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App Corp
Full-service software engineering
Engineering your experience…
App Corp
Full-service software engineering
Engineering your experience…
How we built a custom storefront and seller portal for a curated artisan marketplace — replacing Instagram DMs and email orders with a proper shopping experience that doubled their GMV.
About The Client
A curated community marketplace connecting independent UK-based artisan makers with conscious consumers — featuring 500+ makers across ceramics, textiles, jewellery, and homeware.
Marketplace & Handmade Commerce
Small Business (8 employees)
Brighton, United Kingdom
Mid-Market
Technology Stack
The specific stack was chosen after evaluating the client's scalability requirements, compliance constraints, team capabilities, and long-term maintainability — not retrofitted to existing preferences.
Artisan Collective had grown from a weekend market stall to a community of 500+ makers — but their sales channel was still Instagram DMs, email orders, and pop-up markets. There was no product catalogue, no cart, no checkout, no order management. Every sale required manual coordination between buyer, maker, and the small Artisan team. With 8 employees managing 500+ relationships through spreadsheets and a shared email inbox, they were reaching the limit of what manual operations could sustain.
500+
makers with no digital storefront or checkout
Key Pain Points
500+ maker relationships managed through spreadsheets — no CRM or portal
Orders placed via Instagram DMs and email — no checkout, no tracking
Zero product discovery — buyers browsed via Instagram or word of mouth
No order management — fulfilment tracked in a shared email inbox
Mobile-first audience with no mobile shopping experience
We built a headless Shopify-powered storefront that gave Artisan Collective a proper online marketplace experience while keeping Shopify's battle-tested cart, checkout, and payment infrastructure under the hood. A custom seller portal let makers manage their products, track orders, and get paid without involving the Artisan team. The design system was built first — a warm, handcrafted visual language that reflected the maker community's personality.
A handcrafted visual language built in Next.js — warm typography, textured surfaces, and interaction patterns that reflect the handmade quality of the products. Every component built mobile-first and documented for Artisan's growing team.
Next.js storefront powered by the Shopify Storefront API with Algolia product search, rich product pages, category browsing, and a streamlined checkout. Optimised for mobile discovery — 80% of traffic comes from phones.
A maker-facing dashboard for shop setup, product listing management, inventory tracking, and order fulfilment. Stripe Connect-powered payouts with automated weekly settlement, removing the manual payment coordination burden from the Artisan team.
End-to-end order flow from buyer checkout through maker fulfilment — automated order notifications, shipping status updates, and a simple dispute resolution workflow for the Artisan team to manage exceptions.
Every engagement follows a disciplined, phased delivery methodology — built on transparency, measurable milestones, and continuous client collaboration throughout.
We spent the first 4 weeks embedded with Artisan's community — interviewing makers, observing their workflows, and understanding buyer behaviour. The design system was built in parallel, with weekly feedback sessions from a panel of 10 founding makers who would be the first power users.
The buyer-facing storefront and maker seller portal were built in parallel — connected by the shared Shopify product and order data models. A beta of the seller portal was in makers' hands within 6 weeks, with daily feedback shaping the remaining features.
A phased launch with 50 founding makers onboarded first, followed by the full community. Each maker received personalised training and a 2-week support window. Buyer-side launch coincided with the seasonal gift-buying period.
Every number below is a verified, real-world outcome. No hypotheticals, no projections — these are the results delivered.
120%
GMV Growth
Revenue doubled within 6 months of launch — $5M annualised GMV
500+
Active Makers
Full community onboarded onto the seller portal within 3 months
4.8/5
Seller Satisfaction
Portal NPS score from maker survey at month 3
80%
Mobile Traffic
Four out of five buyers browse and purchase on their phone
1.8s
Checkout Time
Average time from cart to order confirmation on mobile
0
Manual Orders
Instagram and email orders replaced by automated checkout flow
“We went from managing orders through Instagram DMs and a shared inbox to running a proper online marketplace. Our makers love having their own portal where they can manage products and see their sales. For our tiny team, the time savings have been transformational — we went from drowning in coordination emails to actually growing the business. App Corp built a solution that matched our scale perfectly.”
Fiona MacAllister
Co-Founder & CEO · Artisan Collective