Case Study: Ruff Retreat
From agency-led WooCommerce delays to a UX-led Shopify launch
Background
Ruff Retreat came to me as a start-up with a strong brand idea, but a website project that had stalled. An agency had been building their site on WooCommerce, but progress was slow, delivery dates kept moving, and the site never reached a point where it felt finished or launch-ready. Performance was inconsistent, key pages were incomplete, and confidence in the platform was slipping.
For a start-up, that’s a serious problem. Without a live, stable e-commerce site, everything else stops.
Why the Existing WooCommerce Build Wasn’t Working
The issue wasn’t design taste or minor fixes. The agency-built WooCommerce site had become plugin-heavy, slow to load, difficult to optimise, and dependent on ongoing developer involvement. It was stuck in development with no clear end point.
At that stage, continuing to patch the build would only increase cost and delay. The right move was a reset.
The Approach: UX First, Then Shopify
I started by designing the UX properly before writing any code. This involved defining a clear page hierarchy, logical user journeys, how products should be discovered, and how brand values should sit alongside commerce.
With the UX defined, I rebuilt ruffretreat.co.uk from the ground up as a bespoke Shopify store. No off-the-shelf themes, no unnecessary features, and no technical bloat. The focus was performance, stability, and a site the client could manage day-to-day.
Content & SEO Optimisation
Once the site was built, content was optimised to support visibility and growth. This included SEO-optimised titles, headings, metadata, clean collection and product copy, logical internal linking, structured product data, and integration with Google Search Console and Merchant Center.
Results: Two Months After Launch
Two months after launch, the Shopify store is already showing healthy early traction. The site has achieved 11% organic visibility across tracked keywords, 14 keywords ranking in Google’s top 100, 8 keywords in the top 10, and 2 keywords ranking in the top 3. Brand searches for Ruff Retreat rank at number one.
Several Shopify collection pages are already generating estimated organic traffic, confirming that the UX, structure, and SEO foundations are working.
Conclusion
This project shows the value of starting with UX, choosing the right platform, and building Shopify properly from the outset. For businesses stuck with delayed or over-engineered WooCommerce builds, a clean Shopify rebuild is often the fastest and most reliable way to move forward.
View the Ruff Retreat website