Factor Bikes:
Headless e-commerce for the world's fastest bikes
We got Factor Bikes selling online with a bespoke Shopify / Contentful website
Our tech stack for this project:
Background
In 2023 Factor Bikes engaged with Autotelic to re-platform their existing Wordpress/WooCommerce website. The site design was on-brand and they were happy with the overall user interface/user experience (UI/UX), and information architecture (IA). The challenge lay with existing e-commerce functionality that was not working, not backed by any documentation, and failing to drive revenue.
Project Goals/Solution Overview
We suggested rebuilding the Factor Bikes website on a platform that aligned with future growth plans allowing for multi-region, localized content, composable pages and offer fast landing page deployment while providing a stable platform to drive revenue through functional e-commerce.
Based on our knowledge of the Factor product offering and future digital platform goals we recommended a headless architecture where the user-facing website and e-commerce presence are separated from the administration platforms, allowing them to function independently. The front-end was built using React, and pulls in narrative and brand content from the Contentful content management system (CMS) and e-commerce product info and functionality via the Shopify API. We also rebuilt the existing UX/UI using Tailwind to streamline future development. The result is a highly customized and dynamic front-end experience without constraints for post-launch development
Impact
The solution we built allows for greater flexibility and agility, as changes can be made to the consumer-facing site independently of the management platforms. This makes it possible to scale the website independently and in response to traffic requirements (e.g., spikes in traffic driven by product launches and media coverage). The e-commerce layer was built using Shopify’s Hydrogen framework, which is based on the Remix framework. This enabled us to rapidly build out the product and checkout functionality whilst retaining complete flexibility in the non-e-commerce parts of the site. The Shopify admin provides a familiar interface for internal Factor sales team members to create orders for customers and manage the overall product offering. The decoupled nature of the proposed solution plans for change. As business requirements change and evolve, we can easily extend the site with new platforms, or swap out the existing platforms if they are outgrown. It also provides the flexibility to update and extend any part of the UX/UI separately from the administration and data platforms.
Every project starts with a conversation
You talk, we listen. We learn about what you're trying to do, where your barriers are, and we figure out a solution. It's a refreshingly collaborative approach to digital projects and it all starts with a conversation.