Case studies / Platform migration
Jackies Craft Store
She asked me for a custom build. I talked her out of it and moved her to Shopify.
My write up of the build. Jackies Craft Store lives at jackiescraftstore.com.au.
Visit jackiescraftstore.com.au
The problem
“Do I need a custom website, or will Shopify do the job?”
Jackie had spent years on an expensive CMS she could not change without paying someone. Over 2,000 products, each carrying variants, photos and descriptions. The size of the catalogue is what kept her stuck on it.
She came to me for a custom build. I talked her out of it.
What I built
A hand built store would have cost her more to make, more to run, and served her worse. She sells thousands of small products, changes prices constantly and starts promotions on a whim. Shopify is good at all three. Charging her to rebuild that from scratch would have been dishonest.
So I scripted the migration instead. It exported the old catalogue, cleaned it, reshaped it and loaded it into Shopify. The store cut over in a single weekend and she never stopped trading.
She got a custom theme so it does not look stock, old addresses redirected so her Google rankings carried across, and a session on running the whole thing herself.
Where it landed
Jackie runs her own store, pays less to host it, and kept her rankings. The right build here was the one I did not do.
Questions this one answers
Will you tell me if I do not need a custom site?
Yes, and this is the proof. Jackie asked for a custom build and I moved her to Shopify instead, because it suited how she works. I would rather lose the bigger job than sell you something that makes your week harder.
When is Shopify the right call?
When you have a big catalogue of fairly standard products, you change prices and promotions often, and the store does not need to do anything unusual. Shopify handles that well and rebuilding it by hand is a waste of your money.
When is it the wrong call?
When the platform fees start outgrowing what a build would have cost, when the store needs to talk to another system you run, or when what you sell does not fit neatly into a product grid. That is the point where a template starts fighting you.
Can I move a big catalogue without losing my Google rankings?
Yes, as long as every old address redirects to its new one. Jackie's 2,000 products moved over a weekend and the rankings came with them.