Just Poles
Services: Replatforming & Migration, Shopify Design & Build, Custom Development, Data Migration, SEO Migration
Website: https://www.justpoles.com/
Just Poles is a specialist supplier of curtain poles, tracks and accessories, serving both retail customers and trade buyers across the UK. With an extensive catalogue of products and variants, they've built a reputation for range and reliability. But the platform they'd been running on for over a decade wasn't keeping up.
They came to us to replatform from Kartris to Shopify - creating a faster, more scalable store that's easier to manage, without losing the SEO value they'd built up over years. We led the project end to end, working closely with the Just Poles team through clear sign-off stages covering theme selection, site structure, migration mapping, QA and go-live.
Since launch, active users are up 197% and the site has generated over 321,000 organic impressions in just three months.
The Challenge
Just Poles had been on a bespoke CMS (Kartris) for over ten years. The platform was ageing, difficult to maintain, and wasn't built with mobile performance or conversion in mind. On top of that, they had a vast and complex catalogue - 50,000+ products with nearly half a million variants - that needed migrating without losing data integrity or the SEO structure they'd spent years building.
Customers were also struggling to find the right products. Navigation and filtering hadn't scaled with the range, and the buying experience for made-to-measure items lacked the clarity it needed. In short, they needed a modern platform and a partner who could handle the complexity.
What we did
Hybrid build approach
Selected Shopify's Athens theme as a high-performing foundation, then layered in bespoke design and custom functionality where it mattered most for the customer journey. No unnecessary bloat, just a lean, maintainable build.
Information architecture for a large catalogue
Restructured navigation and collection hierarchy to help customers find the right products quickly, especially on mobile. Built to scale as the range continues to grow.
Complex data migration
Planned and executed a file-based migration from Kartris into Shopify, mapping products, customers, orders, collections and attributes into Shopify's data model including metafields.
Custom functionality
Built bespoke features including sample purchasing on product pages and an order-by-measurements tool, allowing customers to enter dimensions and have the correct product size selected automatically - with exact measurements passed through to the order in Shopify admin.
SEO migration and launch support
Mapped and implemented 301 redirects to protect existing organic rankings. Handled pre-launch QA, domain and DNS support, analytics setup (GA4 + Search Console), and provided training and post-live monitoring to make sure nothing was missed.
The Results
Since launching on Shopify, Just Poles has seen a significant uplift in both traffic and visibility.
+197% active users
+196.5% new users
5.35k organic clicks in 3 months
321k impressions in 3 months
The new store gives the team a platform they can manage day to day, with a structure that supports the catalogue's scale and complexity rather than working against it.
Why this mattered?
For Just Poles, this wasn't just a redesign. It was a fundamental shift in how they operate online. Moving from an ageing bespoke CMS to Shopify means they now have a platform that's maintainable, scalable, and built around how their customers actually shop.
The migration preserved over a decade of SEO equity, and the new structure means the catalogue is easier to navigate even as it continues to grow. That's the kind of foundation you can build on.
"Found everyone at Squashed Pixel to be pro active and ensured that the project was to our requirements…After being with the same web developer for in excess of 10 years, finding a good developer that can understand your needs, and also help you understand some of the technical jargon is rare, but Squashed Pixel have been brilliant from start to finish."
Andrew Oliver - Founder | Just Poles