A Shopify redesign for a faster, content-driven shopping experience
Since launching in 2015, The Sports Edit had worked with multiple agencies to evolve their ecommerce store, but over time the codebase had become difficult to manage and site performance began to suffer. The Sports Edit partnered with Domaine to redesign and rebuild their store — improving speed, modernizing the visual experience, and creating a scalable architecture that could support richer content and stronger merchandising.
Alongside the technical rebuild, The Sports Edit undertook a brand evolution. Previously the site catered to both men’s and women’s apparel, but the team made the strategic decision to focus exclusively on women’s activewear. The Domaine team translated this shift into a redesigned digital experience built around storytelling and discovery. Using Shopify’s flexible sections, the team introduced richer imagery, expanded content modules, and enhanced product pages that highlight brand narratives and styling inspiration. Best-selling products and key brand partners now feature deeper storytelling sections, while a rebuilt blog template connects editorial content directly to shoppable products.
Performance optimization was a critical priority. The Sports Edit’s previous set up struggled with slow load times and failed all three of Google’s Core Web Vitals, creating both SEO and user experience challenges. Domaine worked closely with the brand to identify performance bottlenecks across key integrations. One of the most impactful changes involved integrating Yotpo reviews and user-generated content through an API rather than a widget, allowing the code to load more efficiently. Additional optimizations included restructuring how colour swatches load through Algolia and implementing Render Better, a Shopify performance optimization platform designed to improve Core Web Vitals. These changes significantly improved page performance while maintaining the functionality needed for a multi-brand retail experience.
For a multi-brand retailer with hundreds of products, advanced search and filtering are essential to the customer journey. The Sports Edit uses Algolia to power search, product filtering, and merchandising features such as quick add, color swatches, and wishlist functionality directly from product listing pages. Domaine optimized the Shopify–Algolia integration to balance performance with functionality. While search platforms can add technical complexity, the improved product discovery and AI-powered ranking significantly enhanced the shopping experience.
The Sports Edit’s new Shopify store combines a flexible content system with a cleaner, more efficient codebase, allowing the team to launch richer editorial content, merchandise products more effectively, and continue optimizing performance. With improved speed and stronger product discovery powered by app integrations, The Sports Edit now has a Shopify store that better supports both customer experience and commercial growth.
