The Client
Defib4Life is a Derbyshire-based ecommerce business that supplies life-saving equipment such as defibrillators, first aid kits, and emergency response tools.
Trusted by organisations across the UK, their mission is to improve public access to critical medical equipment and provide expert guidance along the way.
Defib4Life were looking for a local partner to help them re-platform from WooCommerce to Shopify and our expert Chesterfield Shopify developers were ready to do just that.
The Challenge
The Defib4Life website was originally built on WordPress with WooCommerce as the ecommerce engine. Whist this platform is not a bad choice their setup had begun to show its limitations as the business scaled. Key issues included:
- Performance bottlenecks during high traffic periods
- Inconsistent checkout experiences across devices
- Complex product setup for bundles and variants
- Manual workflows for shipping and inventory
- Security and maintenance overhead
- General failings in the overall look and feel and customer experiment
The client needed a more stable, scalable ecommerce platform that could grow with them and improve both internal operations and customer experience.
Our Solution
We proposed a full replatform to Shopify, leveraging its secure infrastructure, intuitive admin, and extensive app ecosystem. Having moved clients sites from WordPress to Shopify before we were confident that the business would benefit from a look and feel upgrade as well as the advanced ecommerce features the Shopify back-end provides. Our process included:
- Platform Strategy & Planning
- Reviewed current site architecture and plugins
- Mapped out product structures, categories, and product pages
- Audited existing traffic and SEO to preserve search rankings
- Data Migration
- Migrated over the entire product catalogues including meta data, photos and messaging
- Cleaned and optimised legacy data for Shopify import
- Theme Development
- Designed a Shopify theme tailored to Defib4Life’s brand using a base theme with customisations
- Focused on accessibility, fast load times, delivering a high-conversion optimised UX
- Functionality Enhancements
- Integrated custom product bundling options
- Built in Reviews.io review integration
- Connected with shipping and fulfilment tools
- Integrated third-party payment gateways
- SEO & Launch Support
- Set up 301 redirects, preserved metadata, and submitted updated sitemaps
- Installed analytics, GA4, and conversion tracking
- Trained the internal team on Shopify admin
The Results
After launch Defib4Life reported that the Shopify website was much faster to operate and the back-end order fulfilment processes was a massive improvement over their legacy WordPress site. The business continues to go form strength to strength supported by a platform built for ecommerce success and growth.
Before vs After
The difference between the old and new website is clear. With an updated look and feel, improved information architecture, more clear product pages and calls-to-action that convert visitors into paying customers.
Previous homepage
Legacy WordPress / WooCommerce website with a dated look and feel. Performance and usability problems right form the homepage. The logo was huge and the navigation didn’t work across all screen sizes.
New homepage
Fast and usable Shopify website with an optimised homepage giving clear routes into the top product categories. Main navigation and header area designed to offer lots of choice and access to utility pages and key information.
Previous product page
Slow loading and poorly structured product pages lead to low conversion rates and confusion for customers. Inconsistencies in text capitalisation, large product names and lots of scrolling to see detail all contributed to a sub-optimal user experience.
New product page
Better use of a space on the product page with tighter control over the visual elements gives customers more of what they need faster. Price, brand name and key product features now all show without the need to scroll. Clear breadcrumbs give easy routes back to the category pages with internal links show routes to other related or relevant products across the site.
