Artisan Roast: A 2025 E-commerce Platform Migration

From Monolith to Modern: Powering Artisan Roast Collective's Growth with a Headless Migration

In the competitive direct-to-consumer (DTC) market, a superior digital experience isn't just a feature—it's the entire storefront. For Artisan Roast Collective, a rapidly growing premium coffee subscription service, their existing e-commerce platform had become a bottleneck. What once served them well was now hindering growth, frustrating customers, and limiting their marketing agility. This is the story of how Vertex Web orchestrated a strategic migration to a high-performance, headless architecture, unlocking unprecedented growth and future-proofing their business.

The Challenge: Outgrowing a Legacy Platform

Artisan Roast Collective had built a loyal following thanks to their exceptional product. However, their digital infrastructure couldn't keep pace. The leadership team approached Vertex Web with a clear set of challenges that were impacting their bottom line:

• Crippling Performance: Their site, built on a traditional monolithic platform, was slow. Average page load times exceeded 6 seconds, and mobile performance was particularly poor. This directly impacted their Core Web Vitals, suppressing their SEO potential and leading to high bounce rates.
• Inflexible Subscription Logic: The off-the-shelf subscription module was rigid. Customers struggled to pause, skip, or customize their orders, leading to high churn rates and a heavy customer service workload.
• Poor Conversion Rates: The checkout process was clunky and multi-stepped. Analytics revealed a significant drop-off at the final payment stage, especially for mobile users.
• Developer Dependency: The marketing team was unable to quickly launch new landing pages or update content without a lengthy development cycle, stifling their ability to react to market trends.
• Migration Anxiety: The primary concern was the risk associated with a full platform replatforming. The team was worried about potential downtime, loss of critical customer and order data, and the negative SEO impact of a poorly executed move. They needed a partner with proven expertise in complex e-commerce platform migrations 2025 trends and technologies.

The Solution: A Strategic Headless Commerce Architecture

After a thorough discovery phase, our team at Vertex Web determined that a simple platform-to-platform migration wouldn't solve the core issues. We proposed a bold solution: a move to a modern, headless commerce architecture. This would decouple the frontend presentation layer from the backend e-commerce functionality, providing ultimate flexibility, performance, and scalability.

Phase 1: Architecture & UI/UX Design

Our strategy began with designing a system built for speed and user experience. We started by redesigning the entire user journey, from homepage discovery to a frictionless, single-page checkout. Our UI/UX team created a clean, intuitive interface that put the focus on Artisan Roast's beautiful product imagery and compelling brand story. The new design was mobile-first, ensuring a seamless experience for the majority of their audience.

Phase 2: Technology Stack & Custom Development

To bring the vision to life, we selected a best-in-class technology stack tailored to Artisan Roast's specific needs:

• Frontend Framework: We used Next.js (React) to build the user-facing website. Its capabilities for Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG) were crucial for achieving sub-second page loads and maximizing SEO performance.
• Headless CMS: We integrated Sanity.io, a powerful headless CMS. This empowered the Artisan Roast marketing team with the ability to create and modify content, promotions, and landing pages independently and in real-time.
• Backend & Database: We leveraged Supabase for user authentication and managing complex subscription data. Its robust real-time capabilities and PostgreSQL foundation provided the power and flexibility needed to build the custom subscription logic that their business required.
• E-commerce Engine: We connected the system to Stripe for all payment processing and subscription billing, utilizing its powerful APIs for a secure and reliable checkout experience.

This composable architecture allowed us to build a solution perfectly matched to their business logic, rather than forcing them into the constraints of a traditional platform.

Phase 3: The Data Migration

This was the most critical phase of the project. A flawless data migration is the cornerstone of successful e-commerce platform migrations 2025 projects. Our engineering team developed a multi-step, validated process:

1. Data Mapping: We carefully mapped every data field from their old system (customers, orders, subscription details, products) to the new Supabase schema.
2. Scripted Transfer: Custom scripts were written and tested in a staging environment to extract, transform, and load (ETL) the data, ensuring 100% integrity.
3. SEO Preservation: We implemented a comprehensive 301 redirect strategy, mapping every old URL to its new counterpart to preserve search engine rankings and ensure a seamless transition for users with bookmarked pages.
4. Zero-Downtime Launch: We employed a blue-green deployment strategy, allowing us to switch traffic over to the new site instantly once final data synchronization was complete, resulting in zero downtime for their customers.

The Results: Tangible Business Growth

The new platform launched in early 2025. The impact on Artisan Roast Collective's business was immediate and profound. Within six months of going live, the new site delivered exceptional, quantifiable results:

• 70% Reduction in average page load time, dropping from over 6s to under 1.8s.
• 45% Increase in the overall conversion rate, with mobile conversion rates doubling.
• 60% Uplift in monthly recurring revenue from subscriptions, driven by lower churn and higher sign-ups.
• 200% Increase in organic search traffic, fueled by vastly improved Core Web Vitals and a 98/100 Google PageSpeed Insights score.
• 80% Faster content deployment for the marketing team, enabling more agile campaigns.
• 50% Reduction in subscription-related customer service tickets due to the new self-service portal.

Client Testimonial

"Working with Vertex Web was a game-changer. They didn't just build us a new website; they delivered a strategic platform that addressed every one of our pain points. Their expertise in complex e-commerce platform migrations was evident at every stage, from the meticulous planning to the flawless, zero-downtime launch. The results speak for themselves. Our performance has skyrocketed, and our team finally has the tools they need to grow the brand. Vertex Web is a true partner, and we couldn't be happier with the outcome."

– Clara Evans, CEO, Artisan Roast Collective

Conclusion: Your Partner for E-commerce Success

Artisan Roast Collective's story is a powerful example of how a strategic technology investment can directly fuel business growth. By moving away from a restrictive monolithic platform to a flexible, high-performance headless architecture, they have set a new foundation for their future success. This project highlights the increasing importance of sophisticated e-commerce platform migrations 2025 strategies for brands looking to compete and win online.

If your e-commerce platform is holding you back, it's time for a conversation. Contact Vertex Web today to learn how our expertise in custom web development and modern technologies can unlock your brand's full potential.