Conway Shield’s First Responder Store: Forged
from Experience, Elevated
by Shopify
Our customers say
Excellent
Built to Serve, Rebuilt to Scale:
Conway Shield’s Digital Leap from
Magento to Shopify
Conway Shield, a leading provider of custom firefighter shields, faced significant challenges with its aging Magento platform. The system struggled with complex product customizations, inefficient order processing, and a disjointed data flow into their Acumatica ERP. The primary goal was to migrate to Shopify, build a sophisticated "Shield Builder," and create a seamless, automated workflow from customer order to manufacturing.
Through a collaborative, multi-team effort, the project successfully delivered a modern Shopify Plus store, a powerful Kickflip-based product configurator, and a robust, future-proof integration with Acumatica. The solution solved critical data mapping issues, enabled complex B2B pricing and access rules, and dramatically improved the user experience, resulting in greater operational accuracy and a stronger foundation for future growth.
30%
Streamlined navigation, mobile-first design, and faster load times drove a 30% boost in engagement time.
171%
Achieved a 171% increase in items added to cart by optimizing product pages with clearer CTAs, implementing sticky ‘Add to Cart’ buttons, and introducing quick shop features.
42%
Boosted events per session by 42% with smarter product discovery, engaging media, and personalized shopping journeys
The Challenge
When we began our partnership with Conway Shield, several long-standing challenges required immediate attention to improve site performance and streamline operations. The company had relied on Magento for over a decade to support its complex Shield Builder, but the platform had become increasingly difficult to manage. Sluggish performance, development delays, and a heavy reliance on technical resources for even minor updates had created frustration across teams and stalled progress on critical upgrades.
Adding to these challenges was a frustrating user experience. Users struggled to navigate the site and locate the products they needed, leading to frequent feedback about inefficiencies and confusion. Arctic Grey stepped in to address both the technical and user-facing obstacles, paving the way for a scalable, intuitive, and modern solution aligned with Conway Shield’s vision for growth.
The Solution
Our partnership with Conway Shield commenced with an understanding of their unique needs and goals. In optimizing their site and overall customer experience, we achieved the following milestones:
Platform Migration & ERP Integration: We migrated Conway Shield from their outdated Magento platform to a faster, more agile Shopify store. This shift dramatically improved site speed and usability while enabling deep integration with their Acumatica ERP. Automated data sync across orders, inventory, and customer records eliminated manual entry and reduced the risk of errors.
Custom Shield Builder: A powerful new Shield Builder, developed using Kickflip, was implemented to handle hundreds of complex, conditional configurations. The tool provides a seamless visual interface for customers and introduces customization options that weren’t possible before.
Optimized User Experience: The storefront was reimagined to streamline navigation, improve load times, and present a cleaner, more intuitive product layout. These enhancements contributed to a more engaging experience and higher conversion potential.
Clean Data Migration & Subscription Enablement: We executed a precise data migration from Magento to Shopify, preserving order history, customer data, and SEO value. As part of the rebuild, we also implemented a flexible subscription system, allowing customers to set up recurring orders with ease. This added functionality supports customer convenience, drives repeat purchases, and opens new opportunities for predictable, recurring revenue.
A truly diverse range of action
Arctic Grey partnered with Conway Shield to elevate their digital experience for both first responders and dealer networks, with a sharp focus on custom product configuration, personalized access, and operational efficiency.
Mobile First: By prioritizing the mobile experience, you cater to a larger audience, potentially capturing more leads and conversions. With the increasing use of mobile devices for search, an optimized mobile UX becomes crucial. Mobile-friendly websites are favored by search engines, leading to higher rankings and, consequently, increased search traffic. Mobile users often have different browsing habits and intentions compared to desktop users. By catering to mobile users' specific needs, you align the UX with their behavior, increasing the likelihood of conversions. For conway shield, this meant optimizing content placement and button placement to cater to their unique audience and stay true to their overall brand.
Optimized UX: In today's digital landscape, where users have numerous options, a superior UX can be a significant differentiator, helping a business stand out from its competitors. A smooth and intuitive UX design streamlines the conversion process, reducing friction and making it easier for users to complete desired actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service. With conway shield, we wanted to utilize advanced filtering options on collection pages, and optimize their overall spacing and button placement.
Arctic Grey UI/UX Design Approach.
Improving the desktop user experience was critical to ensuring that Conway Shield’s customers could browse and order gear with clarity and confidence. Our team focused on creating a streamlined, intuitive interface that made product discovery effortless. This included logical navigation, filter systems tailored to complex product types, and responsive design optimized for both wide-screen and standard desktop devices.
To maintain Conway Shield’s strong brand presence, we ensured visual consistency across every touchpoint - integrating their signature color palette, typography, and iconic design elements into the UI. This cohesive approach elevated the overall user experience.
With more users shopping on mobile, a mobile-first design was essential to improving conversions and accessibility for Conway Shield. A strong mobile experience also supports search engine visibility, with platforms like Google prioritizing mobile performance.
We fully optimized the Shield Builder for mobile—focusing on responsive design, simplified navigation, and fast load times—to ensure first responders and dealers could customize and order gear seamlessly from any device.
The Results
Improved Usability and Branding: We overhauled the site's navigation and footer to enhance usability and deepen Conway Shield's brand presence. The new navigation system guides customers effortlessly through the extensive product catalog, while the redesigned footer offers essential links and brand-aligned visuals. These strategic updates streamlined the user journey, leading directly to reduced drop-offs and a significant increase in customer engagement.
