Replatforming a direct-to-consumer storefront ahead of a product launch
A performance-focused rebuild of a direct-to-consumer storefront, timed to a seasonal product launch with a hard, unmovable release date.
The challenge
The existing storefront was slow enough on mobile that checkout abandonment was a known problem, and the business had a fixed launch date tied to a seasonal campaign that couldn't move.
The approach
A replatformed storefront built for fast first paint on mobile, with checkout simplified to reduce the steps between cart and confirmation, launched with margin before the campaign date.
How we’d run this project
Set a hard code-freeze date two weeks before launch, working backward from the fixed campaign date
Rebuilt the highest-traffic pages (home, category, checkout) first and validated performance before touching the rest
Ran load testing against expected campaign traffic ahead of launch
Kept the legacy storefront live as a fallback until the new one had run cleanly through one full sales cycle
Features delivered
- Server-rendered storefront optimized for mobile Core Web Vitals
- Simplified checkout flow with fewer steps to purchase
- Structured data for products to support search visibility
- Load-tested for seasonal campaign traffic
Technology stack
Outcome
The storefront launched on schedule ahead of the campaign date and handled the seasonal traffic spike without the checkout slowdowns the previous platform was known for.