Case Study: ModCloth achieves scalable agile growth and flexible shipping promotions with Pivotal Labs

Scale Systems to Meet Growing Demands of Global Business

ModCloth, a San Francisco–based eCommerce fashion retailer, was growing rapidly—hiring 80 people in 80 days—and needed to scale its engineering team and processes while preparing for the holiday shopping rush. The company sought help breaking down a monolithic platform, adopting test-driven development and agile practices, and delivering a cost‑effective, flexible free‑shipping promotion that worked reliably in the checkout flow.

Pivotal Labs pair‑programmed with ModCloth in focused rotations to model agile practices, built a flexible promotion tool that launched on time and defect‑free (allowing last‑minute threshold changes), and helped move the platform toward a service‑oriented architecture. They also restructured procurement, created a custom sourcing manager, rebuilt the data warehouse in Ruby, and delivered BI, catalog and storefront improvements—resulting in higher average order value, a system that adapts to changing needs, and an internal team trained for long‑term, sustainable velocity.

ModCloth