Introduction
Mookem Helmets is a premium helmet brand that needed a modern, scalable, and visually appealing e-commerce platform. I took on the challenge of delivering a custom solution that can get their brand out into the public quickly while preparing them for managing their e-commerce platform.
Challenges
The biggest challenge for this project was actually deciding and developing a custom e-commerce solution as the business was torn between existing platforms where they had already established their sales with. I had to break down their requirements to the bare minimum to be able to get the first leg off for the public. We ended up with a progressive plan on continued efforts to move from existing e-commerce platforms to eventually host their own.
They had very little knowledge with web design but thankfully Figma reduced that gap. I had to wait for product shots so designing was a feat.
Astro and Cloudflare Workers significantly streamlined the deployment process, saving valuable time. Additionally, Cloudflare’s D1 database proved to be an ideal choice for hosting their data. Its proximity to the application ensured low latency, while its cost-effectiveness aligned perfectly with the project’s budget constraints.
Tech Stack
The project leverages a modern tech stack, each chosen for its ability to address specific needs of the project:
- ReactJS: React has always been my go-to for custom interfaces on the client. This helped me iterate on client functionality faster.
- Astro with Server Components: Astro’s flexibility with frontend framwork (React in this case), combined with its server components, made it ideal in providing SEO-friendly pages, as well as dynamic content.
- TailwindCSS: With the design being custom without a design-system laid down initially, TailwindCSS was a huge help iterating designs.
- Astro Endpoints with Hono: I set up Astro Endpoints to forward requests to Hono. This combination allowed me to handle server-side logic and API routes efficiently while keeping the backend lightweight and maintainable.
- D1 Database & Drizzle ORM - This combination was a perfect match for rapidly changing data schema, which provided me with trivial migrations.
Next Phase (Ongoing)
With the initial website and product listing successfully launched, the next phase of the Mookem Helmets project will focus on enhancing the platform’s functionality to drive sales and improve user experience. This includes implementing payment gateways and managing promotions with coupon codes. These features will allow the business owners to offer discounts and special deals, helping to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Conclusion
The Mookem Helmets project was an exciting opportunity to help local businesses thrive. I’m excited to apply new learnings from this project onto future ones so if you have a digital idea in mind, I’d love to help bring those vision to life.
Don’t hesistate to send me a line