Background
Abbott Lyon was evolving. The UK's leading personalised jewellery brand - £50m+ revenue, 90% mobile traffic - was shifting its positioning towards "warm luxury": premium, high-touch and considered.
The platform needed to evolve too. That meant moving complex personalisation logic onto a robust platform, giving merchandisers control over product launches, and translating the new brand language into a digital experience that could convert on a phone screen.
Brief
Rebuild Abbott Lyon's Shopify Plus store from the ground up. Move complex personalisation logic onto Shopify's robust native infrastructure. Give the merchandising team control over product launches. Align the digital experience with the brand's new positioning. And do it in time for peak trading.
Results (year-on-year, Q4 2025)
+17% CVR increase
-14% bounce rate reduction
+37% gift wrap participation
Services
- UX/UI design
- Bespoke theme development
- Custom app development
- Shopify Functions
- ERP integration
- Custom admin interfaces
Key features
- Shopify Functions (Cart Transform, Delivery Functions)
- Metaobjects & Declarative custom data definitions
- Checkout UI Extensions
- Custom visualisation engine
- Klaviyo integration
- Multi-vendor fulfilment logic
What we did
Moving business logic where it belongs
Abbott Lyon's personalisation requirements are genuinely complex: dynamic bundling, contextual pricing ("first charm free"), composite product visualisation, and complex order data that captures complex personalisation requirements.
Previously, much of this logic lived client-side, in the browser. It worked, but it was brittle. Edge cases broke things, and launching a new product type often meant developer involvement.
We rebuilt it on Shopify's native infrastructure.
“The question isn't whether Shopify can handle complex products, it's whether your build is using the platform properly and taking advantage of its latest capabilities. By moving everything to Shopify Functions and Checkout Extensions, all customisations will be available to future channels.”
Shopify custom admin panel
Shopify Functions
Shopify functions handle pricing and bundling rules server-side. The logic executes at checkout, not in the browser, so it's fast, accurate, and can't be bypassed. Cart transforms group components into clean parent-child relationships, giving the warehouse exactly what it needs and ensuring no ‘orphan’ products in cart.
Custom admin UI
A custom app lets merchandisers define complex product structures themselves. Configurations are stored within metaobjects - keeping everything 'on-platform'. New personalised ranges can launch without a single line of code.
A custom visualisation service
A custom visualisation service composites images on the fly based on customer selections. With each unique visualisation available on its own URL, it can be passed to fulfilment systems, email and marketing platforms, closing the loop between what the customer saw and what drops through their letterbox.
During Q4 2024, the engine generated 6.6 million personalised product visualisations.
Translating "warm luxury" to digital
We implemented Atomic Design principles to create a consistent design system that balances high-end aesthetics with conversion-led best practice. Clear signposting, considered micro-interactions, and a mobile-first approach reduced the friction of buying premium items on a phone screen.
AI-enhanced delivery
We used AI to move faster and reduce risk - not as a gimmick, but where it genuinely added value.
Prototyping and validation
We used GenAI to generate fully functional HTML/JS prototypes of complex personalisation flows early in the project. These weren't wireframes, rather they were testable interfaces. We ran usability testing with real users and iterated the UIs before writing production code, validating that the UX would convert.
Photography audit tool
We built a bespoke review app using Lovable that ingested product data via API, letting merchandisers rapidly flag items for re-shooting and export prioritised lists. This greatly reduced the time taken to perform this manual task
Generative product imagery
We used the latest image generation tools to create product variations to drive the visualisation engine - taking a base image of a ring with one birthstone colour and generating the full range without re-shooting each permutation.
Delivery clarity at checkout
Multi-line orders may comprise products that are sourced from multiple locations. This sourcing means orders can ship separately, with different delivery times. Previously, this confused customers and drove up "where is my order?" contacts.
We built a custom carrier service that calculates SKU-level lead times across locations, rendering dynamic delivery messages directly in the native checkout at the point of purchase. Customers know exactly what's arriving when, before they pay.
We also used Delivery Functions to recalculate free shipping eligibility based on final checkout value AFTER discounts - solving a platform limitation that was costing the business margin on discounted orders.
The outcome
The new platform launched ahead of Q4 2024 peak trading.
+17% year-on-year conversion rate increase during peak.
Merchandising independence. New customisable product ranges have launched with zero development required.
Platform as competitive advantage. Abbott Lyon has transitioned to a platform that actively generates growth.
We chose to work with Onstate for our site rebuild because we felt they matched our ambition, pace and ability to think beyond the limits of the platform and to that brief they certainly did not disappoint. Through the process, Onstate have felt like an extension of our team, always prioritised the customer and never hesitated to push forward, speed up or pivot in doing so. We would recommend the team at Onstate for any business looking to go beyond what feels possible and drive true innovation.
The outcome
The new platform launched ahead of Q4 2025 peak trading.
CVR increase YoY over peak (Nov-Dec)
+17%
Bounce rate reduction YoY over peak (Oct-Dec)
-14%
Gift wrap participation YoY over peak (Oct-Dec)
+37%
We are Onstate.
We love the tough stuff.
At Onstate, challenges aren’t obstacles. They’re opportunities. As a Shopify Plus agency, we tackle the problems others avoid, from bespoke integrations to scaling complexity. Our team thrives on finding smarter, bolder solutions that push eCommerce forward. If others say it can’t be done, we will prove them wrong.
