Rob McGrath

Independent digital creative Wollongong, AU

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Planning & discovery

SÜDD

Planning a new ecommerce foundation for a growing business.

SÜDD’s Squarespace storefront had become increasingly difficult to manage as the business grew. The engagement focuses on migrating to Shopify, simplifying product selection, improving order management and fulfilment workflows, and refreshing the storefront’s design: a more scalable foundation for growth.

  1. Agreed Initial consultation · solution proposal · accepted scope
  2. Explored Pre-proposal Shopify product-configuration and theme experiments
  3. Upcoming Implementation discovery · storefront build · catalogue migration · operations · testing & launch
SÜDD All-in-One cleaner: one-litre concentrate refill bottle and spray bottle by a kitchen sink

SÜDD product photography

Existing SÜDD storefront: All in 1 Cleaner with separate Size and Fragrance dropdowns

Existing storefront (Squarespace) · size and fragrance are chosen in two separate dropdowns

02

When the storefront becomes a bottleneck

Every order runs through more than the storefront.

A SÜDD box opened to show cleaning cloths, a scrubbing sponge and a one-litre All in One Cleaner
SÜDD product photography

SÜDD sells concentrated, Australian-made cleaning products online and runs much of the store itself. As the business grew, the current setup made everyday work (managing products, processing orders, keeping the storefront consistent) harder than it needed to be.

  1. 01 Catalogue

    Formats, sizes, scents

    Products, variants, pricing

  2. 02 Storefront

    Finding and choosing

    Content and promotions

  3. 03 Checkout

    Paying, incl. Afterpay

    Payments and discounts

  4. 04 Orders

    Confirmation

    Order management

  5. 05 Fulfilment

    Delivery

    Shipping and labels

  • Observed One cleaner, sold as a combined product and as separate listings; stock and dispatch notes live in product names.
  • Observed Size and fragrance in two unconnected dropdowns.
  • Identified in consultation Mobile purchasing is a priority, and nothing the business relies on, from payments and orders to shipping and fulfilment, can break in the move. Mapping how they work today is part of the agreed discovery.
Observed: the live store, 19 Oct 2026 · Identified: initial consultation with SÜDD
The existing SÜDD shop page: a cleaning kit whose product name includes ‘sold out, pre-order available, estimate dispatch in approximately 4 weeks’, a 250 ml concentrate, a 250 ml starter bundle and an empty spray bottle
Existing storefront (Squarespace) · The cleaner listed by format, and availability in the product name.
03

Rethinking the ecommerce foundation

A new foundation, planned as one system.

From an initial consultation with SÜDD, I developed the approach and wrote the proposal, which SÜDD has accepted. Shopify is the vehicle, not the goal: a store that’s easier to shop on a phone, and that the team can run without development work for ordinary changes.

The agreed scope · not yet delivered

Customers

Storefront redesign

An evolution of the brand, not a rebrand

Answers: a consistent experience on every device

Purchasing UX

Formats, sizes and scents, designed mobile first

Answers: product selection

Core

Product & catalogue structure

How products, options and variants are modelled, which shapes both what customers choose and what the team manages

Answers: one product, many routes

The business

Shipping & fulfilment

Domestic shipping; the existing fulfilment tool via its standard integration

Answers: keeping orders moving

Payments & features

Payments, reviews, promotions and abandoned checkout, run without development work

Answers: everyday administration

Shopify environment

Built in a development store, separate from the live site, and transferred to SÜDD before launch

The platform

Launch

SEO continuity

URL mapping and 301 redirects

Answers: established traffic

Migration & testing

Catalogue, devices, checkout, cutover, handover

Answers: a safe switch-over
How the agreed scope answers customer and operational needs. None of it is delivered yet.
04

A specific problem: product configuration

Six formats, nine fragrances, and five pairings that don’t add up.

54 pairings the two dropdowns offer (6 × 9)

49 variants in the prepared product data

5 offered, but absent from that data

The All-in-One Cleaner sits at the heart of the range. On the current store, size and fragrance are independent dropdowns, so every format appears to come in every scent. The product data I prepared tells a different story: eight fragrances in all six formats, and one only as the ready-to-use spray. That makes 49 variants, not 54.

That’s a discrepancy to validate with SÜDD, not a measured customer problem, and it comes from how this one product is set up today, not from dropdowns as such. It sharpened the question: how should formats, sizes and scents be structured so customers only see real choices?

Concentrate Ready to use
250 ml 1 L 250 ml + spray bottle 1 L + spray bottle 5 L 750 ml spray
Unscented
Sea Salt & Vanilla
Australian Flora
Grapefruit Coconut & Lime
English Pear & Freesia
Vanilla & Caramel
Elegance
Allure
Pink Champagne & Exotic Fruits
In data 888889
  • In the prepared data
  • Offered by the dropdowns, absent from the data
  • “+” includes an empty 750 ml spray bottle
All-in-One Cleaner, every size and fragrance pairing. Source: product data prepared for a Shopify import before the proposal; to be validated with SÜDD.
The existing All in 1 Cleaner card with ‘250mls Concentrate’ and ‘Pink Champagne & Exotic Fruits’ selected, and the Add To Cart button available
Existing storefront (Squarespace) · One of the five: 250 ml concentrate with a scent that appears in the data only as ready-to-use. It can be selected, and the card gives no indication otherwise. Checked 19 Oct 2026.
05

Early technical investigation

Before the proposal: testing the idea in Shopify.

Before recommending the move, I prepared the All-in-One Cleaner’s data as a single Shopify product (two options, size/format and fragrance, and the 49 variants in the data, each with a SKU and price) and explored it in a prototype development store on Shopify’s Dawn theme, alongside some early theme configuration. It was a check that the approach was sound, not the start of the build.

A one-litre bottle of SÜDD All in One Cleaner concentrate on a kitchen bench by the tap
SÜDD product photography · the 1 L concentrate

Today Squarespace

  • All in 1 CleanerSize and fragrance dropdowns
  • 250mL All in One ConcentrateSeparate listing
  • 250mL Starter BundleSeparate listing
  • 1L Sudd All-in-one Refill Bottle (Filled)Separate listing
  • 5L BottleSeparate listing

Pre-proposal exploration Shopify prototype

Product
All in 1 Cleaner
Option 1 · Size
250 ml · 1 L · 250 ml + spray · 1 L + spray · 5 L · 750 ml ready to use
Option 2 · Fragrance
9 fragrances
Variants
49each with a SKU and price

An exploration of one product, not an approved structure for the store.

Decisions for the build

  • How format and size are presented on a phone
  • Whether bundles stay as variants or become their own listings
  • How unavailable combinations are handled, once the product data is validated with SÜDD
  • How the rest of the catalogue is structured

What the engagement delivers next

  • Formal discovery and technical validation
  • Final store setup and ownership transfer
  • Storefront design and build
  • Catalogue migration, about 19 primary listings
  • Final purchasing UX
  • Payments, shipping, fulfilment and integrations
  • Testing, launch and handover

The goal: a store that’s easier to shop, especially on a phone, and easier for SÜDD to run as it grows.

Planning & discovery · this case study will be updated as the work moves into design and implementation.

The current store · Squarespace sudd.com.au Next case study · 03 / 04 Dr Michele McGrath An independent home for a GP working across two clinical settings

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