How Mint Velvet handled a 64% Black Friday surge without disruption

Mint Velvet has overhauled its digital infrastructure to support continued growth across stores and ecommerce, following the implementation of a new integration platform delivered in partnership with Patchworks.

The British womenswear brand, founded 16 years ago and now operating more than 55 stores alongside a growing international online presence, moved away from a legacy integration layer that had become increasingly restrictive as the business scaled.

As the business expanded, the risk was not standing still but falling behind, with growing operational complexity, increased pressure during peak trading, and a technology stack that struggled to keep pace with customer expectations.

Previously, the system acted as a “black box”, limiting visibility across data flows and slowing the introduction of new technology. The business lacked the autonomy to make changes internally, often facing long timelines and higher costs to adapt its tech stack.

To address this, Mint Velvet completed a full migration to an Integration Platform as a Service model in just three months, connecting its Shopify ecommerce platform with its ERP system and wider architecture.

The new integration layer now underpins all core operations across the business, including fulfilment, refunds, pricing and product data, enabling real-time synchronisation across online and in-store channels. We didn’t have the ownership or the autonomy to make changes internally. It was like a black box. So we now have autonomy over the integration layer.

We have clarity, we understand the different flows, and we can prioritise them. – Paula Abasolo, omnichannel delivery lead, Mint Velvet The impact of the transformation has been most visible during peak trading periods.

During Black Friday, Mint Velvet saw a 64% increase in operational volume, rising from around 46,000 daily operations to more than 76,000 across 91 integration flows, with up to 70 running concurrently.

Without that shift, rising transaction volumes would have placed increasing strain on systems and teams, particularly during peak periods where reliability is critical to both revenue and customer experience.

Instead, the business has moved away from reactive system management, with operations running reliably in the background, even under significantly increased demand.

The ‘Retail Integration Report: Insights from the 2025/26 Patchworks Retail Tech Leaders Survey’ found that almost half (48%) of retailers admit they rely on temporary workarounds during peak trading, and 31% acknowledge direct revenue losses during busy periods due to poor integration – something Mint Velvet has now avoided.

The best scenario you can be in is not knowing what’s happening, whether it’s Black Friday or not, because the operations are running seamlessly in the background. – Paula Abasolo, omnichannel delivery lead at Mint Velvet Beyond performance, the new architecture has given Mint Velvet greater flexibility to evolve its technology stack.

Teams can now prioritise and manage integrations internally, enabling faster time to market for new features and services. The transformation has also improved data accuracy across channels, particularly in stock availability and product information, reducing the risk of inconsistencies that can undermine customer trust.

Looking ahead, Mint Velvet is focused on continuing to evolve its platform to support growth, with the flexibility to introduce or remove technologies as needed. The business is also exploring the role of AI across its systems, with a focus on internal education and practical use cases that improve efficiency and customer experience.

Retailers need integration that can keep up with the pace of change. This project shows what’s possible when businesses have the visibility and control to evolve their systems quickly and confidently.

– Michael Owen, VP of Customer Success, Patchworks The project reflects a wider shift across retail, as brands move away from rigid, opaque systems in favour of flexible platforms that support continuous growth, faster innovation and more resilient operations. The pressure is intensifying.

Retail CTOs are being asked to scale operations, improve customer experience and prepare for AI-driven commerce, all while reducing costs. Yet only 27% of brands describe themselves as fully connected and scalable For years, building integrations in-house felt like control. In reality, it has locked many retailers into endless rebuild cycles.

When 31% are still relying on custom builds, it shows how hard it is to step away from legacy thinking. But the economics have shifted. Teams cannot afford to spend their best talent patching and re-patching connections between systems – who has time for that?

Retailers want platforms that can adapt as their stack evolves, not brittle point-to-point connections that break under pressure. – Jim Herbert, CEO, Patchworks