With six weeks to make the move, we had to be clear about where to focus.

Shopify would give LSA a simpler platform to manage, but rather than redesigning the whole ecommerce experience at the same time, we agreed on a lift-and-shift of the existing site.

That meant being ruthless about what was essential for launch and what could wait. We adapted our usual process, doing as much discovery and planning upfront as possible and running several workstreams in parallel.

But moving quickly didn’t mean simply recreating what was there. Despite the tight timeframe, we were still able to introduce a number of product enhancements along the way. And crucially, we protected two of the six weeks for testing, so speed didn’t come at the expense of a robust launch.

The benefits showed up quickly for LSA’s team and its customers.

LSA saw an immediate bump in sales after moving to Shopify, alongside an increase in conversion rate. The customers acquired since the move are also repeat ordering at a higher rate.

Internally, the ecommerce team is spending less time maintaining the platform and is able to get through more work each week.

And the impact goes beyond LSA. The migration was a test case for the wider Rayware group, providing an approach and practical learnings that can now inform future migrations, including the Haywire trade website and other consumer brands across the portfolio.