Werner Paddles

If you need a kayak paddle of any type, we know the perfect place. Werner Paddles is an institution in the paddle sports industry, and the company has been making everything from high-end, carbon fiber, whitewater paddles, to kayak fishing and stand-up paddles for over 40 years. Until recently, Werner has been a retail-focused brand, with major retailers driving the business, and did not sell online.

More than 5 years ago, Mercutio had the opportunity to build the current Werner Paddles site. Built on the Expression Engine platform, the site is an extension of the brand and a tool for product education, but it was not originally intended as a selling platform.

Times change, as does customer behavior, and Werner eventually decided they needed to add the ability to sell online, but they didn’t want to fully replace the website. Using Shopify’s embedded checkout, the Mercutio team enabled cart and checkout functionality without needing to perform a full replatform. Shopify handles all transactional aspects of the checkout process, including credit card processing, customer information, taxes and shipping. This method keeps the site PCI compliant, with Shopify handling all confidential information and providing an easy-to-use customer experience. Not to mention, Shopify is itself easy to use, which was a requirement for the Werner team.

Even having launched their own ecommerce experience, Werner is still an avid supporter of their brick-and-mortar retailers. Having an online checkout allows Werner to support their customers in geographic regions that may not served by those retailers. It also allows them to sell specialty products to customers in regions where retailers may not not stock a certain product.

Werner continues to be a leader in their category, and—with the addition of ecommerce capability—they’re able to get customers everywhere the paddles they need and want with the click of a mouse.