A healthier online shopping experience

A more reliable website, a smoother shopping experience & a noticeable increase in sales. That's what Nelson-based natural health company O2B Healthy has experienced since making the move to Shopify with UpShift.

But getting there meant saying goodbye to an ageing WordPress website that was becoming more of a headache than a helping hand.

Established in 2003, O2B Healthy develops, manufactures & sells natural health products for people & pets. With a strong focus on quality & personal customer care, the team wanted an online store that reflected their philosophy of "Caring for you, naturally" while giving them greater control over their digital presence.

Their previous website was struggling to keep up. Slow loading times, occasional crashes & plugin compatibility issues were creating frustrations for both customers & staff.

It was time for a fresh start.

Making the Move to Shopify

The goal was to move away from WordPress & onto Shopify, creating a more dependable online shopping experience that the O2B Healthy team could confidently manage themselves.

After exploring agencies across New Zealand, they chose UpShift. Being based in Nelson was a bonus, but it was UpShift's experience & shared interest in health, wellness & sustainability that made the team stand out.

Having the opportunity to sit down over a coffee & talk through their needs face-to-face also made a difference.

Rather than starting from scratch, UpShift developer Bryn Heveldt worked with O2B Healthy to retain the familiar elements of their brand while giving the website a much-needed refresh.

The biggest changes were in how customers interacted with the store. Product information was reworked to make it clearer & more informative, while custom navigation menus featuring imagery & icons made browsing the product range easier.

A simplified checkout helped create a smoother purchasing experience from start to finish.

Making everything work together

Behind the scenes, there was another important piece of the puzzle.

O2B Healthy uses Unleashed to manage its inventory, so the new Shopify store needed to communicate seamlessly with that existing system.

UpShift helped implement an integration that keeps product information, pricing & stock levels synchronised between the two platforms. When stock changes in Unleashed, that information is reflected in Shopify, removing the need to maintain the same details in two places.

But what really made the project stand out was the way the two teams worked together.

Bryn spent time working directly from O2B Healthy's premises, getting to know the business & collaborating closely with the team on the technical requirements.

O2B Healthy had already explored some of the integration work themselves, providing a valuable starting point. As the project progressed, UpShift handled the more complex development while the client took ownership of app installations & other tasks they could manage internally.

It was a practical approach that made the most of everyone's skills & the available budget. As Maria Rose from O2B Healthy explains:

"They were open to our ideas & suggestions, rolled up their sleeves & worked alongside our team."

A platform for growth

Since launching the new website, O2B Healthy has seen a noticeable increase in sales. The team believes the improved navigation & simplified checkout have contributed to this growth.

The benefits go well beyond sales though.

With Shopify, the team now has greater independence to manage content, create new pages, automate product reviews & set up marketing flows without constantly needing developer assistance.

Most importantly, they have a more dependable platform & the confidence to invest further in their online marketing & customer experience.

For Bryn, it was one of the most enjoyable projects he's worked on, largely thanks to the people involved & the collaborative approach.

And the feeling was mutual.