Case Study:
Upgrading Charles & Ivy to Shopify 2.0
See how we updated Charles & Ivy’s Shopify eCommerce store, improved Core Web Vitals and got 70+ new keywords ranking on page 1
The Client
Charles & Ivy is a leading supplier of composite garden fencing and decorative panels in the UK.
As an eCommerce business, they’re highly reliant on providing an exceptional online experience for customers, showcasing the premium quality of their brand and products.
They also need a website that their team can easily manage, especially when it comes to product updates or content changes.
Unfortunately, Charles & Ivy’s site had started to become a hindrance.
Operating on a legacy Shopify 1.0 theme meant their website offered limited flexibility and control.
Content updates and site improvements were slow and difficult to implement, and the UX (especially on product pages) didn’t reflect Charles & Ivy’s brand and quality.
They needed a flexible, modern Shopify website that allowed them to more easily manage content and improve the customer experience, and an experienced Shopify Development Agency to deliver the work.
As an eCommerce business, they’re highly reliant on providing an exceptional online experience for customers, showcasing the premium quality of their brand and products.
They also need a website that their team can easily manage, especially when it comes to product updates or content changes.
Unfortunately, Charles & Ivy’s site had started to become a hindrance.
Operating on a legacy Shopify 1.0 theme meant their website offered limited flexibility and control.
Content updates and site improvements were slow and difficult to implement, and the UX (especially on product pages) didn’t reflect Charles & Ivy’s brand and quality.
They needed a flexible, modern Shopify website that allowed them to more easily manage content and improve the customer experience, and an experienced Shopify Development Agency to deliver the work.
Creating a plan
Our first job was carrying out a full audit of Charles & Ivy’s existing Shopify website and eCommerce setup, identifying the biggest limitations of their outdated theme architecture.
We worked closely with their team to understand the biggest challenges they had with their website, and main pain points they needed to overcome.
One of our biggest challenges was speed. Because Charles & Ivy are reliant on their website for revenue, we had to work to strict timelines to get a solution in place quickly.
It was clear from speaking with their internal team that speed to market and long-term scalability were the priorities.
To meet the tight project timelines, we recommended using a modern Shopify 2.0 theme as a foundation for a new website, which our expert Shopify developers would heavily customise to fit Charles & Ivy’s brand and functional needs.
Our Shopify team also identified a chance to refresh some key visual areas of the site, including the homepage, collections pages and PDPs to create a more premium feel, matching Charles & Ivy’s high-end positioning.
We worked closely with their team to understand the biggest challenges they had with their website, and main pain points they needed to overcome.
One of our biggest challenges was speed. Because Charles & Ivy are reliant on their website for revenue, we had to work to strict timelines to get a solution in place quickly.
It was clear from speaking with their internal team that speed to market and long-term scalability were the priorities.
To meet the tight project timelines, we recommended using a modern Shopify 2.0 theme as a foundation for a new website, which our expert Shopify developers would heavily customise to fit Charles & Ivy’s brand and functional needs.
Our Shopify team also identified a chance to refresh some key visual areas of the site, including the homepage, collections pages and PDPs to create a more premium feel, matching Charles & Ivy’s high-end positioning.
The rebuild of a premium Shopify site
The first part of the project was to replatform and rebuild Charles & Ivy’s site using Shopify 2.0.
This gave them access to a new range of features, like sections on every page, metaobjects and metafields.
In line with their premium brand, we created a completely bespoke product page experience tailored to their unique product types.
Some of this required multi-step selection logic to give customers more control when searching products, creating a better UX.
To help with the issue of content updates, Charles & Ivy’s team got flexible content areas across landing pages and collections, meaning their team could swiftly change or add content to the website without the need of developers.
We also designed a clean, responsive design system that aligned with Charles & Ivy’s brand and meant they could easily scale their website with new categories and products in the future.
One complexity we had to overcome during the project was the complexity of some product flows.
Originally, this had been scoped as one template per product page, but it became clear this wouldn’t work in every case because of the sheer range of products Charles & Ivy supply.
To overcome this, our Shopify developers created more granular templates to prevent certain product options from conditionally affecting others.
Charles & Ivy now have a better performing website that delivers a smoother, personalised experience to shoppers.
On initial launch of the website, we saw an immediate improvement in the site’s Core Web Vitals. This was due to us removing legacy bloat and optimising site performance from the ground up.
Charles & Ivy also saw rapid improvement in organic visibility, with 13 keywords jumping to position one within a few weeks of the launch, and 59 keywords now appearing on page 1 of Google SERPs.
These increased positions have already brought thousands of new visitors to Charles & Ivy’s new Shopify store.
This gave them access to a new range of features, like sections on every page, metaobjects and metafields.
In line with their premium brand, we created a completely bespoke product page experience tailored to their unique product types.
Some of this required multi-step selection logic to give customers more control when searching products, creating a better UX.
To help with the issue of content updates, Charles & Ivy’s team got flexible content areas across landing pages and collections, meaning their team could swiftly change or add content to the website without the need of developers.
We also designed a clean, responsive design system that aligned with Charles & Ivy’s brand and meant they could easily scale their website with new categories and products in the future.
One complexity we had to overcome during the project was the complexity of some product flows.
Originally, this had been scoped as one template per product page, but it became clear this wouldn’t work in every case because of the sheer range of products Charles & Ivy supply.
To overcome this, our Shopify developers created more granular templates to prevent certain product options from conditionally affecting others.
Charles & Ivy now have a better performing website that delivers a smoother, personalised experience to shoppers.
On initial launch of the website, we saw an immediate improvement in the site’s Core Web Vitals. This was due to us removing legacy bloat and optimising site performance from the ground up.
Charles & Ivy also saw rapid improvement in organic visibility, with 13 keywords jumping to position one within a few weeks of the launch, and 59 keywords now appearing on page 1 of Google SERPs.
These increased positions have already brought thousands of new visitors to Charles & Ivy’s new Shopify store.
Start your Shopify project today
Want similar results for your own Shopify store? Speak to our member of our Shopify team for a free consultation and let’s see how we can upgrade your eCommerce business.
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