Keep Shopify. Follow the whole sale.

An anonymous parts retailer needed a clearer path from product enquiry to quote, booking deposit and the sale completed in its shop.

Research & standalone prototype delivered

For: An anonymous automotive-parts retailer
Work: Storefront review, research, proposal and Next.js prototype
Basis: Public storefront observations and a client-specific exploration

Storefront concept: different availability states need different next steps.

Find

A product card should explain the next action.

One public listing showed purchase controls while its description asked buyers to contact the shop about pre-booking. The proposed storefront distinguishes a normal purchase from an enquiry or a made-to-order booking.

What we observed, and what remained unverified

The storefront loaded during our review. The retailer reported online traffic without sales and problems with bookings, but we had no Shopify credentials, analytics or order records to verify those reports. Product rules and compatibility handling needed checking against the real catalogue.

Proposed quote record: payment, balance and shipping must stay traceable.

Reserve

A deposit is the start of a record, not the end of a sale.

The proposed booking links an accepted quote, the deposit, the remaining balance and dispatch. Staff need to see what is paid and what happens next when the purchase moves from the website to the shop.

The payment mechanism still needs an audit

The research considered payment links and an external ledger. Store plan eligibility, permitted collection, fees, refunds and reconciliation would need verification with account access before implementation. The standalone interface does not demonstrate a working deposit integration.

Proposed system boundaries: Shopify and a CRM have different responsibilities.

Connect

Give each part of the sale a clear home.

The proposal keeps catalogue, inventory and supported commerce operations in Shopify. A service around it would carry enquiries, quotes, bookings and offline follow-ups, linked to the eventual order.

People keep the sales decisions

The proposal automates reminders and task handoffs. Staff still decide compatibility, quotes, suppliers and shipping, and verify payments. A customer's message is not payment proof. Matching a website enquiry to an in-shop purchase remained an open question.

Scope of work: completed exploration beside integration work still proposed.

Explore

Make the proposal concrete before integrating it.

We compared a Shopify theme, a custom storefront and a hybrid approach, then delivered a standalone Next.js UI prototype. It gave the retailer an experience to discuss before choosing the production architecture.

The next validation is one traceable booking

With account access, the next step would follow one booking through deposit, supplier order, balance and dispatch, checking that all systems agree. The delivered prototype uses no live Shopify data and does not settle the final frontend architecture.

What the work establishes

A storefront investigation, platform research, architecture proposal and standalone Next.js UI prototype.

This was a commerce exploration for a client, covering research, a proposal and a standalone UI prototype. Integration workflows are proposed; no sales improvement is claimed. Artwork and interfaces are anonymous concepts.

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