Ecommerce Strategy

Your Site
Should Sell
As Well As
Your Staff.

Most independent running stores have a website. Very few have one that actually converts. The difference isn't budget — it's platform, architecture, and whether anyone who built it understands how a run specialty customer actually shops.

We build and optimize Shopify stores for independent run specialty retailers. From full builds and migrations to CRO, full-service SEO, and connecting your online store to your in-store experience — we do the whole thing.

48%
Ecom revenue growth YTD — driven by Shopify migration and optimization — past results
2–3%
Specialty retail ecom conversion benchmark — most run specialty stores convert at 0.5–0.8%
100%
Shopify — every ecom build and migration we do runs on Shopify. No exceptions.
Full
SEO service — audit, on-page, content development, and ongoing execution. Not just a report.
The Real Problem

The Wrong
Platform Is
A Ceiling.

Squarespace is easy to launch on. Wix is cheap to maintain. A dated WooCommerce install is familiar. None of them scale. And none of them were built with a run specialty retailer's specific needs in mind — multi-location inventory, Klaviyo integration, BOPIS, and a checkout experience that doesn't lose the customer you just paid to acquire through ads.

We see the same story repeatedly: a store invests in digital marketing, drives real traffic to their site, and watches it disappear at a 0.5% conversion rate because the platform can't deliver the experience the customer expects. Sending traffic to a broken store is just paying to expose your weakest point.

Shopify fixes this — but only when it's built correctly. A default theme with minimal configuration performs almost as poorly as Squarespace. The platform's power comes from how it's architected and how well it reflects the in-store experience online.

Common Platform Issue — Squarespace / Wix
Can't Scale With Your Store

No real multi-location inventory management. Limited Klaviyo integration. Checkout customization is restricted. Fine for a portfolio site. Not built for a specialty retailer moving hundreds of SKUs across multiple doors.

Common Platform Issue — Unconfigured Shopify
Platform Without Architecture

Shopify out of the box converts like any other generic store. The wins come from mobile-first UX, speed optimization, product page structure, checkout flow, and Klaviyo integration done correctly. The platform is only as good as the build.

Common Platform Issue — Any Platform
No SEO Foundation at Launch

Most stores launch their ecom site with zero SEO infrastructure — no schema, weak page titles, thin product descriptions, no local signals. Organic search is your lowest-cost acquisition channel. Starting without it means paying for traffic you should be earning.

Common Platform Issue — All Platforms
Online and In-Store Are Disconnected

Inventory is not visible online. Customers can't see what's at which location. In-store pickup isn't offered. The result: a digital store that competes with your physical store instead of feeding it.

What We Build

Shopify.
Done Right
For Run
Specialty.

01 /
Full Shopify Builds

New stores built from the ground up on Shopify — designed around the specific way a run specialty customer shops, not a generic retail template. Mobile-first, fast, and built to convert.

Mobile-first UX design — over 70% of specialty retail traffic is mobile; the experience has to work there first
Product page architecture built for footwear — size guides, fit notes, rotation context, brand storytelling
Core Web Vitals optimization from day one — speed is both a UX and SEO requirement
Klaviyo integration — purchase data flows into email automation from the first transaction
Multi-location inventory — real-time stock visibility by door, online and in-store pickup options
SEO foundation at launch — schema, page structure, meta system, and canonical setup built in, not bolted on
02 /
Migrations & Optimization

Already on Shopify but underperforming? Or moving from Squarespace, WooCommerce, or a dated platform? We handle both — migration with no ranking gap and optimization that targets the specific conversion leaks in your current store.

Platform migration from Squarespace, WooCommerce, or legacy Shopify — full catalog, customer data, and SEO equity transferred
Conversion audit — identifies where customers are dropping out of your funnel and what to fix first
Checkout flow optimization — reducing friction from cart to confirmed purchase
Theme refresh or rebuild depending on whether the architecture is worth keeping
Speed and Core Web Vitals improvements — a 0.1-second load improvement increases conversion 8.4% (Deloitte)
SEO continuity — 301 redirects, canonical tags, and sitemap migration so rankings survive the move
Full-Service SEO

Organic Traffic
Is The Lowest-Cost
Customer You'll
Ever Acquire.

