Crafting an engaging online presence is not merely a luxury but a necessity. This rings especially true for Seal Skin, a distinguished provider renowned for their premium vehicle and marine covers. As a company deeply rooted in quality craftsmanship and a commitment to excellence, Seal Skin understood that a robust digital storefront was pivotal in not only showcasing their superior products but also in broadening their reach to a wider customer base.

Recognizing the critical importance of this endeavor, Spell & Sell, armed with their extensive expertise in e-commerce design and development, emerged as the ideal partner to spearhead this transformation.

With a shared vision of amplifying Seal Skin's brand identity and maximizing its online potential, Spell & Sell embarked on a journey to breathe new life into Seal Skin's digital presence, leveraging their skills and innovative strategies to propel Seal Skin's online platform to unprecedented heights of success.

Understanding Seal Skin's brand

Before embarking on the journey of revamping Seal Skin's e-commerce platform, Spell & Sell delved deep into understanding the essence of Seal Skin's brand. From their commitment to quality craftsmanship to their dedication to customer satisfaction, every aspect of Seal Skin's ethos was analyzed to ensure that the revamped platform would reflect the brand's core values.

Seal Skin Covers encountered several challenges with their classic Shopify deployment, primarily revolving around content management for both products and static content. With an extensive range of products listed in Shopify, the task of managing such a vast inventory became daunting, especially considering that most of these products could be streamlined into a manageable amount of SKUs.

While cars could be categorized into a multitude of year/make/model combinations, boats introduced a new complexity due to their varying dimensions, which directly impacted the cost of the final product shipped to customers.

Similarly, furniture covers relied on customer-input dimensions during the order process, further complicating product management.

Moreover, managing content became a secondary challenge with a large number of landing pages and various components, all of which were difficult to handle within Shopify's framework due to its inherent limitations.

Tailored e-commerce solutions

With a comprehensive understanding of Seal Skin's brand identity, Spell & Sell crafted tailored e-commerce solutions to meet their unique requirements.

To address the multifaceted challenges faced by Seal Skin Covers, Spell & Sell proposed a comprehensive solution involving a headless approach to rebuilding the site. In this approach, Shopify served solely as the backend, while the rest of the shop was constructed using alternative technologies to better tackle the issues at hand.

The solution was bifurcated into two major components: the content management system and the product management system, and it was segmented into build time and runtime phases.

During build time, the site was statically generated and a snapshot was persisted in the hosting provider, Netlify, enabling rapid serving of the site's static content from geographically distributed nodes. Two data sources, the content management system and the product management system, were utilized by the chosen framework, Gatsby, facilitating features such as static site generation.

At runtime, most pages accessed the static snapshot, with additional interaction with Shopify for checkout processes. However, due to the vast number of product pages, a deferred static generation approach was implemented. Frequently accessed pages were generated at build time, while less frequently accessed ones were generated upon the first request, optimizing performance without sacrificing functionality.

Showcase of premium products

Central to Seal Skin's success is their premium range of vehicle and marine covers, which have garnered the trust and satisfaction of countless customers. Spell & Sell ensured that these products took center stage on the revamped e-commerce platform, with high-quality images, detailed descriptions, and intuitive navigation that made it effortless for customers to explore Seal Skin's offerings and make informed purchasing decisions.

Spell & Sell effectively showcased Seal Skin's premium products through our meticulously designed Product Management System. While static content was managed using Sanity, the vast array of product combinations necessitated a separate approach.

Recognizing the impracticality of managing such a large catalog within Sanity or Shopify due to bandwidth constraints and slow update speeds, we proposed a custom-built system dedicated to product catalog management, prioritizing user experience.

For product categories like car covers, where many products shared similar characteristics, we mapped them to a limited number of SKUs within Shopify, eliminating duplication and simplifying management.

Conversely, addressing the challenge posed by boats' diverse sizes, we developed an algorithm to calculate product prices based on dimensions at the time of import. Utilizing the Shopify Draft Order API, custom pricing was seamlessly integrated into the checkout process. This approach enabled mapping a vast number of products to just a few in Shopify while retaining custom properties crucial for fulfillment.

Technically, our solution comprised a Gatsby.JS & React for a Headless front-end and a Ruby on Rails backend for the PMS (Product Management System) for enhanced robustness and cost-effectiveness with minimal maintenance requirements.

Streamlined success

Spell & Sell optimized Seal Skin's e-commerce platform for efficiency and convenience, implementing features such as smooth checkout processes, secure payment gateways, and responsive design that ensured a seamless experience across devices, from desktops to smartphones.

Currently, the new Seal Skin Covers solution delivered by Spell & Spell is undergoing the rollout phase, starting with 10% traffic split, to ensure the smooth transition and optimal performance of the new website while monitoring its performance closely.

This incremental approach allows us to assess the website's uptime, identify and resolve any issues that may arise, and implement improvements as needed. By gradually increasing the traffic to the new website, we can effectively manage any potential challenges while ensuring a seamless experience for users.

This methodical testing approach underscores our commitment to delivering a high-quality, reliable, and user-friendly e-commerce platform for Seal Skin Covers.

Spell & Sell's collaboration with Seal Skin didn't end with the launch of the revamped e-commerce platform. Recognizing the importance of continuous improvement, Spell & Sell provides ongoing support and optimization services to ensure that Seal Skin's online storefront remains at the forefront of innovation, adapting to evolving trends and customer preferences.

Through a strategic collaboration between Spell & Sell and Seal Skin, a new chapter was written in Seal Skin's e-commerce journey. With a visually captivating and seamlessly functional online platform, Seal Skin is well-positioned to continue its legacy of providing premium covers while captivating and delighting customers in the digital realm.