Labcare, an Italian brand specializing in professional dermocosmetic products, undertook a complete digital transformation of its e-commerce site. The project included migrating the platform from WordPress/WooCommerce to Shopify, a complete graphic redesign, and the implementation of advanced features to optimize the user experience.
Summary Results:
- Complete migration with no data loss and zero downtime
- Improved loading performance
- +17% YOY Gross sales
- 8 strategic integrations implemented
- training hours for complete customer autonomy
The Challenge
The Starting Context
Labcare operated on a WordPress/WooCommerce platform that showed significant growth limitations:
- Poor performance: High loading times causing abandonments
- Fragmented user experience: Complex navigation, especially on mobile
- Inefficient catalog management: Time-consuming manual system for product categorization
- Limited product search: Unable to filter by skin type and specific active ingredients
- Complicated Integrations: Difficulty connecting marketing and CRM tools
- Reduced scalability: Architecture not ready to support growth and subject to failure in case of traffic spikes
The Vision
Create a modern, high-performance, and scalable e-commerce platform that:
- Offer a smooth and intuitive shopping experience
- Allow customers to easily find the products that best suit their needs
- Seamlessly integrate all marketing and analytics tools
- Reduce operational workload with intelligent automation
- Support future international growth
- It is based on a reliable and scalable infrastructure, capable of handling any volume of traffic without service interruptions
The Solution
Strategic Approach
The project was structured into 10 sequential phases, from initial analysis to post-launch support, involving a multidisciplinary team of 8 specialists.
1. Analysis and Strategy
Complete Business Audit
An in-depth analysis was conducted which included:
- Competitive analysis of the Italian and European dermocosmetic sector
- Studying user behavior through analytics and heatmaps
- UI/UX evaluation also with hetmapping and neuromarketing tools
- Identifying pain points in the existing customer journey
- Benchmarking performance against competitors
The audit highlighted key opportunities for improvement in search filters, mobile experience, and site speed.
Technological Selection
After evaluating several options, Shopify Plus was selected as the target platform for:
- Enterprise-grade reliability and scalability
- Optimized native performance
- Ecosystem rich in integrations
- Ease of management for the customer
- Reduced time-to-market
- Extensibility of the Admin and Checkout area
2. Data Migration
Full Transfer Without Losses
The migration required special attention to ensure the integrity of all data:
- all customers with complete profiles, preferences and purchase history
- 200+ products with variations, images, descriptions and technical specifications
- all historical orders for analytics and reporting
- 70+ collections reorganized with optimized logic
- 300+ SEO redirects to preserve organic rankings
Each element has been migrated with obsessive attention to detail, including custom metafields for information specific to the dermocosmetic sector (INCI, key active ingredients, recommended skin type).
3. Complete UI/UX Restyling
Modern and Mobile-First Design
The new design was developed following a mobile-first approach, considering that most traffic comes from mobile devices.
Engaging Homepage
- Impactful hero section with clear brand messages
- Featured product sections with fluid carousels
- Benefit blocks and unique selling proposition
- Trustpilot Review Integration for Social Proof
- Easily manageable promotional banners
Optimized Product Pages
- Clean layout that puts the product at the center
- Professional image gallery with zoom
- Information organized into tabs (description, key active ingredients, INCI, evidence of efficacy)
- Related products section for cross-selling
- Always visible sticky add-to-cart
- Intuitive variant selector
Catalog and Collections
- Responsive grid layout
- Product card with consistent aspect ratio
- Quick view for quick preview
- Flexible sorting (price, new, bestsellers)
- Advanced filters
Institutional Pages
- About Us: brand storytelling with historical timeline and press section
- Contact: Optimized form with map and complete information
- Legal information: Privacy, Cookie Policy, Terms and Conditions, Returns and Shipping
4. Advanced Search System
Intelligent Filters for Dermocosmetics
A sophisticated filter system specific to the sector has been developed:
Filters Implemented:
- Skin Type: Normal, Combination, Dry, Oily, Sensitive, Mature
- Body Area: Face, Body, Eyes
- Key Actives: Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin C, Retinol, and 20+ other active ingredients
- Price Range: Dynamic based on catalog
- Availability: In stock, coming soon, pre-order
Advanced Features:
- Real-time product text search
- Multiple combinable filters
- Product counters for each filter
- Sticky filter bar on scroll
- Mobile: Optimized slide-in panel
Metafield Automation
To avoid the manual categorization of 200+ products, an intelligent automation system has been developed:
- Script that reads existing product tags
- Automatic tag mapping → structured metafields
- Data quality validation
- Bulk update via API
This saves hours of manual work and ensures scalability for future products.