Most run specialty retailers are invisible in organic search for the queries that matter most — "running store near me," "best running shoes for flat feet," "HOKA store [city]." These are customers with high intent, ready to buy, actively looking for what you sell. Not ranking for them is a choice, even if it doesn't feel like one.

SEO for run specialty isn't the same as SEO for a general retailer. The keyword universe, the content types that perform, and the local signals that matter are all specific to this category. We know them because run specialty is the only industry we work in.

Our SEO service is full-stack — audit to execution to ongoing content development. Not a report that sits in a folder. Not a list of recommendations someone else has to implement. We do all of it.

Phase 01
Technical SEO Audit

We start with a full technical audit — site speed, Core Web Vitals, crawlability, schema markup, duplicate content, canonical structure, and mobile performance. This is the diagnostic that tells us exactly where search engines are struggling with your site before we write a single piece of content.

Phase 02
On-Page Optimization

Every product page, collection page, and location page gets optimized — title tags, meta descriptions, headers, internal linking, and schema. Product pages in particular are a consistent weakness in run specialty ecom: thin descriptions, no fit context, and zero keyword intent alignment.

Phase 03
Content Development

We write and publish content that earns rankings — fit guides, brand pages, shoe rotation guides, local trail content, race prep resources. Content written by people who understand gait analysis and can explain the difference between a stability and a neutral shoe performs meaningfully better than generic AI content or outsourced writers with no category knowledge.

Phase 04
Ongoing Execution

SEO is not a one-time project. We provide monthly reporting, ongoing content publication, technical maintenance, and competitive keyword monitoring. The stores that win in organic search are the ones building consistently over 12–24 months — not the ones who did a one-time optimization two years ago.

Before You Optimize — Make Sure Traffic Is Coming
A strong ecom store needs strong traffic to match.
SEO builds organic traffic over time. Paid search, paid social, and geo-fenced display fill the gap immediately. Both working together is how you close the gap between 0.5% and 2%+ conversion.
See Digital Marketing →
Online Meets In-Store

Your Website
Should Feed
Your Store.
Not Compete
With It.

A customer who buys online and picks up in-store walks through your door. They meet your staff. They hear about your run club. They might try on something else while they're there. That's a digital transaction that becomes a full brand relationship.

The key is inventory visibility. Customers need to see exactly what's in stock at which location before they'll commit to a pick-up order. When they can, the in-store pickup rate climbs — and so does the average transaction value from the visit.

We build this infrastructure into every Shopify store we touch: real-time inventory by location, clean BOPIS checkout flow, and store-specific landing pages that speak to each door's community identity.

01
Real-Time Inventory by Location

Customers see what's in stock at each store before they leave the product page. Eliminates the "is this available near me?" uncertainty that sends people to Amazon instead.

02
Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store

A clean BOPIS checkout experience that converts online browsers into in-store visitors — where your fit expertise and community convert them into long-term customers.

03
Location-Specific Store Pages

Each door gets its own page — its own run club, its own event calendar, its own community identity. Multi-location stores are not chains. The site shouldn't make them feel like one.

Why This Matters
The In-Store Experience Is Your Competitive Moat.

Amazon can ship a shoe in two days. They cannot perform a gait analysis, recommend a rotation schedule, or invite a customer to Wednesday night's demo run. Every time a digital interaction ends in a store visit, you've deployed your single biggest competitive advantage.

Ecommerce without this connection is just competing on convenience — a race you'll lose to Amazon every time. Ecommerce that feeds your physical store is a different game entirely.

The stores seeing the best results are the ones treating their website as a funnel to the in-store experience, not a replacement for it. That's the architecture we build.

