Store with a custom product builder

URB-E made a folding electric scooter for the last mile of a commute. Designed and built in Pasadena, twice named Best of CES. I built the store they sold it from.

ClientURB-E
RoleDesign and code
Year2015
Where people picked the frame and the insert
Where people picked the frame and the insert

The choice had to happen before add to cart

You picked a frame color and one of six accent inserts, and they ran limited editions off the combinations. That choice was what people were buying, so it had to happen on the product page before anyone could add to cart.

Nothing off the shelf could handle two choices that depended on each other, so I wrote the builder from scratch.

FedEx rates broke on anything small

Live rates broke for anything smaller than a scooter, so I moved shipping to set rates per product, limited to the zips they could actually deliver to. Accessories got a template of their own so each one could carry several images. All of it had to replace a store already taking orders, without losing the history.

The home page on the new templates
The home page on the new templates
The model listing on the same templates
The model listing on the same templates
The store home page on a phone
The store home page on a phone

Orders still had to reach accounting

Shopify POS ran at the counter and traveled to events on iPads, each of the sales staff with their own PIN, all off one catalog. Orders still had to reach accounting: first through Webgility into QuickBooks, later mapped product by product into NetSuite with their integrator.

Before the Journal piece ran

When the Journal was about to run a piece on URB-E, I stress tested everything first.

When it was time to hand off, I moved the owner account across and trained their operations manager.

Selling something online?

Full-time, contract, or a project.

Say hello All the work →