Background
Gardener's Dream, a leading online retailer specialising in plants, garden essentials, and outdoor living products, needed a robust eCommerce platform to support its growth. Their existing platform, Visualsoft, was limiting their ability to scale, optimise customer experience, and integrate with modern eCommerce tools.
Brief
Onstate collaborated with Gardener's Dream to design and seamlessly migrate to a Shopify Plus solution, whilst preserving their SEO rankings, customer data, and brand aesthetics.
Services
- Discovery & Planning
- Solution Design
- Build
- Data Migration
- SEO Support
- Quality Assurance
- Launch Support
Key features
- Enhanced Collection Pages
- Enhanced Product Pages
- Enhanced Promotions Engine
- Streamlined Checkout Features
- Enhanced Payment Options
- Performance Optimisation
Approach
Onstate collaborated with Gardener's Dream to implement a Shopify Plus solution tailored to their business needs. The project was executed in phases, starting with developing a deep understanding of the current experience and requirements:
We conducted a comprehensive systems analysis to understand existing workflows and pain points, and developed a functional specification, backlog, and milestone plan to guide the migration process.
Custom theme development
We implemented bespoke theme customisations to enhance functionality and improve user experience. We also developed a custom discount function to support tiered pricing for bulk buyers. We integrated key third-party apps, including Reviews.io, Influence.io, and Rebuy, for enhanced engagement and conversion.
To aid content management and merchandising, we also created a flexible sections library where content can be easily managed.
Experience Design
Enhanced homepage with seasonal collection carousels, weekly and monthly deals, auto-rotating ‘As Seen In’ carousel, a featured blog block with category filtering, automated ‘New In’ and ‘Trending Products’ carousels, an influencer-driven gardening community showcase, and integrated social media feeds.
Collection pages were also enhanced with hover-based image previews, SEO-optimised copy, bestseller sorting with optional pinning, promotional labels, a sticky filter panel for improved product discovery, and a ‘Notify Me’ feature for out-of-stock items.
Experience design
Upgraded product pages with a floating ‘Add to Basket’ button, gift messaging, multibuy savings graphics, pre-order functionality, user-generated content, and integrated Trustpilot/Yotpo reviews. Blog and content features were enhanced with structured articles, interactive 404 pages, and customisable promotional landing pages. To maximise conversion, checkout and basket improvements included gift choice prompts, product recommendations, visible ‘Pay Later’ options, and optimised Klarna, PayPal, and Shopify Payments integration.
SEO Migration & Performance Optimisation
Onstate helped managed the risk of migration - providing defined data structures and migration templates to ensure a smooth transfer of products, customers, and order history.
Throughout the process we collaborated with existing SEO capabilities to execute a structured SEO migration plan, minimising traffic loss post-launch.
Quality Assurance and Launch
Onstate conducted a rigorous testing to ensure a seamless transition. As standard, we provide a 14-day post-launch warranty period to address any bugs or issues, and work with Gardener's Dream to support ongoing development and optimisation.
We’re proud to have delivered Gardener’s Dream’s new Shopify Plus store on a tight deadline, ensuring they were ready to capitalise on seasonal demand. The new site enhances scalability, improves customer experience with faster load times and intuitive navigation, and streamlines backend operations for greater efficiency. With advanced marketing capabilities and seamless third-party integrations, Gardener’s Dream is now well-equipped for future growth. Onstate’s expertise in Shopify Plus migrations ensured a smooth transition with minimal disruption, setting the brand up for long-term success.