5. Strategic Integrations
Complete Marketing and Analytics Ecosystem
Analytics and Tracking
- Google Analytics 4 with enhanced e-commerce tracking
- Google Tag Manager for centralized tag management
- Google Search Console for SEO monitoring
- Google Merchant Center for Google Shopping
Digital Marketing
- Meta Business Suite (Facebook and Instagram) with synchronized product catalog
- MailChimp for email marketing automation (welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase)
- Trustpilot for collecting and displaying verified reviews
Conversion Optimization
- Personalized Skincare Quiz for Lead Generation and Product Recommendation
- Back-in-stock notification system to recover lost sales
- WhatsApp Business for instant customer support
Payments and Shipping
- Native Shopify Payments
- Klarna for installment payments
- Sendcloud for multi-courier management with automatic tracking
All integrations have been configured to work together, creating a continuous flow of data that fuels decisions based on real analytics.
6. Custom Sections and Special Features
Custom Development
In addition to the theme's native features, custom sections have been developed:
- Flexible section for grid layout fully manageable by the customer via Shopify Customizer, used for:
- Benefit sections
- Feature highlights
- Content marketing blocks
- Responsive carousel to display print logos, certifications, and partners, strengthening brand credibility.
- Intelligent product recommendation system in the cart based on cross-sells and related categories, contributing to an 8% increase in average order value.
- Metafield HTML Rendering Custom solution for rendering complex HTML content in metafields, allowing the customer to manage formatted technical information directly from the Shopify admin.
7. Performance and Optimizations
Speed as a Priority
Best practices have been implemented to ensure excellent performance:
- Lazy loading for images and videos
- Critical inline CSS for immediate above-the-fold rendering
- Font optimization with preload and font-display swap
- Minification of all CSS and JavaScript assets
- Shopify Global CDN for Optimized Delivery
- Automatic image optimization with WebP
Performance Results:
- Lighthouse Score: from 62 to 92 (+48%)
- Page Load Time: from 5.8s to 2.3s (-60%)
- First Contentful Paint: from 3.5s to 1.2s (-66%)
- Time to Interactive: from 8.2s to 3.1s (-62%)
8. Compliance and Security
GDPR and Regulations
Full implementation of regulations:
- Cookie banner with granular consent management
- GDPR compliant Privacy Policy
- Detailed Cookie Policy
- Clear Terms and Conditions
- Explicit privacy checkboxes in forms
- User Preference Management
Safety
- SSL Certificate including Shopify
- PCI DSS Compliance for Payments
- Certified secure checkout
9. Email Marketing and Notifications
Custom Templates
All email templates have been redesigned with Labcare branding:
- Order confirmation email with clear details
- Shipping confirmation email with tracking
- Welcome email for new customers
- Password reset
- Back-in-stock notifications
- Gift card delivery
Each template is responsive, tested on all major email clients, and optimized for conversion.
10. Training and Customer Autonomy
Complete Training
hours of structured training covered:
Session 1: Product and Catalog Management
- Adding and editing products
- Variant and inventory management
- Metafield compilation for filters
- Upload optimized images
- Collections organization
- SEO optimization
Session 2: Marketing and Promotions
- Creating discount codes
- Automatic discounts
- Volume/tiered discounts
- Gift card management
- Shipping and tax settings
Session 3: Analytics and Integrations
- Analytics dashboard reading
- MailChimp Campaign Management
- Tracking Trustpilot reviews
- Sendcloud Shipping Management
Documentation 50+ page Operation Manual with:
- Illustrated step-by-step guides
- Video tutorials for key operations
- FAQ and troubleshooting
- Hoculus Support Contact
Qualitative Benefits
For Business
- Scalable platform ready for 10x growth
- Simplified operational process with savings of 10+ hours/month
- Decision making based on accurate analytics data
- Improved brand perception with modern design
- Solid foundation for international expansion
For Customers
- Smooth and intuitive shopping experience
- Simplified product search with smart filters
- Fast and secure checkout
- Optimized mobile experience
- Complete and accessible product information
Technical Innovations
Intelligent Automation
Automated Metafield System
Instead of manually categorizing 200+ products (estimated 10+ hours), a system was developed that:
- Automatically reads existing tags
- Apply intelligent pattern matching
- Populate structured metafields
- Validate data consistency
Benefit: immediate scalability and zero human errors.
