Case Study · New Store Build · Startup

Built from scratch-
a startup's first store,
done properly.

Embelliv is a fashion and lifestyle brand that came to us with a strong brand vision and no store. We built everything from the ground up a custom Shopify theme, a carefully considered UX, and a store architecture designed to grow with the brand from its very first sale.

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Built
from scratch
New
startup
Fashion
& lifestyle
2.0
Shopify 2.0
Live Store Preview

The finished store, live on Shopify

A brand-native fashion storefront built from scratch — designed to convert on every device from day one. Desktop and mobile views of the Embelliv store.

Visit embelliv.com
Embelliv desktop
Embelliv mobile
About the brand

A new fashion brand with the ambition to get it right

Embelliv is a new beauty and lifestyle brand built around a distinctive identity and a product range designed to stand out in a crowded market. Starting an eCommerce business from nothing is a significant undertaking. The most important call a founder makes at launch is whether their online store will properly represent the brand from day one, or become something they'll need to rebuild six months later.

Embelliv came to us with a clear brand direction and the conviction to do it right. Our brief was direct: build a Shopify store that does justice to the brand, converts new visitors into buyers, and gives the team full control of their storefront as they grow. There was no existing store to migrate, no legacy code to work around. Just a brand identity, a product catalogue, and a launch date.

The opportunity: take a strong brand identity and turn it into a digital experience that feels intentional, professional, and ready to scale from visitor one.

Embelliv screenshot Homepage - Embelliv.com
What shapes the build

Four things that defined every decision

Before writing a line of code or designing a single layout, we needed to fully understand what Embelliv was and what a launch-ready store required. Four key facts shaped every design and build decision.

01
A clear brand identity that needed to translate online
Embelliv had invested in their brand vision before approaching us considered visual identity, product positioning, and a clear sense of who their customer is. Our job was to translate that identity into a digital store that felt as intentional as the brand itself.
02
A new business with zero legacy constraints
Building a store from scratch is a luxury compared to migrating an established one. There is no legacy data to preserve, no existing URL structure to protect, and no technical debt inherited from a previous platform. It is an opportunity to get everything right from the beginning.
03
Fashion & lifestyle UX requirements
Fashion buyers are visually driven. They make purchasing decisions based on how a store makes them feel before they read a single word of product copy. Editorial-quality layouts, confident typography, and high-impact product photography presentation were central to the brief.
04
Built to scale from day one
A first store does not need to be a simple store. Embelliv's build was designed with the same architecture and Shopify 2.0 flexibility that a scaling brand needs so the store grows with the business rather than needing to be rebuilt the first time they outgrow it.
The challenge

Launching a new brand means getting it right first time

New stores have no second chance at a first impression. These were the four core challenges we navigated to deliver a store that was ready to represent Embelliv from day one.

Brand
Translating brand vision into a digital experience
A strong brand identity lives in the founder's head long before it exists online. The challenge is taking that vision, with all its specificity and feeling, and turning it into a Shopify store that feels coherent, professional, and genuinely brand-native, not like a template with a custom colour palette.
UX
Building for conversion without a track record
New stores have no conversion data to work from. Every UX call, product page hierarchy, collection layout, cart experience, checkout flow, had to be grounded in best practice and careful reasoning rather than analytics. That's exactly where our conversion rate optimisation experience mattered most.
Performance
First impressions are permanent for a new brand
A new brand's store is often the first, and only, impression a potential customer gets. A slow, broken, or visually inconsistent store at launch can permanently damage trust before the brand's even had a chance to earn it. The bar for quality isn't lower for a new brand. It's higher.
Growth
Architecture for a brand that intends to scale
A starter store built with no thought for the future creates technical debt that compounds fast. Embelliv needed proper Shopify 2.0 architecture, clean metafield setup, and maintainable theme code, so future features could be added without a full rebuild. We've seen what happens when this gets ignored. It isn't pretty.
Our approach

From brand brief to live store, built with intent

We started with structured discovery and worked through to a fully launched, performance-optimised Shopify store. Every phase was designed to produce a store that feels as carefully considered as the Embelliv brand itself. We're a Shopify theme development team that's done this 500+ times, so the process is well-worn but never treated as routine.

Phase 01
Discovery & Brand Translation
A structured discovery session to understand the Embelliv brand in real depth: target customer, product positioning, visual references, tone of voice, and the specific feelings the store should create. From this, we wrote a clear design brief locking in the visual direction, UX principles, and page hierarchy before any design work began. Getting this stage right saves significant time later.
Phase 02
Design Direction & Wireframing
Key page templates wireframed in detail: homepage, collection page, product page, and cart flow. The wireframes established the information hierarchy, content blocks, and conversion architecture for each page. The Embelliv team reviewed and signed off on these before we moved to visual design, so there were no surprises later.
Phase 03
Visual Design
Full visual design across all key templates: the brand's identity expressed through typography, colour, layout, and photography placement. Desktop and mobile designs were reviewed together at every stage because mobile isn't an afterthought on a build like this, it's where most of the traffic lands.
Phase 04
Shopify 2.0 Theme Development
The custom Shopify 2.0 theme was built on a staging environment. Flexible sections and blocks give the Embelliv team control over layout without needing a developer for every change. Custom metafield display handles product detail, and the Liquid code is clean and documented for long-term maintainability. Our theme development approach is built around stores that last, not just stores that launch.
Phase 05
App Integration & Pre-Launch Setup
Core app integrations configured and tested: Klaviyo for email marketing, Judge.me for reviews, wishlist functionality, and analytics. Product data, collections, and navigation populated and reviewed. Pre-launch QA ran across devices and browsers. A full Core Web Vitals performance pass was completed before we authorised the launch.
Phase 06
Launch & Post-Launch Support
The store launched on schedule with active monitoring for the first 48 hours. Post-launch support covered anything that surfaced during the first weeks of live trading. The Embelliv team was trained on all admin functions: product management, collection updates, discount creation, and order processing. They're running the store independently now, which is exactly how it should be.
Key highlights

