The full story
Emporium Embroidery manufactures embroidered patches and products for businesses, brands and organisations across the UK, including work for names such as YouTube, WWF and Bamford London.
When we first got involved, the problem wasn't really the design of the website. The entire setup had become a liability.
The Magento installation had grown into a monster: 312 active modules, six search engines, multiple page builders, dozens of media galleries and overlapping third-party systems. Fixing one thing had the potential to break something else.
Then it got worse.
By April 2026, the website had suffered a serious security compromise. Visitors were being presented with phishing warnings and redirects, and the existing Magento site was effectively becoming unusable to new customers.
At that point, continuing to patch it made little sense.
We needed to get Emporium trading properly again — and quickly.
The problem wasn't just technical
There had already been warning signs.
Enquiries were falling. Customer logins were awkward. Quote forms were unreliable. Leads were being dealt with through a mixture of email, spreadsheets and disconnected systems.
In March, Emporium told us their website enquiries had seemingly “fallen off the earth”.
A few weeks later, the security problems meant potential customers could struggle to access the website at all.
So this stopped being a website redesign.
It became a business continuity problem.
And because Emporium works predominantly with B2B customers, simply installing a Shopify theme and hoping for the best wasn't going to solve it.
First, get the business working
Our approach was simple:
Stabilise. Regain control. Get something working. Then make it beautiful.
We took control of the domain and DNS, secured the important business data, moved away from the old infrastructure and concentrated on restoring a reliable route for customers to contact the company.
There was no point spending weeks polishing layouts while customers couldn't confidently use the website.
The priority was getting the business back online.
By 23 April, Emporium had moved away from its previous infrastructure and we had a new landing environment and dedicated quoting platform operating on the domain.
From there, we could start rebuilding properly.
Shopify wasn't the difficult bit
Moving the ecommerce side onto Shopify was relatively straightforward.
The interesting part was understanding how Emporium actually sells.
A typical customer isn't always buying a fixed product off a shelf.
They might need 50 patches or 5,000. Different dimensions. Different backings. Different borders. Metallic thread. Printed elements. A particular delivery date. And they'll usually need to upload artwork before the team can accurately quote the job.
The quote process therefore needed to capture quantity, dimensions, embroidery type, backing, border style, thread options, artwork and deadlines.
Trying to force all of that through a conventional ecommerce checkout would have made the experience worse.
So we didn't.
We built around the business
Instead, we developed a dedicated B2B quotation system alongside Shopify.
Customers can submit detailed production requirements and upload their artwork, while the Emporium team gets those enquiries through one central system rather than having everything disappear into emails and spreadsheets.
The platform uses secure magic-link access and allows the team to manage enquiries whether they're in the office, on the factory floor or working remotely.
That's an important part of how we approach projects like this.
We didn't make Emporium change the way it works to suit the software. We made the technology work around Emporium.
Then we rebuilt the customer journey
Once everything was stable, we could concentrate on the website itself.
The new site was built around one very simple idea:
Get someone from “I need patches” to “Request a Quote” without making them work for it.
We simplified the navigation, clarified the product offering, brought Emporium's UK manufacturing credentials forward, introduced stronger examples of its work and made requesting a quote the obvious next step throughout the site.
The website needed to answer the questions a customer actually has:
- Can you make what I need?
- Can you produce the quantity I need?
- How quickly can you do it?
- Can I trust you to do the job properly?
- How do I get started?
Everything else comes after that.
The result
The difference isn't based on page views or other vanity metrics.
We can see it in actual commercial enquiries.
The old website generated 24 completed website orders between January and 15 April 2026.
Following the launch of the new platform, Emporium generated more than 100 B2B quote and order requests within its first six months.
Allowing for the different reporting periods, that represents an approximate:
- +202% increase in monthly commercial enquiries
- 4.75× more website enquiries and order requests
- Nearly 10× increase in monthly product volume requested
That last figure is particularly important.
The objective wasn't simply to get more people filling out forms.
It was to help Emporium attract and manage larger, more commercially useful B2B opportunities.
From website to business infrastructure
What started as a Magento rescue became considerably more than a website project.
Emporium now has a modern Shopify platform, a customer journey designed around how its customers actually buy, a dedicated B2B quotation system and digital infrastructure the company controls.
Less technical baggage.
Fewer disconnected systems.
A much clearer route from visitor to enquiry.
And, most importantly, a website that is helping the business rather than getting in its way.
What the client said
Had my website built by Mark and Jason. They did a brilliant job, worked with me all the way to get exactly what I needed. Great communication and great quality of work. Highly recommend.
Ben Macleod — Emporium Embroidery