Like a stunning butterfly, hand-painted mural brand, By Haleys, is spreading its wings and showing the world what its talented team can do. We sat down with Haley Studios’ Managing Director, Richard Haley, to hear how the company’s new custom Shopify tool will transform the customer experience and revolutionise operational efficiency.
Founded in 1990, family-owned Haley Studios is behind some of the most gorgeous hand-painted original designs you’ll see, produced for leading manufacturers of commercial and domestic interior products.
Unlocking Growth with a Digital Grant
In 2023, the Haley family realised a long-held dream to design under their own brand, By Haleys. They have begun offering magnificent panoramic floral and landscape mural wallpaper designs, selling direct to customers and interior designers in the UK.
Initially taking the plunge selling full rolls of their digitised designs, it was always the team’s intention to offer customers the ability to order custom-sized sections. However, to do so, they needed specialist software to integrate with their Shopify website, which isn’t readily available on the market.
Funding and support from Digital Enterprise have enabled the company to progress with this next exciting phase of their development.
Managing Director, Richard Haley, explains: “From dipping our toe in for six months and enjoying initial success on this project, the feedback we were getting made it clear we had to put our foot on the gas to get this cropping tool.
“With this being a new venture that’s running alongside our existing successful core business, it is a big investment for us at this point, at just over £14,000. We’re grateful to Digital Enterprise for providing £6,340 towards it, as well as the support of our advisor, Paul Domeney. This project is going to help push us forward quickly, and we can start to reap the benefits sooner than we planned.”
From Hand-Painted Murals to Bespoke Digital Solutions
Digital is opening up a world of opportunities for the company, combining the best features of the team’s artistic expression and talent with the scalability of providing digital scans and prints of the original hand-painted work.
With full rolls, it can be off-putting for customers whose dimensions would require additional rolls to cover a small section, and potentially lead to lots of waste product. It can also be more difficult to visualise the finished result.
The new cropping tool will instead allow customers to easily order the precise dimensions they need, while selecting the exact crop of the original artwork that they like. This will save money and be zero-waste compared to the current methods. International clients also won’t need to wait for office hours for their selection to be prepared and quoted, as they will see a live view of what they will get, and can order it online.
Customers will also be able to save crops and email them to themselves to get feedback from other people. This feature will be particularly useful for interior designers who will need final approval from their clients before ordering, but also for discerning direct customers. These murals have the wow factor, making a bold statement in a room. So, it’s important the customer can make the right choice for their space.
The benefit to customers and the environment is clear, and the project will also revolutionise the company’s operations and allow them to scale internationally in the next few years.
Richard explains: “When we’re receiving the orders, the back end will automatically generate a specification sheet with the measurements. It will also give an instant visual understanding of the requirements that we can relay to our printers.
“Compared to the manual process of getting an image up on Photoshop, cropping it, generating the quote, and going back and forth with the customer, it’s going to be a huge difference.
“I’d estimate it’s going to quarter the time from the manual process of a two-hour job to 30 minutes, if that.”
The Impact: Quantifiable Growth and Sustainable Practices
With the company attending exhibitions in the UK and Europe, the tool will also enable the team to build a quote for a potential customer on the spot. This interactivity will make conversations more engaging and persuasive, showing customers live crops that can be emailed to them immediately. This will give By Haleys a real edge in the market.
“This tool is going to elevate us above the majority of other producers,” Richard adds. “It’s going to look extremely impressive and professional visually, as well as greatly improving the speed of service through automating orders.”
By Haleys is a long-term project for the company, with little external pressure on its growth beyond how much customers are loving the products and craving more designs and functionality. It’s giving Richard and the team the opportunity to build strong foundations and explore their ambitions.
He says: “The last year has been about testing and development. In the next year we want to put more energy into marketing to grow sales, and to keep learning.
“I’d like to think we’ll be doing this in 30 years, and we’ll have grown beyond panoramic murals to supplying all sorts of other products, such as paint and fabrics to go with them.”
Being a family of creatives, their ultimate goal is to put stunning work out into the world for people to enjoy. The team may not be into following trends or competitors, but it is clear there is a desire to lead them instead.
With the power of automation quadrupling the productivity of their production process, By Haleys is targeting a 13% increase in turnover in the next year, and the brand is well on its way to realising its ambitious goals for the future.
With the help of Digital Enterprise, Haley Studio’s expects to:
- At least quadruple the productivity of their production process with automatically generated specifications and live visuals of customer orders.
- Grow turnover by 13% in 2025/26 with a combination of increased productivity, enhanced customer service, and increased marketing activity.
- Eliminate wastage, which will also ensure customers receive maximum value with their order.
Haley Studio’s was named as one of DE3’s Top 30 businesses, read more case studies in our online brochure to find out how we’ve supported other West Yorkshire businesses and the impact the digital investments have had: DE3 Digital Enterprise Top Thirty.
