Case Study - Magic Memories
With Elastic Path, Magic Memories centralizes global product and pricing management, enabling real-time personalization and faster merchandising changes across 200+ locations in 13 countries.
Industry
Tourism & Attractions
Use Cases
Global Catalog & Pricing Transformation, Multi-Channel Personalization
Products
Elastic Path Composable Commerce
This isn’t just about selling more photos — it’s about having the agility to adapt our entire merchandising strategy to what customers want, in real time, without breaking the business to do it.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
This isn’t just about selling more photos — it’s about having the agility to adapt our entire merchandising strategy to what customers want, in real time, without breaking the business to do it.
locations
in 13 countries powered by Elastic Path
product catalogs
unique and location-specific in one platform
orders
processed since launch on Elastic Path (May - August 2025)
engineering
required for catalog, pricing, or promotion updates
products
personalized to each customer across ~100M photos and videos
Magic Memories captures, creates, and sells personalized photo and video experiences for visitors at some of the world’s most popular attractions. Whether it’s a family riding a roller coaster, posing in front of a landmark, or exploring a museum, the company turns those moments into high-quality digital and physical keepsakes — from instant downloads to printed photo books — that guests can treasure and share.
Unlike stock imagery or generic souvenirs, every Magic Memories product is based on content captured of the customer during their visit. This means every single SKU is unique and dynamically generated with customer-specific imagery. Managing this at scale requires technology that can instantly match the right content to the right person across multiple channels.
Operating across 13 countries and more than 200 retail locations, Magic Memories engages customers through a variety of sales channels, including pre-sale website packages bundled with attraction tickets, in-store point of sale (POS) systems operated by staff, self-service kiosks for on-site purchases, and post-visit eCommerce for reorders and digital upsells
Before Elastic Path, Magic Memories’ catalog and pricing system was a patchwork of hardcoded SKUs. Even small changes — like renaming a bundle, updating a tax rate, or adjusting a product price — required developer intervention.
If we needed to change a price or bundle name, it went into a sprint cycle, needed code changes, reviews… and you’d wait weeks. In tourism, that’s a lifetime.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
If we needed to change a price or bundle name, it went into a sprint cycle, needed code changes, reviews… and you’d wait weeks. In tourism, that’s a lifetime.
These delays didn’t just frustrate the team — they hurt the business. Jason recalls that for high-margin seasonal items or limited-time promotions, the old systems were either incapable or required massive effort to coordinate updates across sales channels, kiosks, in-store, and online ecommerce. As a result, Magic Memories missed opportunities to maximize conversions and increase average selling price during peak demand periods. The lack of agility in pricing and product positioning prevented them from fully capitalizing on their busiest times of year.
The challenges compounded at scale:
Adding to the complexity: pricing wasn’t just multi-currency — it was geo-specific and event-driven. School groups might get weekday discounts, special events might require unique bundles, and every location had its own on-brand product naming.The patchwork nature of the old setup was further compounded by fragmented tooling. Catalog and pricing were managed in various homegrown systems, while Vend/Lightspeed handled point-of-sale in some regions, other POS providers filled gaps in certain markets like Korea and Germany, and WeChat was used for transactions in mainland China.
We had no way to quickly react to what was happening on the ground — whether it was a special weekend event or just fixing a name that wasn’t resonating with guests.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
We had no way to quickly react to what was happening on the ground — whether it was a special weekend event or just fixing a name that wasn’t resonating with guests.
Jason and his team knew the business needed a centralized yet highly flexible commerce platform, one that could serve as the system of record for all product and pricing data while also allowing them to tailor every catalog, bundle, and price to the local brand experience. It had to integrate seamlessly with their existing POS, kiosks, eCommerce, and fulfillment systems, and most importantly, it needed to remove engineering bottlenecks from the day-to-day work of merchandising.
Elastic Path’s composable commerce approach stood out because it could support hundreds of unique catalogs, handle sophisticated pricing scenarios, and allow for location-specific bundling without requiring code changes. The pre-sales team impressed Jason by diving into the details of every complex use case and showing exactly how the platform could be configured to meet those needs.
When you’re pushing the limits of what a commerce system can do, you need a partner who will get into the weeds with you. Elastic Path did that from day one.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
When you’re pushing the limits of what a commerce system can do, you need a partner who will get into the weeds with you. Elastic Path did that from day one.
