CASE STUDY
Taking a retail store online
Sales that once happened only in a Kaohsiung store moved online, with products, payments and membership held in the company's own e-commerce system. Coverage grew from a single store to all of Taiwan, and orders are taken around the clock instead of only during opening hours.
RESULTS
What this project changed
- Taiwan-wide
- Sales coverage (previously one store only)
- 24H
- Order taking online around the clock
The problem
The ceiling on a single physical store is clear: it cannot serve more customers than walk in, and it cannot sell outside opening hours.
- The catchment area set the limit on customers, and enquiries from other counties could only be handled by messaging app and bank transfer.
- Enquiries after closing waited until the next day, and customers often went elsewhere while they waited.
- Product information, stock and customer records were separate, leaving no reliable basis for selling online.
What we did
We did not overturn how the store already worked. We digitized it first, then extended it online.
- We built the company's own e-commerce system, with products, variants and stock maintained centrally and read by both the store and the website.
- Payment and order handling were brought together, so online ordering, payment and shipping status are all managed in one back office.
- We added membership, turning regular customers who existed only in staff memory into records the business can work with.
- The storefront was designed mobile first, so customers can order on the commute or before bed.
Results
After launch, the store became one channel rather than the only one.
- Sales coverage grew from the Kaohsiung store to the whole of Taiwan.
- Orders are taken online 24 hours a day, and orders placed outside opening hours go straight into the system.
- Product and member data is managed centrally, giving later marketing campaigns something to work from.
CONSTRAINTS
Constraints
The conditions that were fixed from the start. The trade-offs behind the approach only make sense once you know them.
The store keeps trading, so the online channel could not become a second system disconnected from it.
- Existing store practice was not thrown out. It was digitized first and then extended online, so staff never had to learn two processes at once.
- There can only be one set of products and stock: the store and the website must see the same number.
- Customers mostly browse and order on a phone, so the storefront was designed mobile first rather than as a shrunken desktop layout.
- Payment details are handled entirely by the payment service, and the system itself stores no card data.
HOW IT WORKS
Technology and integrations
What the system connects to, how the data moves and why those choices were made — written so that no technical background is needed.
The approach was to turn what the store kept in people's heads into data, then have the online channel read the same data.
- Products, variants and stock are maintained centrally and shared by store and website, with no need to edit both.
- With payment connected, online ordering, payment and shipping status are all visible in one back office.
- Regular customers became member records instead of staff impressions, which is what later campaigns need to work from.