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About

—

We’re a globally distributed team driven by a shared mission: to help our clients succeed through thoughtful, customer-centric solutions.

We believe in the positive impact a brand can have on people’s lives, and approach every project from the perspective of the customer. Lucky for us—our clients are often our favorite brands. Our goal is to create experiences that resonate, add value, and help brands build lasting connections with their communities.

Barrel team member working on a team building exercise at our company retreat

Leadership & Partnerships

Lucas Ballasy

Chief Executive Officer, Partner

Wesley Turner-Harris

Chief Technology Officer, Partner

Michelle Schraudner

Director of Client Success

Christine Carforo

Design Director

David Remes

Growth & Partnerships Manager

Alex Plosch

Marketing Manager

Nadia Reynolds

Business Development Manager

Nate Rosen

Advisor

Purpose & Values

Barrel exists to provide our clients with exceptional service and work that generates impactful results. Our values below support our purpose.

All Feedback is Information

We view feedback as valuable information and proactively seek it out. It helps us learn, grow, and enhance performance.

Turn Setbacks Into Growth Opportunities

Mistakes, losses, and missed opportunities are chances to improve. We use lessons learned to do better the next time.

Take the Long Term View

We work patiently towards worthwhile outcomes. We do not take short-cuts and will always prioritize our integrity and relationships.

Be Proactive

We focus on what we can influence and act with a sense of urgency. We take ownership and avoid blaming others.

Shopify Premier Partner — Trusted Relationships in the Ecosystem

We've been working with Shopify since 2009 and are a Shopify Premier Partner. We have strong relationships with Shopify and other solutions providers in the ecosystem (e.g. Klaviyo, Recharge, Rebuy, Okendo, Tolstoy, Gorgias, & SPINS) to bring the highest levels of service to our clients.

About Shopify Services

How We See It — Your Website is Your Online Flagship

Your website is where your brand’s story comes to life—a hub for customers to learn, discover, and experience. Through customer research and journey mapping, we help brands create seamless experiences across every touchpoint, driving engagement and boosting sales not just online, but across all channels.

Explore Services

Extending Our Expertise

We've partnered with industry leaders who bring a wealth of knowledge to the complexities CPG growth. They're instrumental in supporting our clients in sales, marketing, and growth strategies.

Paul Owusu

Our CEO Lucas Ballasy's insights on growth & performance in leadership, life, & e-commerce.

Fred Michaels

Our research project where we share insights from making real DTC purchases online.

Anu Naithani

We invite speakers from diverse backgrounds who are making an impact in their fields.

CX Insights Graphic

Nate Rosen

We invite speakers from diverse backgrounds who are making an impact in their fields.

Ideas & Inspiration

Peek inside how we operate and think about the business, learn from our research, and see who's inspiring our team.

Leadership & E-commerce

Our CEO Lucas Ballasy's insights on growth & performance in leadership, life, & e-commerce.

Visit the Website ↗

DTC Patterns

Our research project where we share insights from making real DTC purchases online.

See Our Research ↗

Barrel Spotlight

We invite speakers from diverse backgrounds who are making an impact in their fields.

See Past Speakers

Explore Our History

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

10 Years

2017

2019

2020

15 Years

2021

2022

2024

2025

Interested in collaborating on a project?

Get Started

Featured Work

McCormick & Company

Creating a Unified Shopify Ecosystem for McCormick’s Family of Brands

Sweet Loren's

Shopify 2.0 Migration and a Framework Built for Scale

OneSkin

OneSkin's Seamless Migration from Headless to Shopify 2.0

Bobo's

Unlocking Subscription Growth for a Fast-Growing Omnichannel Brand

View by Industry

Food & Beverage
Beauty & Skincare
Health & Wellness
Home & Family

Frequently Asked Questions

If we haven't answered your question, contact us and we'll be happy to help.

Does Barrel have experience working with celebrity CPG brands?

Yes. We partner with celebrity and creator-led brands to translate early momentum into a scalable digital foundation. These brands often launch with strong awareness, but long-term success depends on how well the product and experience hold up beyond that initial attention. We focus on building digital experiences that support sustained growth.

How do we know if Barrel is the right fit?

