How we built a Shopify Plus store that generated AED 3.2M in first-year revenue with a 4.8% conversion rate and 94/100 PageSpeed score for a confidential Abu Dhabi fashion retailer.
The Challenge
A premium fashion retailer in Abu Dhabi was struggling with an outdated Magento 1 store. Their conversion rate was stuck at 0.8%, checkout abandonment was 82%, and site speed was painfully slow (31/100 PageSpeed). They needed a complete eCommerce overhaul that could handle their growing inventory while providing a luxury shopping experience.
Key challenges included: maintaining brand prestige during migration, integrating UAE-specific payment gateways (PayTabs, Telr, Tabby), supporting both Arabic and English shoppers, optimizing for mobile (68% of their traffic), and achieving sub-2-second load times without sacrificing visual richness.
Our Solution
We built a custom Shopify Plus store from the ground up. The solution included: bespoke Liquid theme coded from their Figma designs (no page builders), integration with PayTabs, Telr, and Tabby (Buy Now, Pay Later), Aramex and Fetchr shipping APIs for real-time rates, bilingual Arabic/English with proper RTL support, advanced product filtering and search, custom size guide with fit recommendations.
Technical implementation: Optimized images with lazy loading and WebP format, implemented predictive search with Algolia, created custom Shopify scripts for dynamic pricing, built conversion-optimized checkout flow, integrated with their existing ERP (Odoo) for inventory sync, achieved 94/100 PageSpeed with strategic caching and CDN configuration.
Key Results
AED 3.2M first-year revenue (exceeded projections by 40%). 4.8% conversion rate (6x improvement from 0.8%). 94/100 PageSpeed score (vs 31/100 on old site). AED 485 average order value (+22% vs Magento). 38% return customer rate (vs 12% previously).
Timeline: 6 weeks from kickoff to launch. Budget: AED 65,000 (setup) + AED 3,200/month (hosting + apps + maintenance). Technologies: Shopify Plus, Liquid, Custom JavaScript, PayTabs, Telr, Tabby, Aramex API, Algolia Search, Google Analytics 4, Meta Pixel, Klaviyo Email.
Client Testimonial
"The LUTF team transformed our online business. Our previous Magento store was costing us sales every day with slow load times and constant crashes. The new Shopify Plus store is not only beautiful and fast, but the backend is so much easier for our team to manage. We added 150 new products in the first month ourselves—something that would have taken weeks with our old system. The results speak for themselves: we hit AED 1M in revenue in our first 4 months, something that took us 14 months on Magento."
— Boutique Manager, Confidential Fashion Retailer, Abu Dhabi
"The LUTF team transformed our online business. Our previous Magento store was costing us sales every day."
