A Year of Progress for Creative Hut

Creative Hut weren't even a Dock client at the start of 2025.

Twelve months on, they’ve launched three unified websites, restructured their business, and expanded partnerships with global brands. When the clock struck midnight on 31 December, they finished the year well above expectations.

Last year was all about building momentum for Creative Hut.

In 2026, we’ll help them accelerate that momentum into measurable growth.

The Starting Point

When Creative Hut first approached Dock, their clear ambition was clouded by muddled systems. Separate Shopify sites for the UK and Ireland. Fragmented stock management. Platforms that didn’t properly integrate.

On top of that, their sites had to do two jobs at once: sell STEM products online and generate high-value CSR leads with global organisations.

A complete rebuild was the only solution. 

Through discovery workshops, persona mapping, and technical planning, we migrated Creative Hut from a number of disconnected, difficult to navigate websites to three sites based on one Shopify Plus platform. All followed a similar design scheme, allowing them to edit content more efficiently. 

We also integrated Unleashed and HubSpot to align sales, stock management, and marketing. 

The result was three builds on one coherent platform. Three launches, one per month across the summer. The new sites not only look better, they also operate the way Creative Hut needs them to. 

Improved Performance

Like with any website migration, there was a bedding in period. 

But the most immediate improvement was in conversions. We rebuilt product pages and service landing pages to help users make a quick decision and follow up with an enquiry. With the design and navigation more consistent, the user journey became easier to understand. 

Conversion rates have steadily increased since the launch.

For the ecommerce side of the business, we added more upsell opportunities to help increase the average order value. For their CSR and workshop enquiries, which are offline purchases, lead generation is a long game. So we designed structured marketing funnels that guide schools and corporate customers through the different stages of the buying process.

The final quarter of the year showed strong growth, with September up 9% year-on-year, October up 170%, November up 228% and December up 376% compared to 2024. Overall, performance finished 33% up year-to-date.

The consistent design also improved Creative Hut’s internal systems. Their team can now easily roll out content across regions at the push of a button.

Foundations for the future

What began as a website improvement project has expanded into SEO strategy, paid search and content development.

With such big changes in digital marketing last year, driven mainly by advancements in AI, our SEO moved beyond technical optimisation. We structured the strategy around content pillars and question-led pages designed to perform in a changing search environment.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are now summarising answers from multiple sources. While these summaries can reduce click volumes, they can also increase the buying intent of users arriving on the site.

Building authoritative content that positions Creative Hut as a reliable source across traditional search engines and AI powered platforms stands us in good stead for 2026.

 
Looking ahead to 2026

The digital overhaul coincided with internal change at Creative Hut.

A new senior hire has helped separate the business into two focused divisions: ecommerce and offline educational services. One arm concentrates on the online shop, the other develops workshops, learning spaces, and large scale CSR initiatives.

The Shopify Plus platform supports this approach by allowing the shop and the service-led side of the business to remain distinct but connected, complementary parts.

Meanwhile, STEM in education continues to evolve. Many schools that initially rejected AI are now embracing it as part of everyday learning. Government-backed nursery expansion schemes will also open additional funding routes for tech-enabled schooling.

Location wise, the UK remains Creative Hut’s main focus, Ireland provides access to the European market, and there are major opportunities in the US. However, America is a challenging market. State-by-state tax structures and international tariffs will influence the rollout strategy. 

Creative Hut’s ambition is to become one of the UK’s leading STEM suppliers and secure a larger share of the US market. With a new, unified platform and a future facing marketing strategy in place, they now have the digital infrastructure to match their vision.

Our role in 2026 is to help them achieve it. 

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