The problem

Matcha Inc. is a curated design gallery, premium sidecars and e-bike destination in Melbourne, selling premium electric bikes alongside homewares, lighting, art and objects chosen for their craftsmanship.

That range is the whole proposition, and it was also the problem. A catalogue that runs from an electric bike to a greeting card asks very different things of a store. The bikes need variants, brand collections and freight. The smaller goods need none of that and should not be slowed down by it.

Squarespace had carried them from launch, which is exactly what it is good at. But its commerce tools are built around a narrower kind of catalogue, and the workarounds were starting to cost more than the platform saved.

What we built

A move to Shopify, built as a storefront for this catalogue rather than a theme with the colours changed.

Catalogue and content migration from Squarespace

Products, variants, collections and customer records moved across, with the old URLs mapped to their new homes before launch so the search rankings the store had already earned carried over.

A storefront built for a mixed catalogue

Bikes and small goods get the templates each deserves. The bikes are a considered purchase and are presented as one, by brand and by spec. The homewares and objects sit in a gallery layout that suits browsing.

Sections the store owner controls

Campaign and collection pages are assembled from Shopify sections the owner arranges himselves, so launching a new brand or a seasonal range is a content job rather than a development ticket.

A booking system for the sidecar adventure ride.

An electric bike is not an impulse buy, so the store had to do more than take orders. Bookings run alongside the catalogue, so someone can reserve a time to come in and try a bike as well as the sidecar adventure rather than adding a four figure purchase to a cart and hoping.

Commerce set up properly

Shipping profiles, taxes and the apps they actually use were configured as part of the build, with product structured data so listings show correctly in search.

The result

A store that can hold the whole range without the range fighting the platform.

The store owner can adds brands and runs campaigns without calling us, which was the point. Shipping behaves differently for a bike than for a candle, as it should. Bookings turn browsing into a visit, which is where the bikes actually sell. And the platform has room left for whatever they choose to stock next.

Services used Shopify development

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