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How Orla Kiely and Farrows moved from manual merchandising to a more dynamic, behavior-led shopping experience without compromising brand integrity
Orla Kiely has always stood apart.
Named after its Irish-born founder, designer Orla Kiely, the brand started with a simple idea to design a collection of bags and accessories "in a rainbow of prints, always joyful and happy with an emphasis on functionality," according to Kiely herself.
Since its founding in 1995, Orla Kiely has built a global following on bold prints, playful color, and a distinctly mid-century design sensibility. Every product is intentional. Every detail is considered. That sense of exuberance and clarity is what makes the brand instantly recognizable.
The challenge was translating that same level of intention into the online shopping experience.
As the brand’s D2C business grew, the site wasn’t fully reflecting how customers actually explore and buy Orla Kiely. Products weren’t always surfaced in ways that matched how they were designed to be paired, discovered, or styled. When Judith Harvey joined as Head of Ecommerce, she saw an opportunity to bring the digital experience closer to the brand itself. Not by overhauling it entirely, but by making it more intuitive, more connected, and more aligned with how people naturally shop the collection.
The challenge: manual merchandising at scale
Like many growing Shopify brands, Orla Kiely had been relying on a mix of native functionality and manual merchandising.
That approach offered control, but it had some drawbacks.
[Previously] there was a basic recommended products widget, but it was very manual . . . doing that across the whole product range was quite labor intensive.
Every product pairing had to be set intentionally. Every recommendation required time. And as the catalog expanded, that model became harder to sustain and harder to optimize.
At the same time, the team knew that product discovery was critical. Customers had a clear appetite for purchasing sets, matching prints, and exploring collections, and the current set-up wasn't meeting that demand as seamlessly as they wanted.
The opportunity wasn’t just to increase AOV. It was to make discovery feel easier, more intuitive, and more aligned with how customers naturally shop the brand.
The solution: dynamic merchandising, guided by brand control
Working alongside agency partner Farrows, Orla Kiely implemented Rebuy to introduce a more flexible, behavior-led approach to merchandising. Rather than replacing human curation, Rebuy enhanced it by allowing the team to scale their existing instincts with real-time shopper behavior.
That balance became the foundation of the strategy.
- On PDPs, complementary products (like matching bags and purses) were surfaced more dynamically
- In the cart, lower-priced add-ons were introduced at the right moment to encourage incremental purchases
- Across the site, new placements like “recently viewed” helped customers pick up where they left off
Each placement served a distinct purpose, which was twofold: increase AOV, and guide the customer journey more effectively.
One of the biggest benefits [of Rebuy] is [the way it increases] sales through smarter merchandising rather than discounting.
Driving AOV through smarter product discovery
As a design-led, mid-market brand, preserving perceived value is a high priority at Orla Kiely. That means they don’t use aggressive discounting as a way to drive growth. Rebuy enabled the team to increase basket size in a way that felt additive without being pushy.
The impact was immediate.
Over the course of 30 days, Orla Kiely saw a 12% boost in AOV using the Rebuy Smart Cart and Merchandising Widgets.
The highest performer: something simple and useful
Relatedly, one of the most impactful additions was the recently viewed widget, which surfaces products a shopper has already interacted with and makes it easy to return to them without navigating backward through pages.
This solved a subtle but important friction point for the brand's customers. Instead of retracing steps, customers can pick up where they left off without clicking back and forth between pages.
Effective merchandising doesn’t always mean introducing more products. Often, the biggest gains come from making the experience more intuitive.
We were very conscious not to make it too salesy or too busy. [Rebuy] has made the site feel helpful rather than pushy.
Maintaining brand integrity at every touchpoint
Rebuy’s flexibility allowed the team to introduce personalization without sacrificing visual consistency or creative control, something the team at Orla Kiely valued as a means of strengthening and maintaining brand consistency.
When we launch a new collection we make sure widgets only show that collection. Previously you could land on a brand-new product and see a sale item recommended next to it, which wasn't ideal.
This level of control ensured that recommendations supported the brand story. It also gave the team confidence that growth wouldn’t come at the expense of experience.
Fast to launch, easy to scale
Beyond performance, Rebuy also delivered on usability.
The implementation was quick, with minimal lift from the team. Once live, it required little ongoing maintenance to generate value. At the same time, it remained flexible enough to evolve as the brand’s needs change.
[Rebuy] is easy to go live with… it’s not a massive integration. It’s plug-and-play, but also flexible enough to tailor to the brand.
The combination of ease of use with depth of control made Rebuy a natural fit for a lean team managing a globally recognized brand.
Unique solutions worthy of a unique brand
For Orla Kiely, Rebuy has become more than a merchandising tool. It's become a way to scale product discovery, improve AOV, and enhance the customer experience while preserving what makes the brand distinctive.
By combining Farrows’ strategic approach with Rebuy’s AI-powered personalization, the team has created an ecommerce experience that feels both more intelligent and more intentional.
It’s been really easy to implement and hasn’t caused any issues. [Rebuy] is only positives.
Most importantly, the experience remains true to the brand. It feels helpful, considered, and aligned with the design principles that define Orla Kiely.
