Accelerating ECCO's revenue by +28% with zero-disruption headless migration
The Challenge
What we were up against and why it mattered
We have been working with ECCO for 4 years and the business decided to migrate the website from Sitecore and Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) to a new headless commerce solution on Vercel / Next.js (initially Netlify) using Contentful CMS. The SEO involvement on the headless project was scaled up mid-way through the project. Multiple markets had migrated before SEO was full integrated into the process and without some key SEO features having been built. The CMS had been deployed out-of-the-box, requiring significant evolution to support the SEO governance their global platform needed. Early migrations revealed patterns that needed immediate attention. Redirect logic wasn't properly configured during the Netlify-to-Vercel transition (e.g. parameter handling wasn't initially enabled in Vercel), which needed quick hypercare resolution between our SEOs and ECCO developers. URL changes triggered by PIM and Contentful updates created redirect complexity. The timeline was aggressive: after the initial set of global markets was migrated 21 European markets needed to migrate in just 3 months, with 30,000+ pages requiring comprehensive audit and migration planning. The mandate was clear but challenging for our team: implement SEO best practices across an in-flight migration, maintain existing rankings, and accelerate organic growth across the remaining 21 European markets - all without disrupting live e-commerce operations throughout a sale period.
Our Strategy
How we tackled it and what made our approach different
The Results
What we achieved together and the impact it created
The impact was both immediate and sustained. Across the full set of 28 markets that had complete year-over-year data, ECCO's organic performance accelerated dramatically: engaged sessions grew +27% and revenue increased +28% compared to pre-migration baselines, all while maintaining 98% of existing keyword rankings. The results varied by platform architecture, revealing interesting insights. The 22 Sitecore-to-headless EU migrations delivered exceptional performance, with engaged sessions accelerating +75.4% and revenue surging +113.5% year-over-year. The 6 SFCC-to-headless migrations showed stable performance with minimal impact. More importantly, the technical foundation we built continues to drive sustainable organic growth for ECCO. The new Vercel / Contentful architecture and SEO governance framework ensure every content update and new market launch maintains search optimization. Today, ECCO's headless commerce platform operates as a scalable, SEO-optimized foundation supporting their global online presence.
What our Partners say
"Our partnership with Alchemy has been instrumental in elevating ECCO’s European organic performance. From the outset, Alchemy brought a level of technical depth, strategic clarity, and hands-on ownership that went far beyond what we typically see from external partners. They didn’t operate as an agency—they operated as an extension of our team. Alchemy managed a highly complex, multi-market migration program with exceptional rigor, ensuring performance was protected while unlocking meaningful acceleration across key markets. Their architectural guidance, redirect intelligence, and SEO governance frameworks have strengthened the foundation of our digital ecosystem and continue to support sustained growth. We’re pleased to continue our collaboration with Alchemy as we build on this momentum and further scale our platform."
"Our collaboration with Alchemy on SEO and AI scripting for the Headless migration was highly effective. They demonstrated strong attention to detail and a clear understanding of how to translate business requirements into scripts capable of handling large-scale data and multiple languages. The deliverables were delivered on time and aligned with our objectives. One of the most important outcomes was that we maintained our organic and paid traffic throughout the migration - a critical success factor for our business. Their know-how and technical expertise were key to achieving this. Beyond execution, they provided valuable input on how to structure and leverage data more effectively, which supported our broader goals. This practical and solution-oriented approach made the process smooth and productive. Working with Alchemy has given us confidence in using technology to drive smarter, scalable solutions."
"Working with the Alchemy team was exceptional. What really impressed me was how they tackled what seemed impossible at the start - mapping over 210,000 redirects across 21 markets in an incredibly tight timeframe. They brought genuine innovation to the problem rather than just throwing hours at it and cut the time taken internally to configure the redirect files and test. The way they embedded themselves with our dev teams made all the difference. They weren't just consultants passing requirements over the fence - they were in the trenches with us, solving problems in real-time and making sure SEO was properly integrated into the project. That collaborative approach meant we could move fast without breaking things and optimizing the platform. The real proof came when we migrated through our busiest sale periods without any traffic disruption. That's the kind of outcome you can only achieve when a team truly understands both the technical complexity and the business stakes. This was crucial for us. Alchemy delivered exactly what you want from a consultancy partner: smart thinking, practical execution, and people who just get it done properly."
"What differentiated Alchemy from other agencies was their educational approach. Rather than creating dependency, they built our team's capability. They worked directly with our content and development teams, explaining the 'why' behind every recommendation. The comprehensive audit of our 50,000+ pages taught us how to think about content categorization - remove, keep, consolidate, or create new. The SEO governance framework they established in Contentful means our content managers across all markets now understand how their work impacts search performance. The rigorous validation process - UAT, pre-production testing, hypercare monitoring - gave us confidence at every stage. They didn't just deliver a migration; they transformed how we approach content management and SEO across our entire organization."
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