The best signal is whether the problems you are facing match what we have solved before. If you are a CPG brand trying to figure out how to show up consistently across DTC, Amazon, and retail and you want a partner with real opinions rather than just execution capacity, we are probably worth a conversation.

What happens after a project launches?

We offer ongoing retainers covering platform maintenance, CRO testing, new feature development, email campaigns, Amazon creative updates, and strategic advisory. Most of our long-term client relationships start with a defined project and grow from there as the brand's needs evolve.

Do you work with private equity firms or portfolio companies?

Yes. We have worked with portfolio companies and holding structures managing multiple CPG brands across different categories. The architecture question of one shared backend, separate stores on a shared template, or something in between depends on whether the brands share customers, whether cross-selling matters, and how the backend needs to be managed day to day. We walk through the trade-offs and give a clear recommendation.

Why does Barrel focus specifically on CPG?

CPG brands face challenges that general ecommerce or digital agencies often miss: retail relationships that complicate DTC strategy, Amazon as a parallel channel with its own creative and content requirements, subscription and repurchase dynamics, ingredient and sourcing storytelling, and the need for consistency across touchpoints that serve completely different customer mindsets. Specializing in CPG means we have seen those challenges across dozens of brands and have developed real points of view about how to navigate them.

Can Barrel support international expansion?

Yes. We have worked with brands expanding into new markets and helped think through the architecture: separate domains versus international versions of the same site, currency and checkout localization, and messaging differences by market. We help brands make those decisions intentionally before they are trying to unwind a patched-together solution.

Do you work with brands that have not launched yet?

Yes. We have built launch sites and digital foundations for brands going to market for the first time across food, beverage, supplements, and personal care. Those engagements focus on getting the architecture, storytelling, and conversion fundamentals right from the start so the brand does not have to rebuild everything when it scales.

How do you approach conversion rate optimization?

CRO for us is not about running random tests. It starts with understanding the data: where customers are dropping off, what the page is asking them to do, whether the messaging matches what brought them there, and what the site is communicating about the brand at each step. We audit that first, form hypotheses, then test in order of expected impact. For brands without a strong data foundation we start there before we start testing.

What is your perspective on subscriptions for CPG brands?

Subscriptions work when the product has natural repurchase behavior and the brand treats the subscription as a product in itself rather than just a billing mechanic. The best programs have their own onboarding, messaging, and ongoing engagement cadence. We have built subscription programs for supplement brands, food brands, and specialty goods and have seen the difference between a subscription that retains customers and one that just processes charges. We help brands think through that strategy before they pick a tool.

What does Barrel do on the website side?

Strategy, UX, design, and development for brand sites and ecommerce sites, primarily on Shopify. We have been building on Shopify since 2009 and became a Shopify Plus partner in 2017. We have also built multi-brand ecosystems like the McCormick site, which runs 14 brands under one Shopify backend with a shared cart and distinct brand experiences for each. We handle new builds, redesigns, platform migrations, and ongoing optimization.

Do you help brands migrate from other platforms?

Yes. We have migrated brands from Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and fully custom platforms. The key considerations are customer data, product catalogs, and any custom functionality that needs to be rebuilt. We involve our CTO early in migration projects so scope is accurate from the start and nothing surprises either side mid-project.

Should my brand go headless?

Almost never. We have migrated multiple brands off headless builds and back to native Shopify after the fact. Headless adds complexity to tracking, increases development costs, and slows down iteration. Unless there is a very specific technical requirement that native genuinely cannot meet we will not recommend it.

Can Barrel build a site that supports multiple brands?

Yes. We built the McCormick multi-brand ecosystem on Shopify: 14 brands under one site where customers can navigate between brands, cross-shop, and share a single cart. We built Halo and Aden and Anais as a shared backend with completely distinct brand experiences. The key trade-off with a unified architecture is that it requires one parent domain. We are upfront about that constraint and help brands decide whether a shared or separate approach makes more sense before anyone writes a line of code.

How do you think about AI search and GEO for CPG brands?

