Project Overview
A UK luxury fashion brand with £42M annual revenue, 280,000 customers, and a heritage since 1924 needed to reb...
Technology Stack
Compliance & Standards
The Challenge
A UK luxury fashion brand with £42M annual revenue, 280,000 customers, and a heritage since 1924 needed to rebuild their digital commerce platform — replacing a Shopify Plus deployment that could not deliver the brand experience required. The brand needed bespoke product personalisation (monogramming, bespoke sizing), narrative-led product storytelling, and a virtual appointment booking system for in-store clienteling. UK Consumer Rights Act, UK GDPR, PECR, and PCI-DSS SAQ-A were mandatory. Budget: £160,000.
Our Approach
Headless commerce
custom React frontend + Commercetools (flexible commerce engine — product catalogue, pricing, checkout) + Contentful (brand storytelling content — editorial, lookbooks, artisan profiles).
Commercetools
- superior to Shopify for bespoke product configuration — composable commerce architecture supports complex personalisation.
- Next.js
App Router
product pages rendered with Next.js ISR (regenerate on inventory change), editorial content with static generation (lookbook pages — no dynamic data).
Bespoke personalisation
monogramming (3 character styles, 8 thread colours, placement selection), custom sizing (28 measurements for made-to-measure), and gift wrapping (3 options, bespoke message).
Personalisation configuration UI
React step-by-step configurator with real-time 3D product visualisation (Three.js — monogram placement preview).
Price calculation
personalisation surcharge calculated based on configuration (monogram + custom sizing + delivery lead time).
SKU explosion prevention
personalisation stored as product attributes, not separate SKUs — Commercetools product variants.
Virtual Appointment and Clienteling
In-store virtual appointment booking: Cal.com API (open-source scheduling) integrated with in-store Outlook calendars (Microsoft Graph API).
Appointment types
personal styling session (60 minutes, in-store), virtual styling consultation (45 minutes, Zoom), and monogramming appointment (30 minutes, in-store).
CRM integration
- appointment history stored in customer profile — stylist can see previous purchases, preferences, and appointment notes before each session.
- Post-appointment follow-up: automated Zoom recording summary (Assembly AI) → customer preference notes stored in CRM.
Consumer Rights Act 2015
14-day right to withdraw for distance selling.
Exception
- bespoke/customised products are excluded from the 14-day right to withdraw (Section 28(1)(b) CRA 2015) — the platform clearly discloses this at checkout for personalised items.
- Standard (non-personalised) products: 14-day returns maintained.
Returns portal
automated return labels (Royal Mail click-and-drop API), refund processing (Commercetools + Stripe refund API).
PECR
cookie consent (OneTrust) — marketing cookies require explicit consent for personalised email campaigns.
The Results
Platform live at 22 weeks, £148,000 — under budget.
Average order value (AOV): £342 → £418 (22% increase — personalisation and clienteling driving higher-value orders).
Personalisation attachment rate: 38% of orders include at least one personalisation (monogramming most popular — 28% of orders).
Virtual appointment conversion: 84% of appointment attendees place an order within 30 days (vs 34% standard web browsing conversion).
Core Web Vitals: LCP 1.4 seconds (previously 7.8 seconds on legacy Shopify).
Organic search impressions: +280%.
“AOV from £342 to £418. Personalisation attachment 38% — one third of our customers now personalise their purchase. Virtual appointment conversion 84% in 30 days — the highest-converting channel in the business. LCP from 7.8 to 1.4 seconds and organic impressions up 280%. The brand experience we could not achieve on Shopify is now exactly what we envisioned." — CEO, UK Luxury Fashion Brand (name withheld)”
Project Details
Related Case Studies
View AllHeadless eCommerce Platform — UK Fashion Retailer
Headless eCommerce Platform — UK Fashion Retailer. A mid-size UK fashion retailer with £8M annual revenue was running Shopify Plus at £24,000/year plus £18,000/year in app...
Sustainable Fashion Platform — B2B Marketplace, UK and EU
A UK sustainable fashion startup needed to build a B2B marketplace connecting sustainable fashion brands with ...
eCommerce AI Customer Service Platform — UK D2C Brand
A UK direct-to-consumer brand with 340,000 customers and 22,000 monthly support tickets needed to build an AI ...
Ready to Transform Your Business?
Let's discuss how our technical expertise can help you achieve remarkable results.