Related is acquiring new customers, with 72% of sales coming from first-time customers.
Testimonial
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