HiSmile Teeth
Front-end development for a high-traffic Shopify store with rapid iteration cycles.
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The Challenge
HiSmile, a rapidly growing oral cosmetics brand, needed to transform their Shopify store's performance, user experience, and development processes. They faced challenges with slow page speeds, inconsistent development standards, and managing multiple regional stores while scaling rapidly.
My Role
As Lead Front-end Developer, I was responsible for:
- Building and mentoring a development team
- Creating development standards and QA processes
- Front-end development and performance optimisation
- Website administration and analytics implementation
- Collaborating with design and marketing teams
The Approach
Taking the lead on HiSmile's rapidly growing eCommerce platform meant establishing strong foundations while continuously improving:
My first task was setting up proper development infrastructure. I implemented Theme Kit (and later Slate) for local development, established version control through BitBucket, and created thorough documentation of our Shopify setup.
For the team structure, I built clear workflow processes using Jira and introduced Agile methodologies. This included daily standups, sprint planning, and structured QA procedures.
The site's performance was a critical focus. When I started, the Google PageSpeed score was around 60. Through aggressive optimisation - lazy loading, code splitting, image optimisation, and caching strategies - we boosted that to 98, significantly improving user experience and conversion rates.
Analytics was another mess I cleaned up. The previous setup had separate Google Analytics properties for each region, making data analysis nearly impossible. I implemented a unified tracking approach with proper event tracking and enhanced eCommerce, giving the marketing team the insights they desperately needed.
For the front-end code itself, I established coding standards based on SCSS architecture patterns and built reusable components that could be deployed across the site. This dramatically reduced development time for new features.
Results
My work at HiSmile delivered:
- Improved Google PageSpeed score from 60 to 98
- Faster development cycles through standardised processes
- More accurate analytics data for marketing decisions
- Successful redesign of all major pages
- A trained, efficient development team with clear processes
Key Skills Applied
- Shopify theme development
- Front-end performance optimisation
- Team building and mentorship
- Development workflow implementation
- Google Analytics configuration
- A/B testing implementation
The HiSmile project demonstrated how technical leadership can transform not just a website's performance but the entire development culture of an organisation. By establishing strong processes, optimising performance, and mentoring team members, I created lasting improvements that scaled with the company's rapid growth.
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