/Case 010
Alder Knitwear
2022
Fashion
Digital
Knitwear,
online, finally.
A 40-year-old Cumbrian knitwear house launched its first direct-to-consumer site without losing its wholesalers.
We were terrified of the internet. Blackgeek made it look like our shop.— Harriet Alder, Director, Alder Knitwear
/ 01 · Brief
A direct shop, without a wholesale war.
Alder had spent forty years selling through 220 wholesale partners. They'd never sold a single jumper online — by choice.
The brief: a direct site that grew the pie without taking from theirs.
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[ alderknitwear.co.uk — homepage ]
/ 02 · Approach
We launched a shop that looked like a shop.
Photographed in the Hawkshead workshop, on the people who knit the jumpers. No models. No lifestyle.
Wholesale partners were briefed before launch and given a unique discount code their customers could use online — the studio's idea, not theirs.
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▦
[ Wholesale partner pack ]
/ 03 · Outcome
100% wholesale retention. 4.1% conversion.
The site converts at 4.1% — three times the fashion benchmark.
No wholesale partner has dropped Alder in the two years since launch.
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