The situation
A brand ready to go international, stuck on a website that couldn't keep up
The client — a US-based sustainable apparel brand with a growing social following — had been selling through a basic WooCommerce site for two years. As they prepared to expand internationally (UK, Canada, and Australia), it became clear the existing site couldn't support multi-currency, had no international payment options, and performed poorly on mobile — their primary channel.
The founder had a hard deadline: a product launch tied to a press feature in a UK sustainability publication, six weeks out. They needed a fully functional international store — with their existing 840-product catalogue imported, SEO structure in place, and speed-optimised — in time for the feature to go live.
Core challenges
Four distinct problems compounding each other
Tight 3-week build deadline
The UK press feature had a fixed date. Missing it meant losing the traffic spike that would define their international launch. Every decision in the project was made with the launch date as the hard constraint.
840-product catalogue migration
Products existed across WooCommerce, a Shopify draft store the founder had started and abandoned, and a CSV export that was out of date. Consolidating and importing them cleanly without losing data took dedicated effort.
International payments and currency
UK, Canadian, and Australian customers needed to pay in their local currency without a confusing checkout experience. Shopify Markets needed careful setup alongside the correct payment gateway configuration per region.
SEO continuity from old site
Despite its limitations, the WooCommerce site had accumulated some organic rankings. A poorly planned migration would have destroyed them. We needed to map redirects and maintain URL structure where possible.
Our approach
A structured 6-phase SEO programme
We built a phased plan that addressed technical foundations first, then content, then authority — in that order. Skipping the technical audit would have wasted the content investment.
1
Theme selection and design customisation
Evaluated 14 Shopify themes for performance baseline and customisability. Selected Dawn (Shopify's official base theme) for its speed credentials and built a full brand skin on top — custom typography, colour system, navigation, and homepage sections. Figma prototypes approved in 48 hours.
Dawn theme baseFull brand skinFigma prototypes48-hour design approval
2
Product catalogue migration and import
Consolidated product data from three sources into a master CSV. Cleaned 840 product records — standardised titles, descriptions, tags, and variant structure. Wrote a custom import script to handle metafields not supported by standard import. All products live by day 9.
3-source consolidation840 products importedCustom import scriptMetafield handling
3
Shopify Markets and international setup
Configured Shopify Markets for UK, CA, and AU with local currency display, local payment methods (Klarna for UK, Afterpay for AU), and region-appropriate shipping rates. Local domains configured for SEO benefit.
Shopify Markets3 international regionsLocal payment methodsRegional shipping
4
Speed optimisation
Disabled all non-essential theme features. Compressed and converted all images to WebP on upload. Configured Cloudflare in front of Shopify for additional caching. Deferred non-critical scripts. Achieved 2.3s average load time on mobile 4G.
Feature auditWebP imagesCloudflare setupScript deferral
5
SEO foundation
Built URL structure matching old site where possible. Set up 301 redirects for changed URLs. Configured canonical tags, meta templates, structured data for products, and an XML sitemap. Submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
URL structure mapping301 redirectsProduct schemaSearch Console setup
6
QA, launch, and post-launch monitoring
Full 3-day QA pass across all devices and payment flows. Test orders placed in all three international regions. Launch day monitoring with Uptime Robot (99.8% uptime recorded in first 90 days). Post-launch 2-week support included.
3-day QAInternational test ordersUptime monitoring2-week post-launch support
Month by month
How progress unfolded
Days 1–2 — March
Kickoff and design
Brand brief, theme selection, and Figma prototype created and approved within 48 hours. Product import began in parallel on day 3.
Days 3–9
Build and import
Full theme development. All 840 products imported and verified. Collections and navigation structure completed. International setup begun.
Days 10–16
Integrations and speed
Shopify Markets configured. Payment gateways tested in all three regions. Speed optimisation completed. SEO foundation built.
Days 17–19
QA
Comprehensive QA across 8 device configurations and all checkout flows. Test transactions completed in GBP, CAD, and AUD. Minor fixes addressed.
Day 21 — April
Launch
Store went live 21 days after kickoff. UK press feature published 4 days later. Site handled 3,200 concurrent visitors during the traffic spike without incident.
Results: before vs. after
The numbers speak clearly
Before (WooCommerce site)
Mobile load time~5.8 seconds
Mobile PageSpeed38
International currency supportNone
International payment optionsNone
Conversion rateBaseline
Uptime (90-day)~96.2%
SEO product pages indexed420 / 840
After (New Shopify store)
Mobile load time2.3 seconds
Mobile PageSpeed81
International currency supportUSD, GBP, CAD, AUD
International payment optionsKlarna, Afterpay, local cards
Conversion rate+32%
Uptime (90-day)99.8%
SEO product pages indexed840 / 840
3 wks
From kickoff to a live international store
+32%
Conversion rate vs old WooCommerce site
£1st mo
$50K first month — first month ever above this threshold
"
Three weeks sounds impossible for what we asked for. I was genuinely nervous we'd have to push the press feature. But the store went live on day 21, the UK feature ran on day 25, and we hit our first $50K month. The international setup worked flawlessly — I had Australian customers using Afterpay the first day. That's something I couldn't have even imagined on our old site.