Ribbons & Figurines

Before redesigning the storefront, I reviewed the existing platform and catalogue structure to understand how technical and data decisions were affecting the buying experience.

For a trade-focused business with a varied catalogue, the customer journey has different requirements from a straightforward consumer storefront. Retail customers need to move efficiently through established product ranges, understand what is available and place orders without unnecessary friction.

The resulting work combined ecommerce consultancy , UX design and technical development, with the buying process considered as a whole rather than treating individual pages as disconnected design exercises.

The customer-facing experience was redesigned around the needs of trade buyers, creating a clearer route through a catalogue spanning ribbons, figurines and specialist cake and party products.

Particular consideration was given to how product families and licensed ranges are organised and discovered. The Bullyland catalogue alone spans Disney, Marvel, DC, animals, fantasy and other specialist ranges, so category architecture and navigation play an important role in helping customers reach relevant products.

The revised interface was then carried through the wider purchase journey, improving consistency between category, product, account and ordering experiences while retaining the functionality needed by existing trade customers.

The project involved work across the full Magento stack rather than limiting development to the visual storefront.

Alongside frontend implementation, I worked on the underlying Magento application, delivered a small number of custom modules where the business required functionality beyond the standard platform and supported Magento version upgrades as the site continued to evolve.

Keeping custom development focused and proportionate has been important to the long-term maintainability of the platform. Where Magento or an established extension already provides the right capability, that is generally preferable to introducing unnecessary bespoke functionality.

For this Magento implementation I chose Swissup Breeze as the frontend foundation rather than adopting a heavier traditional Magento theme stack.

Breeze provides a more lightweight approach to the Magento storefront while remaining closely integrated with the wider Magento ecosystem. It provided an appropriate foundation for the redesigned customer experience and the ongoing requirements of the site.

My experience implementing and maintaining Breeze across production Magento stores also informs my detailed Swissup Breeze review , where I cover its strengths, limitations and the types of Magento projects where I think it makes sense.

My work with Ribbons & Figurines has continued beyond the initial platform overhaul and storefront redesign.

I continue to support the Magento website as the catalogue, platform and requirements of the business change, including technical development, upgrades, troubleshooting and ongoing improvements to the ecommerce experience.

That long-term relationship provides useful context when making technical decisions. Changes can be considered against how the business actually operates, the needs of its established trade customer base and the importance of maintaining a reliable ecommerce channel alongside decades of offline industry experience.

The result is a Magento platform that continues to evolve with the business rather than a website treated as a completed one-off project.