Launch of a New Subscription Program: Working closely with the Conway Shield team, we implemented a subscription feature for select consumable products, offering customers the convenience of automated reordering on a custom schedule. Seamlessly integrated into the storefront, the subscription flow aligns with user expectations while supporting operational needs. This recurring model improves retention, reduces friction for repeat buyers, and ensures first responders never run short on essential gear.
Easy-to-use Shield Builder: To bring Conway Shield’s complex product customization to life, we integrated and optimized the Kickflip app within the Shopify Plus ecosystem to power their Shield Builder—delivering a high-performance, visually intuitive tool capable of handling thousands of configuration combinations with conditional logic, while seamlessly passing clean data to Acumatica for streamlined production, reduced order errors, and a scalable, future-ready experience.
Streamlined Access and Tiered Pricing for Dealer Networks: The launch of Conway Shield’s dealer login and tiered pricing system redefined how fire departments and partners engage with the site. Upon logging in, dealers are automatically presented with curated product catalogs, exclusive pricing tiers, and flexible payment options such as purchase orders—all based on their specific group access. This tailored experience not only enhances usability and reduces friction at checkout but also automates access control and pricing logic on the backend. As a result, Conway Shield has improved operational efficiency, strengthened key customer relationships, and built a flexible foundation to support its expanding dealer network.
Built with Shopify Customizer
Accelerate your Growth with powerful Shopify Features
UX for Cart Drawers
Easily see cart contents and upsells with a sliding cart drawer modal. Users will stay on the page they're viewing, and continue shopping without navigating away to a cart page.
Shoppable Collection Pages
Minimize dropoffs by allowing shoppers to add to cart seamlessly and quickly, with a quick shop. All in stock sizes and colors are directly visible on the collection page.
SiteSpeed
Optimized site speed will have the greatest impact in not only improving your bounce rate, but increasing search engine rankings, and improved conversion rates overall.
Mega navigation
Our Process
Discover
Define
Develop
Quality Assurance
Deliver
A/B Testing
01 Research
We start our partnership with a client with a kick-off call with a dedicated member of our Success Management team. There, we discuss the site in detail, UX and UI goals, any existing pain-points, and potential solutions. Our team of Success Managers have extensive knowledge of Shopify, and provide ongoing support and daily communication to our clients.
02 Branding
We believe in the power of simplicity and strive to create eCommerce solutions that embody both elegance and functionality.
03 UX Design
From there, we dive right in to the branding and UX design with our talented team of designers. Our focus on delivering results has solidified our commitment to crafting the finest Shopify experiences through dynamic and beautiful UX and UI, and The Cashmere Sale was no exception.
04 UI Design
Our global team of developers are unparalleled in the pursuit of perfection of creating dynamic and responsive themes, that also allows a merchant the ability to manage their site through advanced customization features.
05 Development
We are multi-award winning Shopify Plus Design & Development Firm.
At Arctic Grey, we craft the most exceptional eCommerce solutions for Enterprise Merchants worldwide. Our commitment to excellence is evident in the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our clients, with over 500 Five Star Reviews.
06 Quality Assurance
Our talented Quality Assurance team test each element of a new site, from both a technical and user’s perspective. They are true perfectionists, and have extensive knowledge of UX and UI best practices on all mobile and desktop devices.
07 A/B Testing
AB Testing is crucial, and we are passionate about delivering excellence for our clients by using clear, data-driven results driving all decision making.
The Multi Award Winning Shopify Management Team at Arctic Grey
Brooke Sanderson
Merchant Success Director
Jake Amos
Co-Founder
Truc Peter
Senior Account Executive
Giana Moretti
Senior eCommerce Manager
Anthony Spallone
Co-Founder
Maddie Schwartz
Senior Account Executive
Julia Matviichuk
eCommerce Manager
Sofia Jimenez
eCommerce Manager
Caroline Jay
eCommerce Manager
Best Website Design 2022
Best Web Developers in New York 2022
Top Web Developers 2020
Top Web Developers 2024
Enterprise Shopify Plus
Best Development 2021
Top Digital Agency 2024
Best Shopify Agency
Best Support 2021
Engineering each solution
Arctic Grey employs an innovative approach to enhancing customer experience. Through targeted research, we’ve identified and addressed potential points of confusion in our product offerings. This allows us to refine the user journey, creating a more seamless and engaging shopping experience. Our insights will continue to guide future project developments.
Throughout this project, we have delivered and continue to provide the following services and benefits:
- Strategic Product Placement – Maximizes visibility and ease of discovery for customers.
- Email Marketing Optimization – Boosts engagement and drives repeat purchases.
- Custom Upsell Cart Drawer – Increases average order value with tailored recommendations.
- Fully Responsive Experience – Ensures smooth navigation across all devices.
- Site Speed Optimization – Reduces load times, improving customer satisfaction.
- CRO & AOV Optimizations – Drives conversion rates and revenue growth.
- Core Web Vitals Management – Enhances site health and performance metrics.
- 24/7 On-Demand Support – Provides continuous assistance for uninterrupted service.
- End-to-End (E2E) Shopping Experience – Delivers a cohesive and streamlined shopping journey.
The Conclusion
Through our partnership and the powerful capabilities of Shopify’s flexible platform, advanced customization features, and extensive app integrations, we’ve set the foundation for Conway shield continued success and a bright future.
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