How I Helped Swiss Watches Direct Modernise a 20-Year-Old Ecommerce Store
When I first spoke with Ashley, Founder of Swiss Watches Direct, it was clear he’d built something strong and lasting — a bespoke Laravel ecommerce store that had served the business for nearly two decades.
But like many custom setups, it was starting to show its age. The customer experience was beginning to feel dated, and day-to-day management had become more difficult than it needed to be.
The Goal
Ashley wanted to bring the store up to modern standards — improving how it looked and performed for customers, while making things more manageable behind the scenes. After discussing the options, we agreed that Shopify offered the right mix of flexibility, reliability and long-term support.
The Process
Over the course of three months (March to May), I worked closely with Ashley to plan and carry out the migration. That involved:
Selecting and customising a clean, modern Shopify theme (Dawn)
Restructuring and importing the product data
Configuring the store to suit both customer journeys and internal workflows
Providing guidance and support as Ashley got familiar with the new tools
One area that required extra attention was migrating the old product database. To his credit, Ashley took the time to learn and reshape the data, which made for a smoother transition. As he put it:
“Your patience around the new database spreadsheet that I needed to modify and learn how to update exceeded my expectations.”
The Outcome
The new Shopify store went live at the end of May. The difference in the front-end experience is night and day — it’s now faster, easier to navigate and mobile-friendly by default. Behind the scenes, the team has a much simpler and more reliable way to manage products and orders.
It was a real pleasure to help bring this project to life. If you're in a similar position — running an older store that’s ready for a refresh — feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to talk through what’s possible.