HTML Rendering in Metafields
Development of a custom Liquid filter to allow formatted HTML content in metafields, overcoming Shopify's native limitations and allowing the client maximum flexibility in managing product technical information.
Reusable Modular Sections
Create custom drag-and-drop sections that the client can reuse on any page, increasing flexibility without the need for ongoing development.
Challenges Overcome
Complexity of Migration
Migrating thousands of historical orders with complex edge cases (gift cards, multiple discounts, partial refunds) required iterative cycles of fixes and meticulous validation to ensure 100% accuracy.
Image Quality
Product images appeared grainy after uploading due to the theme's automatic lazyloading. Specific guidelines had to be developed for asset preparation (minimum dimensions, optimal formats, compression levels) and critical images had to be reuploaded in batches.
Team Sync
With 4 developers working in parallel on different branches, a rigorous process of code review, merge conflict resolution, and testing on staging was implemented before each deployment.
Team and Methodology
Team Composition
The project involved 8 Hoculus specialists with complementary skills:
- Management: Strategic coordination and client relationships
- Technical Lead: Architecture, integrations, technical project management
- Migration Specialist: Data import, platform configuration
- Frontend Lead: Custom development, restyling, optimizations
- UX/Content Manager: Audit, design, content strategy, QA, training
- Integration Specialist: Apps, email templates, legal compliance
- Content Support: Asset management, contents
Methodological Approach
Agile and Iterative
- Project divided into 10 sequential phases with clear milestones
- Weekly sprints with daily sync
- Continuous testing during development
- Rapid feedback loops with the customer
- Regular demo sessions for validation
Focus on Quality
- Mandatory code review
- Multi-device and multi-browser testing
- Staging environment for pre-launch validation
- Complete QA checklist (100+ points)
- Constant performance monitoring
Customer Testimonial
"Super positive experience, very prepared staff, always available to solve problems. "
— Labcare Management Team
Future Roadmap
Q2-Q3-Q4 2025: Continuous Optimization
Advanced Customization
- Quiz expansion with AI algorithms for even more accurate recommendations
- Dynamic personalized homepage for returning users
- Advanced behavior-based email automation
Loyalty and Retention
- Loyalty points program
- Referral rewards
- VIP tiers with exclusive benefits
Subscription Model
- Monthly skincare subscriptions
- Automatic refills with discount
- Curated beauty boxes
International Expansion
- Launch of EU markets (France, Germany, Spain)
- Optimized multi-currency
- Localized content
Content Marketing
- Integrated blog for SEO
- Beauty routine video tutorial
- User-generated content
Emerging Technologies
- AI Skin Analysis
- Virtual beauty consultant
Conclusions
Labcare's digital transformation represents a complete success story in the evolution of a dermocosmetic e-commerce business. In four months of structured work, a multidisciplinary team completed the migration of an entire e-commerce platform, achieving immediate measurable results and laying the foundation for long-term sustainable growth.
The Key Factors of Success
1. Holistic Approach
Not just a technical migration, but a complete redesign of the digital experience that takes into account performance, UX, SEO, marketing, and operations.
2. Focus on Business Results
Every technical decision was driven by business impact: conversion rate, AOV, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency.
3. Technology at the Service of the User
Automations and intelligent filters are not just “cool features,” they solve real problems for both customers (finding the right product) and businesses (operational efficiency).
4. Transfer of Skills
The client is not dependent on the agency for day-to-day operations, but is completely autonomous thanks to structured training.
5. Scalability and Future
The platform is not only fit for purpose today, but ready to support 10x growth and international expansion.
The Value of a Strategic Partnership
This project demonstrates how a collaboration between a brand with a clear vision and an agency with technical and strategic expertise can create significant value. It's not just about "creating a new website," but about building a digital platform that becomes a truly strategic asset for the business.
Labcare's new Shopify e-commerce site isn't the end point, but the starting point of a new phase of digital growth. The future roadmap is already defined, with continuous optimization, new features, and international expansion over the next 12-24 months.