About the project

BoozeBud, an online alcohol retailer, offered a wide range of products conveniently delivered to your door. I had little experience with content creation, marketing and sales technology, and was excited to learn more about sales techniques like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and conversion optimization strategies. Again in this role, I was the only front-end developer, with 2 back-end developers and a UX specialist in the Tech team. I began my tenure at BoozeBud by managing the existing web storefront and mobile application, as well as the administration portal used by the Customer Service and Operations teams. This involved updating advertising content, layouts, copywriting and creating new features for the admin teams. The front-end was built in React with some XML with the back-end in Scala, and it was, in the company’s own words, ‘a very challenging custom platform’.

Seeing the website initially, it was clear that the user interface had been neglected for some time. The lack of reliability or trustworthiness was evident, and I could imagine consumers would hesitate to willingly share their credit card details to such a site. However, I saw this as a challenge that I wanted to tackle wholeheartedly.

Development Process

Upon being recruited, I was informed about the possibility of a full platform migration to Shopify a few months into my role. Although my primary passion lies in writing code and custom development, I embraced the opportunity to explore a different aspect of web development and gain valuable experience in the process.

With Shopify's out-of-the-box platform, we were able to adhere to the conventions followed by numerous web stores. This familiarity allowed users to quickly navigate and find their desired products, streamlining the process leading up to the checkout.

The new interface, focused on transparency, clarity, and credibility in visual design building user confidence.

While Shopify was very helpful in strictly defining brand guidelines and maintaining consistency in layouts, there was not much opportunity available in terms of customization. This would cause complications as BoozeBud customers were already familiar with some features that belonged to the previous site. Furthermore, certain states’ liquor licensing regulations required the store to follow specific protocols that were not built into the Shopify system. For example, liquor may not be supplied to persons under the age of 18, meaning we needed to add an age verification into the checkout process. Due to these issues arising, I was able to make use of my creativity and problem solving skills to either research potential solutions, or come up with my own, and then implement the best option. By learning and leveraging Liquid - the Shopify templating language, I was able to add custom components into the website’s architecture and tailor the user interface to match the brand’s requirements.

All of the above was completed with the first iteration of the new site launched within 2 months. After just the first 2 weeks of the new site going live, the average conversion rate was 6x higher than previously seen. The company saw improvements in all metrics including Average Order Value and ROI.