Customer Story: Johan from Barkalot

About Barkalot: Barkalot is the brand for a new generation of dog owners, joined in their love for animals, sustainable thinking, and appreciation for beautiful things.

About Archetype: Archetype Themes is the leading designer and developer of premium Shopify themes trusted by over 90,000 merchants

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Welcome Johan! So tell us more about your involvement with Barkalot. 

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My official title is “Marketing Director” - but really my role encompasses everything needed to get this business off the ground on the eCommerce side. 

The co-founder of Barkalot and I were previously founding partners of a raincoat business together called “Stutterheim”, so we see eye-to-eye and are really close. 

And in terms of Barkalot, this is a dog accessories business - selling collars and leashes primarily. We have just launched a new collection made out of rPet. That’s sustainable polyester made fully from recycled plastic bottles. The collection is more colorful and fun - you can find zebra, pink camo and so on.

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Awesome - So how did you come across Storetasker? Was it everything you hoped for?

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I have a lot of experience in hiring contractors and I must say - I was really amazed to have been paired so quickly with a great expert. The comms all happened via email, it was super seamless. The entire project we worked on lasted 2-3 days - and the solutions came with loom explainer videos - it was great. And in fact, a week later I contracted Ricardo (our dev) again for another project. 

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Let’s chat about Archetype which is the theme company you’re using here. How has the experience been in working with their technology? 

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It’s been fantastic too. I actually inherited the eCommerce setup from a previous team member, and although I was new to Shopify and this theme, I got to grips with it very quickly. And whenever I had any issues or doubts, I was able to speak to the Archetype team directly and they were very friendly and responsive.

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Any thoughts on the Archetype theme you’re currently using  (impulse)? 

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The look & feel is really nice. It’s got a nice minimal style to it. The biggest thing is that even myself, a non-developer, can easily go into the theme and make quick changes without having to hire an agency - that’s so important for our business. 

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Final question: Let’s chat about priorities: What’s on your horizon?

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Barkalot is really seizing an opportunity to disrupt a very old-fashioned segment of the pet accessories market in Europe. For the design and sustainability conscious minds - there are few good brands available to their dogs. So that's our focus for now: To drive lots of awareness about what we do & start to shift the market in Europe. 

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Thanks Johan. Pleasure to have you on the Storetasker & Archetype theme teams. Go go Barkalot!

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