See how we drive customers to your door → Digital Marketing
48%
Past Results — Ecommerce Revenue Growth
Ecom Revenue Up 48% Year to Date.

The primary driver: a full Shopify platform migration and optimization — moving from a limited platform to a properly architected Shopify store with mobile-first UX, streamlined checkout, Klaviyo integration, and real-time multi-location inventory. The traffic was always there. The platform wasn't converting it. That's the most common story in run specialty ecommerce — and it's the most fixable one.

Percentage growth YTD — past results. Client details are confidential. Results reflect a combination of platform migration, UX optimization, and SEO work.
Industry Benchmarks

Where Does
Your Store Stand?

These are the benchmarks we use to evaluate every client's ecommerce health. If you don't know where you are on each one, that's where we start.

Conversion Rate
2–3%

Specialty retail ecom benchmark. Most run specialty stores convert at 0.5–0.8% — roughly one-sixth of what's achievable on a properly optimized Shopify store.

Benchmark — Specialty Retail Standard (Shopify / Deloitte)
Load Speed Impact
8.4%

Conversion rate increase from a 0.1-second improvement in page load time. Core Web Vitals optimization is not optional — it's directly tied to revenue.

Source — Deloitte Digital Performance Study
Email + Ecom
60–70%

Probability of selling to an existing customer vs. 5–20% for a new prospect. Your Shopify customer data feeds your email list — the two compound each other.

Benchmark — Retention vs. Acquisition (Venn Apps 2025)
Channel Premium
$145.95

Run specialty average selling price — 40% above the all-channel average. Your ecommerce store needs to justify that premium. A broken checkout experience erases it instantly.

Questions

Frequently
Asked.

Shopify is the most scalable platform for independent run specialty retailers. It handles multi-location inventory, integrates natively with Klaviyo, supports buy online pick up in-store, and has the strongest app ecosystem for specialty retail. Squarespace and Wix are easier to launch on but create hard ceilings — they can't scale with your catalog, your locations, or the customer experience that converts at the level of a properly built Shopify store. We've seen this firsthand: the single biggest driver of ecom revenue gains in our client work has been platform migration to Shopify.
The specialty retail benchmark is 2–3%. Most independent running stores convert at 0.5–0.8% — roughly one-sixth of what's achievable. A well-optimized Shopify store with strong mobile UX, fast load times, and a streamlined checkout can realistically reach 1.5–2% within 90 days of a full build or CRO engagement. That improvement on existing traffic is often the highest-ROI move available to a run specialty retailer — you don't need more visitors, you need to stop losing the ones you already have.
Our SEO service covers the full stack: technical audit (site speed, Core Web Vitals, crawlability, schema), on-page optimization (product pages, collection pages, location pages), content development (category guides, fit guides, brand pages, local running content), and ongoing monthly execution. Run specialty SEO requires specific category knowledge — the right keywords, the right content structure, and the ability to write about gait analysis, shoe rotation, and brand positioning in a way that actually ranks and reads authentically. We provide all of it, not just a report.
BOPIS turns your ecommerce store into a bridge to your in-store experience rather than a replacement for it. A customer who buys online and picks up in-store walks through your door — they meet your staff, see your run club signage, and often pick up something else while they're there. Average transaction values from BOPIS-initiated visits trend higher than pure in-store walk-ins. The foundation is real-time inventory visibility: customers need to see exactly what's in stock at which location before they'll commit to a pick-up order.
A full Shopify build from scratch typically runs 6–10 weeks depending on catalog size and integration complexity. A migration from an existing platform runs 4–8 weeks. SEO work begins during the build so there's no ranking gap at launch. Every engagement includes mobile-first design, Core Web Vitals optimization, Klaviyo integration, and multi-location inventory setup as baseline requirements — not optional add-ons.

Your Store
Deserves A Site
That Keeps Up.

Every week your store converts at 0.5% instead of 2% is revenue your traffic is already generating — and your platform is losing. The fix isn't more visitors. It's making the ones you have count.

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