Four things that made the biggest difference

The finished Embelliv store is a brand-native Shopify experience, built to convert from day one, architected to scale, and delivered on time. Here's what we're most proud of from this build. You can see more work like this in our portfolio, including The Gem Fly and 7 Stars Fragrances, both new brand launches we built from scratch.

01 - Design
Brand identity expressed through every detail
Every element of the Embelliv store, typography, colour, layout, imagery treatment, and micro-interactions, was designed to express the brand's identity consistently and confidently. It feels like a brand-native experience because it is one. Not a Shopify template with new fonts dropped in.
02 — Architecture
Built to grow without rebuilding
Shopify 2.0 flexible sections, a clean metafield structure, and maintainable theme code mean Embelliv can add features, expand their catalogue, and scale their operations without needing to touch the underlying build. That's a big deal for a growing startup.
03 - Conversion
UX designed to convert from day one
Clear product hierarchy, a frictionless cart experience, mobile-first checkout, and strategic review placement — all built in at the foundation, not retrofitted later. Good conversion architecture is far easier to do right the first time than to fix after launch.
04 - Performance
Fast, reliable, and A-grade Core Web Vitals
A new store shouldn't start life with technical debt. Embelliv's store launched with strong Core Web Vitals scores, optimised images, and clean script loading. The performance baseline was set high from visitor one, not patched afterwards.
Zero
Legacy constraints: built fresh, no baggage
2.0
Shopify 2.0 architecture: flexible and future-ready
Mobile
Every template designed mobile-first, not adapted
Live
Launched on schedule and ready to trade from day one
Store screenshots

Click any screenshot to enlarge. Replace the placeholder images with your own page screenshots - homepage, product, collection, or any key page.

Embelliv full view Homepage — Full view
Product Page Product Page
Brand Collection Brand Collection
Mobile / Cart Mobile / Cart
Technology used

Built on the right foundation

Every technology decision was made for performance, scalability, and long-term maintainability. The Embelliv team can keep growing without needing to pull in a developer for routine changes, and without needing to rebuild the store when the business grows.

Shopify
Shopify's native platform is the right call for a new beauty brand: a reliable, well-documented checkout, a strong app ecosystem, and an admin interface the Embelliv team could operate confidently from day one without needing ongoing developer support.
Shopify 2.0 Custom Theme
A fully bespoke Shopify 2.0 theme built around the Embelliv brand identity. Flexible sections and blocks let the team manage layouts without code changes. Custom metafield display, clean Liquid templating, and documented section settings built for long-term use. This isn't a theme customisation it's a ground-up build.
Metafields & Product Data Structure
Shopify native metafields configured for Embelliv's product data requirements: ingredient listings, usage guidance, and product story content. Structured for clean, consistent display across product and collection templates without custom app dependencies.
Klaviyo Email Marketing
Klaviyo integrated and configured before launch: email capture flows, welcome sequences, and abandoned checkout recovery all live from day one. The brand had marketing infrastructure working from the first visitor, not something bolted on weeks after launch.
Judge.me Reviews
Review collection set up and styled to match the brand. Judge.me was ready to collect and display verified product reviews from the first customers, giving Embelliv a way to build social proof from the very start of trading, not just after they'd established a customer base.
Core Web Vitals Optimisation
A full pre-launch performance pass to make sure the store launched with strong Core Web Vitals scores: image optimisation, lazy loading, deferred scripts, and efficient asset delivery baked into the theme. Our speed optimisation work isn't an add-on here, it's part of how we build.
Client Reviews

What our clients say about working with us

View all on Shopify
★★★★★

"Axis Web Art developed our website. They are easy to work with, thorough, and responsive. We have been very happy with their service."

GL
Garrett Leather
Roberta Sand, Marketing Director
★★★★★

"Great work, they know how to change your theme effectively without any issues. Fixed a few tiny issues moments after identifying them. Always a pleasure to work with this team of highly skilled players."

TC
Timothy
Founder, Timothy De Clue Collection
★★★★★

"We crafted a soothing online shopping experience for Bubbaroo, a leading Australian baby sleep bag brand. Our Shopify store design and development focused on safety, comfort, and parent peace of mind."

BU
Bubbaroo
Nicole Cassey, Founder
★★★★★
5.0 / 5.0 on Shopify Partner Directory 37 verified reviews
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01
Store Design & Development
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02
Theme Development
Fully bespoke Shopify 2.0 themes built around your brand identity, with flexible sections, clean Liquid code, and long-term maintainability built in from the start.
Learn more
04
Shopify SEO
Conversion architecture built into your store from the ground up: product page hierarchy, cart experience, checkout flow, and trust signals that work from visitor one.
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04
Support & Maintenance
Core Web Vitals and performance optimisation for Shopify stores: image compression, script management, and load-time improvements that affect both conversions and search rankings.
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The most important decision you'll make at launch is whether your store represents your brand properly from day one. Tell us about your vision and we'll build a Shopify store you're proud to put your name on.

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