Fordel StudiosMulti-Brand Skincare E-Commerce Platform
This case study describes a real engagement. Client identity, proprietary details, and specific metrics are anonymized or approximated under NDA.
What needed
solving
A skincare retail startup launching in India needed a custom e-commerce platform that went beyond standard Shopify capabilities. They required a routine builder tool, cultural formula browsing (organizing products by origin — Indian, Korean, Japanese), an educational content section, and a design system that reflected premium positioning. Off-the-shelf platforms could not accommodate the custom product discovery flows.
The routine builder was the most complex feature — a multi-step interactive tool where customers select products for each step of their skincare or haircare routine (cleanser → toner → serum → moisturizer → sunscreen for face; shampoo → conditioner → mask for hair). Each step needed to filter products by compatibility, skin type, and concern — with real-time price aggregation for the complete routine. Product data modeling had to support multiple categorization dimensions simultaneously: brand, category, skin concern, ingredient focus, cultural origin, and routine step compatibility. The Formula Book content section needed to integrate with the product catalog so educational articles could deep-link to relevant products.
How we
built it
- 01
Discovery phase mapped the complete product taxonomy — brands, categories, cultural formulas, skin concerns, ingredient groups, and routine step mappings. This produced a data model that could support the multi-dimensional browsing and filtering the client needed. We also audited competitor sites to identify UX patterns that worked for skincare-specific discovery.
- 02
Architecture: Next.js App Router for SSR/SSG performance, headless CMS for product and content management, Tailwind CSS with a custom design system reflecting the premium brand positioning. Payment integration used Razorpay for the Indian market. Cloudflare for CDN and edge caching. Analytics stack: GA4 + GTM + Microsoft Clarity for heatmaps.
- 03
Implementation was phased: product catalog and listing pages first, then product detail with image carousels and reviews, then cart/checkout, then the routine builder, then Formula Book content, then user accounts and wishlists. Each phase was deployed to staging for client review before proceeding.
- 04
Launch included SEO setup (meta tags, Open Graph, sitemap), WhatsApp customer support integration via WATI, newsletter subscription, and promotional banner management. Post-launch support covered bug fixes, content updates, and analytics tuning.
The engagement covered the complete e-commerce platform — from product catalog management to checkout flow. The client had a clear brand vision: premium skincare curation organized by cultural origin (Indian Ayurvedic, Korean glass-skin, Japanese minimalist, Global clinical). The standard Shopify/WooCommerce templates could not support the routine builder concept or the cultural formula navigation. We built a custom Next.js application with a headless CMS for product and content management, integrated payment processing for the Indian market, and analytics instrumentation across the full funnel.
What we
delivered
Built a full-stack Next.js e-commerce application with custom product catalog, routine builder, cultural formula navigation, educational content engine (Formula Book), user accounts, wishlists, cart/checkout, and integrated analytics.
Measurable
outcomes
- The platform launched with 50+ products across 4 cultural formula categories, a fully functional routine builder, and an integrated Formula Book content section. The routine builder drove measurably higher average order values compared to standard category browsing.
- Page load performance met Core Web Vitals thresholds — LCP under 2.5s, CLS under 0.1, INP under 200ms — thanks to Next.js SSR/SSG and Cloudflare edge caching. Product pages rendered with full image carousels without layout shift.
- The custom data model successfully supports 6 simultaneous filtering dimensions without query performance degradation. Product discovery flows — cultural formula, routine builder, ingredient-based, and standard category — all operate against the same catalog with different view layers.
“The routine builder was the feature we couldn't get from Shopify. It became the primary driver of repeat visits — customers come back to update their routine as they try new products, not just to browse.”
— Founder, Skincare Retail BrandReady to build
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