Andy's Mod Plates & Accessories: Rebuilding Andy's Mod Plates From Shopify to a Custom Ecommerce Stack
Andy's Mod Plates is a QLD Transport-approved vehicle modification specialist serving the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay and North Brisbane. The team was paying rising monthly Shopify fees plus per-transaction cuts on parts sales that had thin margins to begin with. We migrated the entire storefront off Shopify onto a custom stack — keeping the ecommerce, gaining performance, and removing the platform tax.
The Results
Illustrative outcomes reported by the client following the redesign. Figures reflect first-party observations, not independently audited metrics.
The Challenge
- Shopify's monthly plan plus payment fees was compounding — for a small-catalogue store selling higher-ticket parts, the platform cost per order was disproportionate.
- The Shopify theme couldn't cleanly express the two very different halves of the business — certified mod plate work (services) and 4×4 accessories (products) — so intent was getting mixed.
- Page speed suffered from the standard theme app stack. LCP was hovering around 4s on mobile, damaging both UX and rankings.
- SEO for local modification searches ('mod plates sunshine coast', 'engine conversion approval QLD') was weak because the platform templates didn't support the content depth needed.
The Approach
- Rebuilt as a custom React ecommerce storefront with a clean split: Services (mod plates, engine swaps, LPG) and Shop (accessories, snorkels, bar work).
- Migrated products to a lightweight custom cart with Stripe checkout — no platform per-transaction fee, only Stripe's standard rate.
- Wrote long-form location and service content targeting 'Sunshine Coast', 'Moreton Bay' and 'North Brisbane' modification intent, with Product and Service schema on the appropriate pages.
- Rebuilt all product pages with structured data, real specs, and clear compliance messaging (QLD Transport approval, engineer certification) — the trust signals that actually close aftermarket buyers.
What We Built
Custom cart + Stripe
No platform fee on top of payment processing. Better margin on every parts order.
Product + Service schema
Rich results eligibility for both the accessories catalogue and the modification services.
Compliance trust bar
QLD Transport-approved and engineer-certified messaging on every service page, above the fold.
Service area content
Dedicated content depth for Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay and North Brisbane modification searches.
Faster than the theme
Custom React/Vite build ships less JavaScript and images in modern formats — measurable LCP improvement.
Owned data
Orders and customers in the client's own database, not locked behind a third-party platform export.
"The site actually explains what a mod plate is now. We get better-qualified enquiries and I'm not paying Shopify a slice of every order."
Key Takeaways
- For low-volume/high-ticket stores, the SaaS platform economics stop making sense fast — a custom stack pays for itself.
- If your business has two distinct offerings, force them into two clear paths on the site instead of one blended catalogue.
- Compliance trust signals (licences, approvals, certifications) are the highest-leverage copy on any regulated-industry site.
- Migrations don't have to hurt SEO — with clean 301s and Product schema, rankings recover quickly.
Technologies Used
React
TypeScript
Tailwind CSSStripe
SupabaseProduct SchemaVite ImagetoolsFrequently Asked Questions
When does it make sense to migrate off Shopify?+
When your monthly platform + transaction fees exceed what a custom build costs to maintain, or when the theme is limiting SEO/UX changes you know would lift conversions. For a small catalogue with higher-ticket items — like Andy's — the maths flips quickly.
Do you lose SEO rankings during a Shopify migration?+
Not if the migration is done properly. Every old URL needs a 301 redirect to its new counterpart, Product schema needs to be reimplemented, and internal links updated. We saw rankings hold and improve within weeks, driven by faster pages and richer schema.
How is a custom store cheaper than Shopify long-term?+
Shopify charges a monthly plan plus a per-transaction fee on top of card processing. A custom store using Stripe direct only pays Stripe's standard rate. On any meaningful order volume, the saved platform fee covers hosting many times over.
How long does a Shopify → custom migration take?+
Andy's shipped in nine days. Timeline depends mostly on how many SKUs need migrating, whether product photography needs redoing, and how much content depth the new site needs beyond the old one.
What about payments, refunds, and dispatch — same tools?+
Yes. Stripe handles payments and refunds with the same interface most Shopify users are already familiar with. Dispatch and inventory can stay in whatever tool you already use, or move into a custom admin panel we build.
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