AWDis
8 websites, managed by a central admin dashboard
Some Project Stats
Over 69%
Reduction in page load time
Weeks
Of admin work saved
Over 3x
Faster
Who are AWDis?
About the project
AWDis, the number one provider of quality garments to the printwear and promotion market, have many brands under the AWDis (All We Do is) umbrella. We have worked with the AWDis brands since 2015 to grow their digital platform. What started out as 2 brands have now grown to 10 brands globally, with hundreds of products and separate websites for each.
Over time, updating the WordPress sites became time consuming, with AWDis staff spending weeks every December manually updating products for their catalogue update in the New Year. Our aim was to build a platform that would allow AWDis staff to update 8 websites from one management dashboard. We took this as an opportunity to conduct a full refresh of the websites. Our aims were to help users to quickly find products, encourage sign-ups to the newsletter, refresh their overall look and feel to compete with others in the industry and last but not least, to save AWDis marketing staff weeks of work.
By choosing the bespoke route, AWDis were able to specified their exact requirements so that we could build a platform that is completely built for the purpose.
The Websites
User-friendly and lighting fast
Our bespoke web platform gave us complete flexibility in terms of the user experience of the site. We focussed on building very user-friendly product filter and search facilities, with improved categorisation and tagging.
We built these websites using Gatsby JS, which provides for lightning-fast loading as the websites are stored as static files. This meant a massive boost to performance, as opposed to building with other platforms like WordPress, with their new sites now loading over 3 times faster than their previous sites.
Behind the Scenes
Eight websites, one backend
Development Route
Building to spec
We built one bespoke backend that populates all 8 websites using a single database and GraphQL, which allows us to avoid over-fetching network requests. All images are stored in Google Cloud Storage and served using Imgix, a real-time processing service and image CDN. Products details and images are managed from here, and admin can customise the content within the sites, all from one web-based CMS.
This configuration provides AWDis with extremely fast websites, with one manageable backend populating 8 websites. This cutting edge tech will allow AWDis to scale up as they grow and take on new markets.
Our Stack
Gatsby, React, NextJS, Imgix, Algolia, Prisma, GraphQL, Google Cloud Storage, PostgreSQL, Zeit Now, Netlify, Heroku
We’ve worked with GearedApp for a number of years, and when we decided to update our websites, we were confident that they would complete the job to the highest standard. They listened attentively to our requirements and delivered exactly what we needed. We would recommend working with GearedApp – they also make a great coffee!
The End Result
What this project means for AWDis
This platform has meant a huge leap forward for AWDis in terms of efficiency and their brand perception.
By building a bespoke platform, AWDis have improved the user experience of their sites, conducted a full overhaul of the look and feel of the sites, and saved their staff weeks of work every year in adding and managing product data.
For AWDis, this allows them to move forward into more markets and territories with a web platform that can scale up effectively as they grow.
