CASE STUDY · COMMERCE
E-Commerce Platform
A storefront and admin suite for an independent retailer: fast browsing up front, real inventory control behind it.
- ROLE
- Full-stack developer
- TIMELINE
- 12 weeks
- TEAM
- 2 people
- PLATFORM
- Storefront + admin
PRODUCT IDENTITY
North&Co
The Autumn Edit.
01 · OVERVIEW
Project overview
DEVELOPMENT TIME
12 weeks
Discovery to launch
TEAM SIZE
2 people
Me plus a brand designer
KEY ACHIEVEMENT
+41% conversion
Versus the old template store
THE PROBLEM
NORTH&CO sold through a template store that hid stock levels, broke on mobile checkout, and forced staff to update inventory in spreadsheets.
THE APPROACH
A custom React storefront with Stripe checkout, backed by a Node and PostgreSQL admin where staff manage products, stock and fulfilment in one place.
+41%
checkout conversion on mobile
1.2 s
median page load on 4G
0
overselling incidents since launch
02 · FEATURES
What it does
Stripe checkout
Saved carts, Apple Pay and Google Pay in a two-step checkout.
Order history
Customers track orders and reorder favourites in one tap.
Inventory control
Live stock across sizes and colours with low-stock alerts.
Role-based admin
Owners, staff and fulfilment each get the tools they need.
Product search
Instant search with filters for size, colour and price.
Secure auth
JWT auth with server-side session refresh.
03 · PROCESS
How it was built
WEEK 1–2
Discover
Audited the old store funnel and interviewed staff about inventory pain.
- Funnel audit
- Requirements
WEEK 3–4
Design
Storefront, product page and admin designed with the brand designer.
- Figma prototype
- Brand system
WEEK 5–10
Build
React storefront, Node API, Postgres schema and Stripe integration.
- Storefront
- Admin suite
WEEK 11–12
Ship
Data migration, load testing and a soft launch to newsletter subscribers.
- Launch
- Zero-downtime cutover
04 · TECH STACK
Built with
FRONTEND
- React
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
BACKEND
- Node.js
- Express
- JWT
DATA
- PostgreSQL
- Prisma
- Redis
PAYMENTS & CLOUD
- Stripe
- AWS S3
- CloudFront
ARCHITECTURE
NORTH&CO store
React storefront
Node.js API
Orders, stock, auth
PostgreSQL
Products, orders
Stripe
Payments, webhooks
AWS S3
Product images
05 · LEARNINGS
Challenges & learnings
Overselling during drops
CHALLENGE
Limited releases sold more units than were actually in stock.
OUTCOME
Stock reservations held at checkout made overselling impossible.
Slow mobile checkout
CHALLENGE
Half of mobile shoppers abandoned at the payment step.
OUTCOME
Stripe Payment Element with wallets cut checkout to two steps.
Interested in this project?
Happy to walk through the code, the decisions behind it, or how something similar could work for your team.