Hand Crafted Cutlery Maker Starts a New Generation of Business Online
Warther Cutlery is a family-owned, generational company that has been making premium quality knives since 1902. They have crafted top-tier cutlery for many U.S. presidents and dignitaries. As a well-established local business in Dover, Ohio, Warther came to Graydian in 2019 seeking an E-Commerce platform to begin offering their products online.
Graydian quickly identified Shopify as the perfect platform for Warther Cutlery's online needs. The process started by developing a relationship with the company's key stakeholders, and by learning about Warther's entire product line, from wood carving knives to professional chef sets.
From there, Graydian developed a custom Shopify theme that reflects the strong, established Warther Cutlery brand. Beyond the theme design, Graydian built in many custom features not available to Shopify users out of the box. Features such as: product bundling, custom handle engraving, and personalized cutting boards with visual previews. Beyond features, Graydian worked one-on-one with the Warther staff to bring the product line up to date with correct inventory levels prior to site launch, in addition to general training on the system itself.
Not long after, Warther Cutlery chose Shopify POS to run their on-site gift shop as well. With Shopify POS, Warther Cutlery runs their gift shop with cash register like software, all running on iPads. The Shopify POS system is designed to tie in to the online store as well. So all retail purchases and inventory are synced together in one easy to use system.
Warther Cutlery is a perfect example of the entire Shopify platform working together seamlessly. Considering this, Graydian highly recommends Shopify and Shopify POS for most retail situations.
"Thanks for all your help. [With the Graydian team] we feel we are in great hands with you guys and can really help us take our business to the next level!"
- Patrick Warther, Warther Cutlery
Technologies Used:
Shopify
The wildly popular E-Commerce platform. Manages all aspects of the store, including products, inventory, and checkout.
Shopify POS
Operated in conjunction with Shopify. Manages all on-site transactions, cash register functions, and inventory.
HTML & CSS
Industry standard markup languages for controlling the look and feel of the Shopify theme.
Liquid
Shopify's programming language. Handles all logic and templates critical to displaying product information.
Home Page
Shopify makes it possible to create a beautiful home page, while allowing easy updating of individual products and collections. Shopify provides a number of easy ways to keep your latest and greatest additions front and center.
Like most home pages, the Warther Cutlery home page is a road map for the rest of the site. The home page lays out the most important sections, complete with excellent lifestyle and product photography.
The Warther Story
The tale of Warther Cutlery begins in 1902 and follows a facinating path through the entire 20th century up to present day. Graydian knew that a specially designed page would be important in telling this story, and in illustrating the rich history of the people representing the beauty, quality, and superior craftsmanship that Warther Cutlery embodies.
This page takes a chronological journey through the company's history, merging the story text with historical photos of the people who helped make Warther Cutlery possible over the years.
Collections & Product Photography
Collection pages are an important part of navigating through Shopify stores. And Shopify makes it simple to create product collections through pre-defined rules or with hand-chosen products. Understanding this, Graydian recognized the high value of quality product photography on these pages.
Most of the product photography on the Warther Cutlery site is shot by Graydian. By taking all product photos at the same 45º angle, we brought order and clarity to an otherwise chaotic and similar-looking product offering.
Personalization
Warther Cutlery offers many different personalized items. In the image to the left, we see an example of personalization software built in to the store, complete with a live preview of the artwork. This illustrates an important feature of Shopify: Apps. Apps are add-on software (much like plugins in WordPress) which allow additional features that are not part of the regular Shopify offering.
Shopify POS
As we covered above, Shopify POS is an essential part of Warther Cutlery's brick and mortar gift shop in Dover, Ohio. Shopify POS works in tandem with Shopify to run all transactions and inventory, which is tied into the Shopify store, allowing the online store and physcial gift shop to co-exist perfectly. The photo to the right shows Shopify POS in use on iPads by Warther Cutley staff in their gift shop.
