Novita is the largest yarn manufacturer in the Nordics, with nearly a century of yarn-crafting experience. Yet, with a new wave of knitters emerging and digitally native competitors entering the market, Novita knew it needed to revitalise its heritage brand and find new ways to attract the next generation.
How can an age-old craft evolve in a digital world? Founded in 1928, Novita has perfected the art of yarn spinning. Today, Novita is the largest manufacturer of craft yarns in the Nordics and produces Finland's most popular craft magazine with a subscription of over 30,000. Yet despite its long-running heritage, new competitors started to gain market share.
To connect with the next generation of knitters, Novita sought innovative ways to enhance the brand's community offering through its digital and commercial channels. They envisioned a website and online store to help knitters learn, connect and create.
From knit-a-long events to downloadable patterns, knitting kit subscriptions and collaborations with iconic brands— Novita has a rich content ecosystem with advanced use cases for content. To target new customers and grow its presence in multiple markets, Novita partnered with IONA, Hellon and Kallan & Co. to bring new digital experiences to life while streamlining publishing across multiple channels, platforms and markets.
IONA built a state-of-the-art digital commerce solution using Shopify Oxygen and Sanity CMS. Shopify Plus was chosen for its robustness and scalability, addressing the high-volume demands of Novita's diverse product offerings and customer base. Sanity CMS was selected to manage the brand's structured content, which ranges from knitting patterns and instructions to translations and rich editorial content. The strategic overhaul also included integrating Oracle Netsuite (ERP) and Akeneo Product Information Management (PIM) to automate inventory management.
This solution gives Novita frontend flexibility while optimising content delivery across D2C subscriptions, B2B sales, and B2C publishing.
Novita's digital commerce solution enables the brand to grow without impacting the backend operations or the integrity of the content—this flexibility is crucial when entering new markets and managing an increased demand. The new website immerses users in accessible design components, a content-rich ecosystem and dynamic tools for yarn calculations.
The technological execution and content-driven approach have set a new benchmark for Novita. 94.3% of all customers surveyed rated the new website's user experience as either 4/5 (46.7%) or 5/5 (47.6%).
