How United Sport & Cycle Scaled Globally with Shopify: A Digital Success Story

Welcome to an inside look at how United Sport & Cycle, one of Canada's largest independent sporting goods retailers, revolutionized its digital presence using Shopify. This in-depth blog post explores how a legacy business transitioned into a global e-commerce powerhouse, and how your business-whether you're in Canada, the USA, the UK, or India-can do the same.

About United Sport & Cycle

Founded in 1928, United Sport & Cycle is a family-owned business based in Edmonton, Alberta. With over 110,000 sq. ft. of retail space and a catalog that spans hockey, cycling, soccer, baseball, and more, they’ve served generations of athletes and families. But to meet the demands of modern commerce, they needed a robust, flexible, and scalable e-commerce solution.

Their Goal: Go Digital with Shopify

To match their offline excellence with online efficiency, their key objectives were:

• Migrate to Shopify for better performance and flexibility

• Enhance mobile UX and site speed

• Integrate advanced apps for marketing and operations

• Expand reach across Canada, USA, UK, and India

Challenges & Solutions

1. Coordination and Communication

Challenge: Managing a cross-functional team without delays or misalignment.
Solution:

• Deployed Asana and Slack for task management and real-time updates

• Weekly sprints to identify blockers

• Clear roles via RACI Matrix

2. Design Consistency & Quality

Challenge: Maintaining brand consistency across pages and devices.
Solution:

• Built a reusable component system in Figma

• A/B tested page layouts

• Standardized QA process to reduce visual bugs

3. Technical Integration & Customization

Challenge: Integrating third-party Shopify apps without breaking the site.
Solution:

• Customized themes with Liquid & GraphQL APIs

• Version control using GitHub

• Integrated Klaviyo, Stamped.io, and Recharge

4. Performance Optimization

Challenge: Speed issues due to a large catalog and media content.
Solution:

• Image compression & lazy loading via Shopify CDN

• Minified CSS/JS, deferred scripts

• Monthly audits with Lighthouse and GTmetrix

Shopify SEO Strategy for Global Reach

To target high-intent shoppers from Canada to India, the team at Ecommerce Small Task implemented an SEO blueprint tailored to global success:

Keyword Strategy

• "buy sporting goods online Canada"

• "best online sports store USA"

• "Shopify eCommerce for retailers"

• "migrate to Shopify India"

• "build online store with Shopify UK"

On-Page Optimization

• Meta titles & headers with geo-targeted terms

• Alt text for all media

• Strong internal link architecture

Content Marketing

• Blog series on gear reviews, sports tutorials, and seasonal buying guides

• Product comparisons targeting long-tail keywords

Technical SEO

• Mobile-first indexing

• Schema for reviews, FAQs, and product pages

Results in 6 Months

• 🔼 +30% Organic Traffic across Canada, USA, UK, and India

• 📱 +25% Mobile Conversions from optimized UI/UX

• 🔁 -18% Bounce Rate via speed & content enhancements

• 💰 Increased CLV through loyalty & email automation

Why Shopify Was the Game-Changer

• Scalable Infrastructure: Accommodated extensive product categories

• Full Customization: Maintained brand identity without compromise

• App Ecosystem: Enhanced functionalities via plug-and-play integrations

• Reliability: 99.9% uptime and secure hosting