Shopify Plus Case Study: Magento to Shopify Plus Headless E-commerce Migration

shopify plus case study

Is your current e-commerce platform facilitating scalability, customizability, and optimum performance? If the answer is no, consider switching to a suitable platform. But before anything, make sure to have a look at our client’s case study. They faced the same situation, and we resolved all their issues by re-platforming them from Magento to Shopify Plus.

About Square Hardware

about square hardware

Squares Hardware is a hardware e-commerce business. They operate in Canada. On their website, you can find power tools like hand tools, air tools, accessories, fasteners, cabinet hardware, and more. As an online tool supplier, they wanted a highly functional, easy-to-navigate site where products could be easily explored in the menu bar. Just like any other e-commerce business, they wanted a frictionless checkout, seamless integration with third-party applications, and admin control. 

Understanding the Needs of Square Hardware

Needs For
Extensive Product Catalog Management 1. To list a large number of products along with detailed descriptions, HD images, and multiple variations to show brand or size.
2. Structured Navigation with categorization and filtering options so customers can easily explore the products.
3. Tools to manage inventory levels, set prices, and track sales data.
4. Ability to showcase technical specifications and product manuals.
Secure Checkout Process 1. Integration with multiple payment gateways (credit cards, PayPal, etc.) for secure transactions.
2. Ability to calculate shipping costs based on location and order weight.
3. Support for various shipping methods (standard, expedited, etc.).
Order Management 1. Efficiently process orders, generate invoices and manage returns.
2. Tools for tracking order status and communicating with customers.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 1. Collect customer information (email addresses, order history) for marketing and customer service purposes.
2. Tools for managing customer inquiries and complaints.
Customer Experience/Performance 1. Fast loading speeds
2. Smooth navigation
3. Reliable & easy checkout
4. Peak Traffic Handling
5. Scalability
6. Caching
7. Hosting infrastructure
8. Regular Testing
9. Content Delivery Network

Issues Square Hardware Previously Faced

Square Hardware, a Canadian online retailer with a vast and diverse range of products, initially faced challenges in managing its catalog. However, real issues arose as the catalog grew. Due to Magento’s complex product management, they encountered problems with numerous attributes and large image files. They invested significant time and resources into development costs but still faced performance issues, which led to a higher bounce rate.

Moreover, it was very hard for users to find products in the navigation since the page depth was very high. This significantly hindered their sales.

When they planned to scale up, importing and exporting large product datasets was highly time-consuming and also resulted in multiple data inconsistency issues and inaccuracies.

Basically, our client was previously struggling to handle an extremely large catalog with a high number of products efficiently. These issues became severe performance bottlenecks as they increased the server load.

Another factor impacting their catalog functionality and stability was the compatibility issues that they encountered while installing and managing multiple extensions. They also spent a lot on regular ongoing maintenance, security updates, performance tuning, and even database optimization.

When they tried integrating with marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, they faced challenges regarding product data synchronization and order management.

Apart from catalog management issues, there were shipping calculation errors that were arising due to complex catalog management. This led to incorrect charging of cost, resulting in customer dissatisfaction. 

The sheer volume of product data like images, attributes and descriptions within the catalog caused slow response times. 

Overall, our client was paying a high price, both in terms of money and time, to maintain the optimal performance of their online store. 

needs and gaps identified

Migrating from Magento to Shopify Plus (Headless Commerce)

Previous Issues Shopify Plus Solution
Performance Issues Robust Infrastructure and CDN
Scalability Limitations Scalable architecture
Limited Customization Options Extensive theme store and API
High Development Costs Faster development with pre-built tools
Complexity and Steep Learning Curve User-friendly interface and intuitive platform
Security Vulnerabilities Proactive security measures and regular updates
Lack of Flexibility Flexible platform with various apps and integrations
Integration Challenges Seamless integrations with popular tools
Vendor Lock-in More flexibility and control over the customer experience
Limited Headless Capabilities Strong headless capabilities

To address the challenges Square Hardware was facing earlier, we migrated their store to Shopify Plus. We redesigned their website with a modern and user-friendly interface. We used nesting elements to construct their navigation, which resulted in better visual structure and easy exploration of all the products within the navigation. This practice is also search engine friendly, as search engine crawlers can easily understand the logical relationship between the different parts of your content, helping you rank in search results.
Apart from this, leveraging Shopify Plus’s infrastructure, the team implemented a headless architecture using Hydrogen, a React-based framework. Shopify’s Hydrogen framework enabled the creation of a single-page application (SPA) with faster page transitions and a smoother user experience. The headless approach decoupled the front end from the back end, allowing for greater flexibility and improved performance. This dramatically improved their page loading speeds. 

We also leveraged AI-powered capabilities to deliver personalized product recommendations and boost order value. Due to AI integration, their store is now optimized to effectively cross-sell and up-sell the relevant products. 

To improve the efficiency further and reduce the downtime probabilities, we used the Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment pipeline. This helped automate the deployment process and diminish the chances of downtime. 

Besides all this, the migration to Shopify Plus also helped us improve our clients’ admin control over their store and its operations. We have created a user-friendly and intuitive interface that is easy to manage regardless of the size of the product catalogue. This means that if there is an urgent requirement to carry out bulk editing, change the product images, or streamline the attribute, it can all be done in a significantly shorter time. The same goes for app store integrations as well. 

Is Shopify Plus cheaper than Magento? 

Although Magento is an open-source platform, this notion might lead you to believe it’s cheaper than Shopify Plus. In reality, Shopify Plus offers a variety of services that extend beyond the standard plan, including dedicated support, advanced checkout options, admin control, hosting services, a content delivery network (CDN), and more. On the other side, choosing to build your site on an open-source platform could result in higher costs overall, along with longer development times. 

Still confused about which platform is best to launch your store on? Get expert help! Kinex Media has earned a stellar reputation in the e-commerce store design and development industry.  As trusted partners of Shopify Plus, Magento 2, and other premier platforms, we possess the expertise, cutting-edge tools, and a team of brilliant in-house designers to bring your vision to life. Let’s explore your unique needs during a complimentary consultation. Discover how Kinex Media can help you launch a thriving online store.

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