Steve Madden launched his footwear brand in 1990 from a small factory in Queens, New York, creating shoes that embodied street style—bold, edgy, and accessible. Today, the company has evolved into a global fashion powerhouse with an expanding digital footprint.
With business success came complexity. Steve Madden’s digital ecosystem had grown to include 30 commerce sites spanning three brands, managed by decentralized teams without consistent governance. This approach led to fragmented customer experiences and the proliferation of over 260 different apps across their Shopify platform—undermining brand identity and creating operational inefficiencies.
To transform this fragmented digital landscape, Steve Madden partnered with RunDTC, selecting them for their deep commerce expertise and technical capabilities to rebuild their global Shopify presence.
Since partnering with RunDTC and migrating to Shopify, Steve Madden has:
- 30 global sites launched across 3 brands
- 16% increase in conversion rates
- Localized content with consistent global brand control
The challenge: Global scale compromises brand identity
Steve Madden’s rapid digital expansion had created significant governance challenges across their international presence. Each regional site operated independently, with local teams making isolated technology and design decisions without central oversight, undermining the brand’s identity and creating operational inefficiencies.
“With 30 different sites operating across multiple regions and brands, maintaining consistency became nearly impossible,” says Paul Zaengle, CEO of RunDTC. “Each market had implemented their own solutions, resulting in wildly different customer experiences.”
The excessive number of apps—over 260 across their Shopify instances—increased costs, significantly slowed site performance, and complicated maintenance. More challenging was how this fragmentation diluted the distinctive Steve Madden brand identity that customers expected, regardless of their location. The company needed a solution that would provide central governance while still allowing for necessary local customization.
The solution: Global governance with local flexibility
RunDTC rebuilt Steve Madden’s digital architecture with a custom Shopify theme using Liquid architecture. It’s designed to meet each brand’s specific needs while ensuring consistent user experience across all 30 global sites.
The centerpiece of the implementation was what RunDTC describes as “the most robust Contentstack to Shopify Liquid integration on the market,” creating a powerful digital experience platform (DXP). The integration, called Unify, strikes the perfect balance—allowing local teams to manage market-specific content while maintaining central governance over the Shopify architecture.
“Looking at Steve Madden’s needs, we saw Unify was a clear fit,” explains Paul. “By integrating Shopify with Contentstack, we’ve given them a platform that delivers enterprise-scale governance without the traditional headaches of headless architecture. It solves their challenges while being significantly more cost-effective than conventional solutions.”
Let’s get technical for a moment. To ensure seamless development and deployment, RunDTC implemented a custom continuous integration and continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline using GitHub actions and Node.js, while VSCode Dev containers simplified onboarding for new developers across the global team. Essentially, this technical foundation provided Steve Madden with both the governance they needed and the flexibility regional markets required—all on Shopify’s unified platform.
The results: A bold brand presence across all markets
Steve Madden’s new digital architecture has transformed how they manage their global commerce presence. The unified implementation ensures consistent brand experiences while allowing for necessary regional customization. Now, customers encounter the same bold, innovative spirit regardless of their location—which has led to a 16% increase in conversion.
Unify has completely transformed how we manage our global Shopify storefronts.Our teams can now update, stage, and launch content across multiple brands and regions from a single platform without waiting on developers. It’s helped us accelerate campaign launches, improve brand consistency, and respond to market trends faster than ever before.