The U.K. hot tub brand builds much of its business technology in-house. But when managing its growing marketplace catalog became too much for one employee, the answer wasn't another tool the team had to build.
32%
Year-over-year growth in marketplace sales with Mirakl Connect
10
Marketplaces live on Mirakl Connect with plans to double next year
~1 day
To launch on a new marketplace with Catalog Transformer vs. several weeks manually
How an inflatable hot tub sample became a growing international brand
A weekend spent testing an inflatable hot tub gave Tom Jeffrey, Wave Direct (opens in a new tab)’s co-founder, a business idea.
Tom and his future business partner were looking for a new opportunity when an inflatable hot tub sample caught his attention. He took it home, his family loved it and he saw a gap in the market with little competition or innovation.
The pair invested their savings and spent two years getting Wave off the ground. Their first shipment sold out on preorder as COVID-19 drove demand for products people could enjoy at home.
Today, Wave sells portable hot tubs, paddleboards and kayaks (opens in a new tab) in the U.K. and U.S., and the business grew about 40% this past year.
Wave also builds much of its own software to help its team work more efficiently, and that approach shaped how the company first expanded onto marketplaces.
The growing workload behind every new marketplace
As Wave expanded onto more marketplaces, managing its homegrown integrations alongside third-party Shopify apps became increasingly difficult.
In 2024, Wave started using Mirakl Connect (opens in a new tab) to bring its marketplace connections together and simplify day-to-day management.
The move gave Wave a better foundation for growing its marketplace business, and today, Wave's marketplace sales are growing approximately 32% year over year.
While Mirakl Connect simplified Wave's marketplace integrations, managing product listings was still a manual process.
Each marketplace had its own categories and requirements, leaving Wave's head of marketplaces responsible for preparing, updating and checking product information across multiple channels.
As Wave expanded, the operational side of the business grew more complex.
Tom also wanted to tailor listings by season and country to better serve customers in the U.K. and U.S. But the team was already struggling to keep up, and mistakes were happening.
“She's done an amazing job, but you could see she was being pulled in every direction. Without the right tool, she was reaching capacity, and that's when small mistakes start to creep in.” – Tom Jeffrey, co-founder, Wave Direct
Concerned about losing a valuable employee, Tom decided it was time to find a better way to manage the growing workload.
Why Wave chose Catalog Transformer over building its own tool
Tom's first instinct was to build a solution in-house. But before his team got started, Wave's head of marketplaces discovered that Mirakl Connect already offered what they needed.
“She came to me and said Mirakl had something called Catalog Transformer. I looked at it and thought, that's exactly what we were planning to build ourselves.” – Tom Jeffrey
Catalog Transformer uses AI to adapt product data to each marketplace's requirements, including mapping attributes and rewriting product titles, descriptions and bullet points.
Although Wave had the technical capabilities to build something, Tom recognized the value of working with a partner that specialized in marketplace technology.
After evaluating other solutions, he chose Mirakl for its established platform and ability to support Wave's expansion.
Wave enabled Catalog Transformer on a Monday morning, and the team was using it that afternoon without any technical issues or support tickets.
“It just worked from day one. Honestly, that's a high bar, even for the tools we build ourselves.” – Tom Jeffrey
How Wave Direct launched 50 products on Argos with a day's work
Wave saw the benefits of Catalog Transformer firsthand when it launched on Argos, one of the U.K.'s largest retailers.
With product data already mapped from Shopify, Catalog Transformer adapted Wave's listings to meet Argos' requirements, including descriptions, images and variations like colors and sizes.
Their head of marketplaces completed the launch alongside her regular responsibilities over a week, spending approximately one day of actual work on it.
Without Catalog Transformer, Tom estimates the process would have taken several weeks and forced the team to prioritize which products to launch.
“Catalog Transformer let us go live with 50 products that week. Without it, we'd have launched with half that at best.” – Tom Jeffrey
Wave can now easily launch a broader assortment of products, including accessories and replacement parts that might otherwise be deprioritized. Tom also said Catalog Transformer's listings rarely need revising, saving the team additional work after launch.
Expanding to new marketplaces with the same team
With Catalog Transformer handling much of the manual listing work, Wave's head of marketplaces now has more time for other areas of the business, including eCommerce.
Tom has also shifted his attention from day-to-day marketplace problems to growth. Instead of spending meetings troubleshooting, he and his team can focus on choosing the right marketplaces for Wave's products and planning how to succeed on them.
Wave is bringing more of its major channels, including Amazon, onto Mirakl Connect and plans to add approximately 10 marketplaces in its next financial year, bringing its total to around 20.
“We're planning to add another 10 marketplaces next year, and I'm genuinely confident about it because we've got Mirakl Connect behind us.” – Tom Jeffrey
Why Wave Direct plans to double its marketplace presence
Wave plans to expand from 10 to approximately 20 marketplaces in its next financial year, while bringing major channels like Amazon and Walmart onto Mirakl Connect.
For Tom, expanding to more marketplaces is about more than increasing sales. While a handful of channels drive most of Wave's revenue, others create valuable opportunities to reach new customers and build brand awareness.
“I'm really excited about our smaller marketplaces because many of them actively promote themselves. With products as visual as ours, that gives us a lot of valuable exposure.” – Tom Jeffrey
With a new generation of hot tubs launching alongside ice baths and saunas, Wave will introduce even more products across its growing marketplace network. Mirakl Connect and Catalog Transformer will help the team manage that expansion without adding the manual workload that previously held it back.