Jason explains that “getting into the weeds” meant working directly with Elastic Path to validate whether the platform could truly support their hyper-personalized products. Unlike traditional setups where products are stock images, Magic Memories needed each SKU to be dynamically tied to customer-specific photos and videos. Elastic Path's team extended the data model using on platform capabilities (Commerce Extensions), built custom APIs with Elastic Path's native custom API service, and delivered CMS components to ensure the experience could be personalized end-to-end. Along the way, blockers identified were added to the product roadmap, reinforcing Jason’s confidence that Elastic Path would grow with them.
Magic Memories implemented Elastic Path as the central hub for all product, pricing, and bundle definitions across its global network — with every channel, from kiosks to eCommerce, pulling from the same authoritative source. Built on a flexible, API-first architecture, the platform scales seamlessly to handle both high transaction volumes and rapid business pivots without becoming brittle over time. Just as important, Elastic Path’s customer success and engineering teams work side-by-side with Magic Memories, responding quickly to feature requests and troubleshooting urgent issues within hours — a level of partnership Jason says is rare among larger vendors.
Elastic Path’s Product Experience Manager — the central hub for managing products, catalogs, and pricing — powers over 600 unique, location-specific catalogs, all managed from a single interface. The team can make a change once and push it live everywhere in minutes. Multi-currency and multi-geo pricebooks ensure the right price for every shopper, no matter where they buy, and because Elastic Path supports unlimited pricebooks, Magic Memories can create as many localized or event-specific variations as needed without hitting system limits. API-driven deployment instantly syncs updates to POS, kiosks, and eCommerce sites, allowing each location to maintain its own unique branding and product mix without multiplying operational overhead.
We can rename a bundle for the New York Natural History Museum, launch a different version for the London location, and push both live instantly — all without a single developer ticket.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
We can rename a bundle for the New York Natural History Museum, launch a different version for the London location, and push both live instantly — all without a single developer ticket.
Magic Memories can now configure bundles based on location, client brand, or event-specific promotions—without engineering support. In the old setup, every bundle was hardcoded, which meant changes required a full development cycle and couldn’t be adjusted in response to local events or demand spikes. With Elastic Path, bundles are created and managed through an intuitive interface, instantly deployed to POS systems, kiosks, and online channels. This flexibility enables them to tailor offers to the unique identity of each attraction while still maintaining operational consistency.
It’s like going from a locked-down menu to a living, breathing merchandising machine. If we want a T-Rex bundle one week and a Brontosaurus bundle the next, we just update the component name in Elastic Path and it flows everywhere.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
It’s like going from a locked-down menu to a living, breathing merchandising machine. If we want a T-Rex bundle one week and a Brontosaurus bundle the next, we just update the component name in Elastic Path and it flows everywhere.
Elastic Path now serves as the single source of truth for all product definitions, pricing logic, and catalog structures across 600+ unique store-specific setups. This eliminates the risk of inconsistencies, SKU duplication, and pricing misalignment between locations. Pricing teams can adjust rates for specific geographies, apply promotional pricing for special events, and synchronize those updates in real time to every channel.
What makes this possible is Elastic Path’s API-first architecture and unlimited pricebook model, which are purpose-built for highly complex, location-driven commerce operations. Unlike platforms that require rigid SKU hierarchies or manual workarounds, Elastic Path allows Magic Memories to configure unique pricing logic, tax rules, and product variations for each location — all while maintaining centralized governance. This means they can operate with the precision of local control and the efficiency of a global system.
Changing tax rates used to mean code changes and release cycles. Now it’s literally two clicks.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
Changing tax rates used to mean code changes and release cycles. Now it’s literally two clicks.
For the first time, Magic Memories has real-time insight into what’s selling, and what’s not, across every location and channel. Leadership can spot top-performing bundles, identify underperforming products, and make data-driven decisions about pricing, promotions, and merchandising. This visibility also surfaces operational inefficiencies that were previously hidden in siloed, location-specific systems.
The rollout replaced ad hoc, location-by-location practices with standardized data structures, pricing logic, and catalog rules that every team follows. This consistency has simplified onboarding for new locations and made it easier to expand into new markets without reinventing processes.
Each location wanting to do their own thing was challenging and not beneficial for anyone. That’s now over. We now have one central source of truth and everyone plays by the same rules.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
Each location wanting to do their own thing was challenging and not beneficial for anyone. That’s now over. We now have one central source of truth and everyone plays by the same rules.
Bundles and coupons can now be dynamically linked to digital campaigns, and a single promotion can be applied to hundreds of catalogs without having to create separate copies or manage multiple instances. This ensures brand consistency, reduces operational overhead, and makes it easy to launch large-scale, multi-location promotions from a single setup. Even if Magic Memories doesn’t run the same promotion across all catalogs today, this capability gives them the flexibility to do so in the future.
