How MeatEater Launched Four Brand Sites on Salesforcein Under Six Months
MeatEater outgrew Shopify and moved to Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Order Management, and Marketing Cloud on Red Van's Autobahn platform. Four brand sites launched in under six months inside a single architecture, with one shared cart and one unified checkout across every brand.
Who is MeatEater?
MeatEater is a U.S. outdoor lifestyle company that operates multiple consumer brands across content, gear, and commerce.
The business spans several distinct brands, each with its own audience and identity, sold to customers who often shop across more than one of them. That multi-brand structure is what turned a routine platform question into an architecture question.
What problem did MeatEater need to solve?
MeatEater's Shopify platform could not support the complexity of running multiple brands as one connected business, and its order management and marketing automation systems did not work seamlessly with commerce.
As the company positioned itself for growth, it needed a consistent customer experience from acquisition through loyalty, across different channels and multiple brands. On the existing setup, a shared cart across brands and a unified checkout were not possible. Order management and marketing automation sat apart from commerce, which meant the customer view was fragmented at exactly the point where a multi-brand business needs it whole.
Requirements that defined the architecture
- Run multiple brand sites within a single architecture
- Enable one shared cart and one checkout across brands
- Integrate commerce, order management, and marketing automation
- Support two currencies for US and Canada
- Deliver a consistent experience across channels and brands
- Launch quickly without extensive custom development
How did Red Van solve it?
Red Van deployed four brand sites on Salesforce Commerce Cloud within a single architecture using its Autobahn platform, integrated with Salesforce Order Management and Marketing Cloud.
Autobahn is Red Van's software layer that simplifies how commerce teams operate on Salesforce and handles multi-cloud integration. Using it eliminated the need for extensive custom development, which reduced both time and cost and made the platform easier for MeatEater's team to manage day to day. Red Van also built custom forms in Salesforce Commerce Cloud that send data to Service Cloud, the basis of the connector cartridge to Marketing Cloud and Salesforce Core within Autobahn.
What the platform includes
Four Brand Sites, One Architecture
Four separate brand storefronts deployed on Salesforce Commerce Cloud inside a single architecture, so each brand keeps its identity while the business runs on one platform.
Shared Cart and Unified Checkout
One cart and one checkout across all four brands, which was not possible on the previous Shopify setup. Customers shopping more than one brand complete a single transaction.
Salesforce Order Management
Orders across every brand integrated through Salesforce Order Management, with Narvar customizations for returns handling.
Marketing Cloud Programs
Marketing programs deployed on Salesforce Marketing Cloud and connected to commerce through the Autobahn connector cartridge, giving a Customer 360 view across acquisition and loyalty.
Pre-Built Third-Party Integrations
Autobahn's pre-built integrations used to deploy Salesforce Payments, Affirm, Avalara, Power Reviews, and Narvar, with two-currency support for the US and Canada.
Roadside Assistance and Technical Account Management
Implementation, support, and training services plus a Technical Account Manager (TAM) providing ongoing expertise for development, testing, and launching new capabilities.
What were the results?
MeatEater launched four brand sites in under six months on three integrated Salesforce products, and has since seen revenue, conversion, and average order value increase. The platform gave MeatEater's teams more sophisticated capability to manage the online business while making their day-to-day work more efficient. Simplifying how the team interacts with Salesforce and integrating Commerce, Order Management, and Marketing Cloud also increased the return MeatEater gets from its Salesforce investment.
- Four brand sites launched in under six months
- Three Salesforce products deployed and fully integrated for a Customer 360 experience
- Single cart and unified checkout across all brands
- Revenue, conversion, and average order value increasing since launch
- Two-currency support for US and Canada
- Reduced time and cost by avoiding extensive custom development
- Greater team efficiency managing commerce on Salesforce
- Ongoing technical account management for continued innovation
MeatEater established a foundation that grows with the business rather than one it will replace again in three years. Close collaboration with Red Van means the company can adopt new Salesforce capability as it ships and resolve issues quickly, which is what turns a platform investment into a durable advantage.
What services did Red Van provide?
- 01Discovery and Architecture
- 02Salesforce Commerce Cloud Implementation
- 03Salesforce Order Management Implementation
- 04Salesforce Marketing Cloud Implementation
- 05Autobahn Platform Deployment
- 06Multi-Brand Commerce Architecture
- 07Third-Party Integration and Payments
- 08Roadside Assistance Support and Training
- 09Technical Account Management
- 10Value-Driven Customer Success
Frequently asked questions
Can you run multiple brands on one Salesforce Commerce Cloud instance?+
Yes. Red Van deployed four MeatEater brand sites within a single Salesforce Commerce Cloud architecture using the Autobahn platform. Each brand keeps its own storefront and identity while the business operates on one platform, which reduces the cost of running and maintaining several sites.
How do you share one cart and checkout across multiple brands?+
A shared cart requires the brands to live inside one commerce architecture rather than as separate stores. On Salesforce Commerce Cloud, MeatEater customers now add items from any of four brands to a single cart and complete one unified checkout. That was not possible on the previous Shopify setup.
When does a brand outgrow Shopify for Salesforce Commerce Cloud?+
Usually when complexity, not volume, becomes the constraint. MeatEater needed multiple brands under one architecture, a shared cart, and order management and marketing automation working seamlessly with commerce. Those requirements pointed to Salesforce. Plenty of retailers are better served staying on Shopify, and Red Van will say so.
How long does a Salesforce Commerce Cloud implementation take?+
MeatEater launched four brand sites in under six months, along with Salesforce Order Management and Marketing Cloud, fully integrated. Using Autobahn's pre-built integrations and low-code configuration removed most custom development from the critical path. Timelines vary with catalog complexity, integrations, and internal readiness.