Sometimes, retail transformation is about more than systems – it is about doing justice to a club’s identity. Royal Antwerp FC, Belgium’s oldest club and “The Great Old”, needed a fanshop that matched the atmosphere of Bosuilstadion and the passion of its supporters. From the stadium store to the online shop, every touchpoint had to feel unmistakably RAFC – red and white, bold, and uncompromising – so together with Radikal we delivered a unified commerce platform that connects fans and powers performance on every channel from day one.
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Client
Royal Antwerp FC
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Services
Engagement, Revenue, Staffing, Technology
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Links
The Challenge:
- Legacy Lightspeed setup for physical retail, disconnected from the online shop
- Fragmented stock management between stadium store and external channels
- Limited flexibility to adapt the fanshop to new collections and matchday peaks
- No centralised fulfilment logic to orchestrate orders across partners and locations
The Idea:
Royal Antwerp FC wanted a modern commerce stack that matched the ambition of “The Great Old”: fast, flexible, and ready for growth. The vision was to make Shopify the single source of truth for products, inventory, and orders, and then connect every touchpoint – stadium, webshop, and fulfilment partner – into that core. By doing so, the club could serve fans better, reduce operational friction, and gain a clear view of what sells, where, and when.
The Solution:
- Migrated the full retail operation from Lightspeed to Shopify with minimal disruption
- Implemented Shopify POS across physical locations to align in-store and online selling
- Introduced a central “master store” for the fulfilment partner, routing and managing orders from all channels
- Enabled real-time stock synchronisation between webshop, stadium store, and warehouse
- Optimised the fanshop UX for product discovery, personalisation, and matchday traffic patterns
The Results:
- One unified platform for webshop, POS, and fulfilment operations
- Consistent fan experience across online and in-stadium retail
- Better control over inventory and fewer manual interventions for the club and its partners
- A scalable commerce foundation ready for new product lines, campaigns, and peak moments at Bosuilstadion
Delivered from inside the club. Bluepitch worked as part of Royal Antwerp FC’s own team, in their systems and their day-to-day, for the length of the project.
Related work. Catania keeps stock in sync across four locations on the same engine. We rebuilt Willem II’s full commerce stack, and built membership-powered commerce for Melbourne City FC.