A custom WooCommerce theme built for research-product commerce

The challenge

Selling research compounds online is not standard retail. Products carry technical specifications, compliance notices and dosing considerations that a normal WooCommerce theme has no concept of. The store needed a premium, seamless feel, genuinely deep mobile polish, and a clear identity of its own rather than looking like every other store in the category.

What we built

• A custom WooCommerce theme rather than a modified off-the-shelf one
• A draw and dose calculator available on product pages and as a standalone tool
• An AJAX cart drawer that opens automatically on add-to-cart from anywhere on the site, including archives, homepage sections and related products
• AJAX coupon handling and a rebuilt product review presentation
• Technical product data (CAS, molecular weight, purity) surfaced in a defined position alongside compliance notices
• A Theme Settings and ACF layer letting the client control a promotional banner and a product FAQ accordion without a developer
• A restructured category taxonomy across seven research categories, with existing slugs and product mapping preserved
• A proper WooCommerce order-received template to carry purchase tracking

How we built it

Mobile was treated as the primary surface, not a breakpoint. Product grids, pagination, footer navigation and single-product ordering were each reworked specifically for small screens.

Merchandising controls were pushed into ACF and Theme Settings so promotional content and FAQs are the client's to change, with enable and disable switches on each.

The category restructure was done as a mapping exercise first, protecting existing URLs and product relationships before any labels changed.

A client-approved Figma homepage guided the visual direction while proven existing components were deliberately retained rather than rebuilt for novelty.

Challenges we solved

• Preserving SEO through a taxonomy rename. Renaming categories is where stores quietly lose their search rankings. Slugs and product mappings were carried over deliberately so the restructure was a labelling change, not a URL migration.
• Cart feedback everywhere without breaking AJAX. Add-to-cart happens on product pages, archives, homepage blocks and related product carousels. Making the drawer open reliably from all of them while keeping AJAX updates intact took a single shared handler rather than per-template patches.
• Dense technical data in a clean layout. Compliance notices, specifications and marketing copy compete for the same space above the fold. Ordering them explicitly on mobile resolved it.
• A duplicated calculator. Two implementations had diverged, one broken. We consolidated to a single working calculator shared by product pages and the standalone tool.

Technology used

More work