Shopify E-commerce Store For Innovative Product

THE CHALLENGE

Developing a bespoke back-end e-commerce solution was not an option for this project as time was a critical factor; the store needed to be live to cater for the Christmas consumer market. 

With a quick turnaround project it was important to understand the range of products to be sold, including specific requirements around the bespoke nature of the products. Essential for the consumer product offering, customers need to be able to upload their own photos, add any text inscription and specific font requirements and select from the range of sizes the finished slate is available in.

The administration of the site needed to be straightforward, from adding product inventory and site content to managing the order and fulfilment process. We advised building the site on the Shopify platform - a solution which ticks the boxes and actually delivers a very comprehensive e-commerce solution geared towards the end customer.

THE APPROACH

Backend and technical development

A website built on Shopify is achieved through creating a theme specific to the site in question. This means that the individual function requirements for the site are not necessarily compromised, as the Shopify theme templating is expansive and versatile to develop most requirements for.

The ability to build in customisation options for the client within the theme is useful for creating specific functionality across the various site templates. The built-in theme customisation is user-focused and relatively simple to hook up. This means that the client is able to change any required page sections and areas easily, and with constraints that maintain the site’s overall consistent design and layout.

XD and UI design

A little bit about our process for UX/UI design for any project we undertake.

After developing the functional requirements specification document with the client to determine what page templates, features and content options are required, we created a full series of wireframes, each representing the various template layouts. 

The focus here is not on the design (style, colours, typography, etc) but on the content hierarchy and layout with feedback from the client to ensure all the requirements are being considered. By keeping the wireframes free from visual styles at this stage helps to focus the client on the important content considerations.

In the instance of using off the shelf platforms such as Shopify, it’s important to manage the client’s expectations to help them understand any limitations. In the case of Shopify, the customer checkout process—whilst customisable in terms of typography and brand colour considerations—is pre-defined, as Shopify have refined the workflow to maximise successful customer checkout. 

For the wireframes for Goffod, we simply included wireframe versions of the already defined checkout process to make sure they can understand the customer buying journey fully. 

Once the wireframes are approved by the client, we develop the visual style for the website, applying any brand guidelines and visual considerations to the various template layouts, ensuring accessibility standards are met and giving a clear indication of what the website will look like.

Go-live and delivery

Once the UI design was approved, we created the coded theme for the Shopify platform, carrying out any final client changes on a development site featuring dummy content/product data. The theme was then applied to the Goffod Shopify website, with the client adding content before the site went live.

THE RESULT

Performance

The Shopify theme we developed for Goffod has been optimised for the their requirements and means that compared to bought Shopify themes widely available, their site will perform better, which will provide a better user experience and ultimately leads to greater sales.

As their marketing strategy is outworked, daily traffic and orders are continuing to increase, week by week.