From a Design Transfer to a Full Fullstack Solution: The Tallers Case Study

Sometimes a project that starts as a simple task ends up requiring a complete rethink. Tallers is exactly that kind of case: the client came in asking to "transfer the design" from an old site, and what followed was a full fullstack build of a luxury e-commerce platform from the ground up.

The Initial Request: Just Transfer the Design

The client — a luxury women's clothing brand — had a site running on WordPress/WooCommerce and wanted minimal changes: keep the visual style, but "update" the technical side. On the surface, it looked like a job for a few days.

Why a Simple Migration Wouldn't Work

An audit of the existing site revealed a picture that couldn't be ignored:

• Performance Score — 56 (instead of the expected 90+)
• LCP — 5.6 seconds (against a target of under 2.5s)
• Page weight — 13MB
• Active brute-force attacks on the WordPress admin panel

Carrying that technical debt over into a new design would have meant a nicer wrapper around the same problems. It became clear the client didn't need cosmetics — they needed a full development cycle. We proposed a six-phase migration plan with real before/after metrics.

The Solution: A Fully Custom E-commerce Platform

Instead of off-the-shelf marketplace plugins, we built a fully custom e-commerce platform on Laravel, using Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, and AJAX for fast interactions without page reloads:

• A dual-site setup (uk/en) with separate currencies (UAH/EUR)
• A product model hierarchy of Product → ProductColor (gallery) → ProductSize (stock), allowing flexible variant management
• Payments: WayForPay for Ukrainian customers (UAH), Stripe + Apple Pay for international ones (EUR)
• Delivery: Nova Post — a domestic integration (branch/locker/courier) and a separate international integration covering 27 EU countries
• LookBook — a dedicated section with editorial collection descriptions and an interactive slider
• Fraud-protected welcome coupons — a discount system for new subscribers with built-in abuse protection

The Result

• PageSpeed: 90 / 76 (desktop/mobile) — up from 56 on the previous version
• A fully custom admin dashboard with sales reports and customer analytics
• Zero dependency on third-party marketplace plugins — the client owns 100% of the codebase

It's a good illustration of why "just transfer the design" is rarely that simple — and why it's sometimes more honest to tell a client they need more than they originally thought.

Related case: if you're more interested in strong UI/UX for a complex product than the technical side, take a look at TradeLux, a fintech platform design case.

Need a similar project? E-commerce development