CASE STUDY

Blackberry Smoke Increases Sales & Fan Engagment Via ONELIVE's All-In-One Platform

41%

Growth in sales (2023 to 2024)

18%

Increase in fan engagement

1

Centralized fan experience

Intro
    
Intro

About Blackberry Smoke

Blackberry Smoke is a Southern American country rock band founded in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000 with the top song ‘One Horse Town’. Their music is a blend of country, rock, and blues. The band has released several albums and has toured extensively, building a loyal fan base along the way. Their shows are known for their high energy and talented musicians switching from instrument to instrument throughout the set. Blackberry Smoke has been praised for their songwriting, which often touches on themes of love, loss, and the struggles of everyday life.

 Over the past two decades, Blackberry Smoke has developed this confidence and amassed a loyal fanbase, leading their last five full-length albums to achieve great success and receive much-deserved recognition.  

They started working with ONELIVE back in 2023 and have not looked back due to the growth the band has seen. 

"ONELIVE with Shopify and their all-in-one approach has helped considerably with the growth at Merch Mountain and Blackberry Smoke. We knew that we needed solutions to utilize more tools from Shopify and customize the resources they provide. ONELIVE was able to help with both."
trey headshot 2024-3
Trey Wilson - Artist Manager

Blackberry Smoke

    
Challenge

The Music Industry's Digital Dilemma

The music industry began to notice a problem due to a fragmented digital landscape that artists and creators were facing. Many artists were forced to rely on a basic patchwork of different platforms and vendors for all of their online presence, including websites, e-commerce, ticketing, fan clubs, tour management, etc.

This caused the fans' attention to be spread out among many different channels and media outlets. There was not one solution that fit all, but instead, they were stuck jumping from one platform to the next.

The lack of integration created a frustrating experience for both artists and their fans. The artists struggled to manage multiple accounts, keep their information consistent, and effectively engage with their fan base. Fans encountered a disjointed experience, jumping between different websites and platforms to access content, buy merchandise, or purchase tickets.

These inconsistencies were not going to be sustainable for future projects or goals.

"They provided back-end development to streamline accounting which made it easier to track our growth and develop economic strategies that would help out with our margins."

- Trey Wilson

    
Solution

All-in-One Solution

ONELIVE realized the industry needed a comprehensive solution to this problem.

Built by ONELIVE and enabled by industry-leading Shopify Plus, ONELIVE was able to migrate an artist’s online activities into a all-in-one solution, creating a central hub for their entire digital presence. This allowed everything to be in one place and drive more consistency among channels for artists and fans. Including building a website, integrating e-commerce, ticketing, tour management, fan clubs, and other key services.

More and more artists are in the process of implementing this in order for them to reap the benefits and improve the overall fan experience. ONELIVE continues to create a seamless, connected, and integrated experience for artists and their fans while  also handling all the technical and logistical aspects of managing the Shopify ecosystem, including setting up tracking pixels, ensuring all features work correctly, making updates, and handling fulfillment to make sure everything is working as it should be.

Streamlined operations

Artists can manage their entire online business from a single platform, simplifying their workflow and saving valuable time.

Enhanced fan engagement

A unified online presence creates a more engaging experience for the fans, making it easier for them to connect with the artist and access the content they want when they want it.

Increased revenue opportunities

By integrating all aspects of their business, artists can leverage cross-selling opportunities and maximize their revenue potential.

Data-driven insights

Shopify's integrated analytics provide valuable data about fan behavior, helping artists make informed decisions about their marketing and business strategies. 

Focus on creativity

By outsourcing the technical and logistical aspects of their online business to ONELIVE, artists can focus on what they do best: creating art.

Supporting Content

"The support system has enabled us to work together and put systems in place that were more automated and easier to generate reporting. This, in turn, allowed us time to get back to more creative design and branding on the merchandise we were producing and the consumer experience. We saw this reflected immediately with growth on our e-commerce side of the business. We saw numbers go up with our webstore traffic as well as average order increases.”
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Trey Wilson - Artist Manager

Blackberry Smoke

    
Results

Significant Growth in Sales & Fan Engagement

Blackberry Smoke saw a change almost immediately after implementing ONELIVE's end-to-end solution built upon Shopify.

They started with multiple Shopify instances for their website and merch. Their VIP program was disjointed and confusing, which they challenging to navigate. They wanted ONELIVE to take over their website/merch store and streamline the process, as well as take over their VIP ticketing program. Later, ONELIVE developed and launched a fan club program, which created a new revenue stream for them. 

With the help of Shopify’s platform, ONELIVE streamlined the process by keeping fans on the same website, giving an overall smoother experience to buy merch, fan club memberships, and easily point fans to VIP packages and ticket offers. Ultimately, driving traffic back to the one main website - Blackberrysmoke.com, with enhanced fan engagement and increased revenue opportunities. 

Since working with ONELIVE, Blackberry Smoke has seen...

  1. 41% growth increase in sales for the artist Blackberry Smoke from 2023 to 2024. 
  2. 18% increase in fan engagement.
  3. 1 unified fan experience
"The team at OneLive has a huge wealth of knowledge in curating our VIP meet and greet systems and launching fan clubs.  Two verticals that we have grappled with in the past. All of these ideas and the executions of them have led to significant growth as well as more positive customer experiences over the last 2 years of working with them. We look forward to continuing this trend in the years to come."
trey headshot 2024-3
Trey Wilson

Artist Manager

 

Some of Shopify’s features and functionalities that have been particularly beneficial to ONELIVE artists and creators like Blackberry Smoke: 

  • Ease of use
  • Scalability
  • Powerful app ecosystem
  • Agile platform that can adapt to changing needs
  • Reliable performance and uptime

This approach has significantly streamlined the purchasing experience for fans by integrating ticket sales, merchandise, and exclusive content into a single, user-friendly platform. Eliminating the need to navigate multiple websites or deal with separate transactions not only saves fans time and effort but also minimizes friction in the buying journey.

This seamless convenience and operational efficiency have contributed to higher customer satisfaction, encouraging repeat engagement and fostering a deeper sense of loyalty among fans.

As a result, Blackberry Smoke has not only enhanced the fan experience but also seen measurable gains in both revenue and brand affinity.

41%

Increase in Sales

18%

Increase in Fan Engagement

1

Unified Fan Experience

      

About ONELIVE

Founded in 2010, ONELIVE is a Direct-to-Fan Ecommerce Company that's goal is to empower independent brands and rights owners across the music, sports, entertainment, and other DTC industries by providing them with the technologies and services they need to own and control their ecommerce futures--with no upfront fees and a scalable pricing model. 

As the world’s largest Shopify partner (1,600+ stores launched), ONELIVE has and continues to help 1,500+ global "brands with fans," multi-site and multi-rights owners drive online revenue and reduce technology costs through our end-to-end ecommerce solutions - including ecommerce software, web development, fulfillment, shipping and so much more. ONELIVE is a true partner in your path toward fan data ownership, engagement and monetization.