We’re building campaigns with discounts tied to personalized images — and we’re seeing strong engagement. The system handles millions of users and their individualized assets without breaking a sweat.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
We’re building campaigns with discounts tied to personalized images — and we’re seeing strong engagement. The system handles millions of users and their individualized assets without breaking a sweat.
These results are powered by Elastic Path’s Promotions Builder, which gives merchandising and marketing teams complete control over campaign rules without developer involvement. They can define eligibility criteria, stack or combine offers, set precise scheduling, and target promotions by location, customer type, or channel — all from one intuitive interface. This makes it possible to deliver highly targeted offers at scale, test new ideas quickly, and adapt promotions in real time based on performance.
Tourism and attractions often operate under widely different tax structures, local laws, and event-driven pricing requirements. Elastic Path enables Magic Memories to manage these nuances without custom development — supporting dynamic tax calculation by city, zero-dollar transactions for authorized staff, and weekday vs. weekend pricing for events or school groups. These rules can be set once and applied automatically across the relevant catalogs, eliminating manual overrides and ensuring compliance while still enabling local flexibility.
Whether it’s a single kiosk in Auckland or 50 stores across North America, we can update everything at once and know it’s live everywhere in minutes.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
Whether it’s a single kiosk in Auckland or 50 stores across North America, we can update everything at once and know it’s live everywhere in minutes.
Custom bundles, location-specific names, and branded assets can be launched or retired in minutes—supporting both local creativity and global consistency. With Elastic Path, every product interaction across kiosks, eCommerce, and in-store POS is treated as a tracked transaction, even for pre-sold or zero-dollar orders. This ensures that fulfillment, reporting, and customer experience remain perfectly aligned.
Because the platform processes all transactions—not just a subset—Magic Memories gains complete operational visibility while avoiding a cost barrier that limits many competitors. During peak visitor periods, thousands of these personalized orders can be processed in minutes without a drop in performance. Jason notes that while there were some initial scaling challenges given the sheer volume — millions of API requests monthly across kiosks — Elastic Path’s Global Services, Support, and Engineering teams worked side-by-side with Magic Memories to expand capacity. They even built custom monitoring dashboards tailored to track performance during high-traffic periods, giving Jason’s team complete confidence.
Elastic Path is pretty core for any kind of product purchase… even if it’s a pre-sold action, it counts as a transaction so we know exactly why we’re fulfilling it and can trigger everything downstream.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
Elastic Path is pretty core for any kind of product purchase… even if it’s a pre-sold action, it counts as a transaction so we know exactly why we’re fulfilling it and can trigger everything downstream.
The operational gains have been clear almost immediately. Merchandising updates that once took weeks of development work are now made in minutes. Marketing teams can spin up localized promotions or respond to events in real time, without worrying about development release cycles. Campaign responsiveness improved dramatically, as offers could be tested and refined on the fly.
Perhaps most notably, adoption of self-service sales kiosks surged in regions that had previously resisted them, thanks to the flexibility and relevance of the new product and pricing configurations. Jason explains that this shift mirrors trends seen in companies like McDonald’s: kiosks became more attractive as labor costs and turnover rose, while consumers increasingly preferred the speed and control of digital self-service. By reducing order errors, shortening wait times, and capturing valuable customer data, kiosks have not only optimized labor use but also improved the guest experience. Elastic Path’s ability to support kiosk bundles dynamically has been central to this evolution, making it possible to tailor offerings instantly across hundreds of locations.
Don’t wait until your platform becomes the problem. Make the change while you’re still in control of your roadmap. The earlier you move to a flexible model, the better your cost and outcome.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
Don’t wait until your platform becomes the problem. Make the change while you’re still in control of your roadmap. The earlier you move to a flexible model, the better your cost and outcome.
With Elastic Path serving as the foundation of its commerce operations, Magic Memories is well-positioned to expand into new regions and onboard new clients without multiplying operational complexity. The marketing team can experiment with new product formats and bundle combinations without waiting for developer availability, and the BI team is beginning to leverage real-time sales insights to fine-tune pricing and product mixes for maximum impact. Jason expects to see measurable lifts in conversion rates, average order value, and operational efficiency as the organization continues to deepen its use of the platform and unlocks new merchandising possibilities.
With Elastic Path, we can customize to any location, in any way, and finally take full advantage of our infrastructure and strategies that drive results.Jason Kirby Global Head of Product & Engineering
With Elastic Path, we can customize to any location, in any way, and finally take full advantage of our infrastructure and strategies that drive results.
Connect with us today to see how our family of composable products will help you deliver unique commerce experiences.