When someone asks an AI tool a question like "best organic snack brand" or "what supplement helps with sleep," the answer comes from content that is structured, specific, and easy to parse. That means well-organized product pages, educational content, FAQ pages, and articles that directly answer the questions customers are actually asking. We help CPG brands build that content layer as part of their broader digital strategy. Traditional SEO fundamentals still matter too: site architecture, page speed, metadata, and content structure. We approach both together because they reinforce each other.

How do you think about omnichannel strategy for CPG brands?

Digital is not a channel anymore. It is the connective tissue between all your channels. A customer might discover you on TikTok, research you on your site, buy on Amazon, and subscribe to your email list before ever purchasing DTC. Each of those touchpoints needs to tell a consistent story and hand the customer to the next moment smoothly. We help brands map those journeys and close the gaps between channels rather than treating each one as a separate project.

We are a retail-first brand. Do we actually need a stronger digital presence?

Yes. Even if most of your volume moves through retail, your digital presence shapes whether a customer who sees you in a store ever thinks about you again. Customers turn to search, AI tools, and brand websites to learn more before and after purchase. If your site cannot answer their questions, your Amazon presence looks like an afterthought, or your email program does not exist, you are losing the relationship even when you win the shelf. We help retail-first brands build digital infrastructure that supports their retail business rather than operating separately from it.

We are an Amazon-first brand. How do we build a DTC presence without hurting what is already working?

The two channels do not have to compete. Some customers will always prefer Amazon. Others come to your DTC site to understand the brand more deeply, subscribe, find products not available on Amazon, or access content a product listing page cannot provide. We help brands build a DTC presence that earns its value without requiring them to walk away from what is already working. Amazon and DTC can grow together and we have helped brands navigate that balance across dozens of engagements.

Our brand is growing fast but our digital presence is not keeping up. Where do you start?

Usually with an audit. Before we recommend anything we want to understand how the site is performing, where customers are dropping off, what the Amazon presence looks like relative to the DTC experience, what retention systems are in place, and what gaps exist in the content and SEO foundation. That picture tells us what to prioritize and in what order. Skipping that step and jumping straight to a redesign is one of the most common mistakes we see.

How do you help CPG brands grow on Amazon?

We help brands build an Amazon presence that matches the quality and credibility of their DTC experience. That includes storefront design, A plus content and premium interactive modules, product detail page creative, category page storytelling, and ingredient and benefit narratives. What we find consistently is that brands invest heavily in their website and let their Amazon presence fall behind. A customer who finds you on Amazon and a customer who finds you on your DTC site should feel the same level of trust and brand quality. We make sure those experiences are consistent rather than disconnected.

What does Barrel do on the retention and email side?

We build and manage the systems that keep customers coming back. That includes Klaviyo strategy and flow architecture, SMS programs, post-purchase sequences, winback campaigns, and subscription setup and optimization. We work with Klaviyo, Recharge, Rebuy, and the major tools in the ecosystem. For CPG brands the first purchase is often the cheapest to win. Retention is where the business actually becomes profitable and we treat it as a core service rather than an afterthought.

Who does Barrel work with?

Barrel works with CPG brands at every stage of growth. That includes founder-led emerging brands building their first digital presence, mid-market brands growing DTC alongside Amazon and retail, and established brands managing complex multi-brand portfolios. Our clients are almost always selling in more than one place at once. Names like McCormick, Cabot Creamery, Sweet Loren's, Once Upon a Farm, Real Good Foods, Halo, Rastelli's, Canyon Bakehouse, and Instant Pot reflect the range.

What makes Barrel different from other digital agencies?

We focus exclusively on CPG. Not ecommerce in general, not DTC in isolation. CPG brands that live across retail, Amazon, and DTC at the same time face a specific set of challenges that most agencies are not built to navigate. We have been doing this for nearly 20 years and have real opinions about how to handle those challenges. We are not learning on your project.

What services does Barrel offer?

Our work covers the full digital footprint of a CPG brand. Website strategy, design, and development. Amazon storefront design, A plus content, and product page creative. Email and SMS strategy and execution. Subscription program setup and optimization. Loyalty program integration. Conversion rate optimization. SEO and GEO strategy, including structuring content so brands show up in AI-generated search results. Ecommerce audits. And ongoing retainers that keep all of it moving after launch. Most clients start with one workstream and expand over time.

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