In the fast-moving world of East London streetwear, trends change in a heartbeat. For Urban Gear London, a premium apparel brand with a massive following in Shoreditch and Hackney, their website was the bottleneck preventing them from reaching the next level. While their designs were cutting-edge, their digital storefront—built on a heavy, plugin-laden WordPress setup—was slow, clunky, and losing them money every single day.
When they partnered with Custom Coded Websites, the objective was surgical: identify the friction points in the user journey and implement a custom-coded solution to maximize revenue. Here is how we achieved a 42% increase in conversion rates through bespoke Django engineering.
The Problem: The "Rage Click" Reality
Before writing a single line of code, our founders, Charlie Shortman and Louie Long, performed a deep-dive audit using heatmapping and session recording. The data revealed a frustrating reality for Urban Gear’s customers:
- Mobile Latency: 70% of their traffic came from mobile users in London, but the site took nearly 6 seconds to become interactive. This led to "Rage Clicking" on the "Add to Cart" button.
- Checkout Friction: The standard WooCommerce checkout flow had too many fields and forced redirects, leading to a 65% abandonment rate at the final step.
- Poor Inventory Feedback: Customers would often get to the final payment screen only to find out a specific size was out of stock, destroying brand trust.
The CCW Strategy: High-Velocity E-Commerce
We moved Urban Gear London away from the limitations of templates and onto a custom-built Django platform. This allowed us to control every millisecond of the user experience, from the first click to the final confirmation.
1. Sub-Second Speed with Django and Redis
Charlie Shortman implemented a sophisticated caching layer using Redis and optimized PostgreSQL queries. By pre-calculating inventory counts and using a "Headless" approach for the frontend, we reduced the page load time to 0.7 seconds. In the world of e-commerce, speed is the ultimate conversion tool. For every 100ms we shaved off the load time, we saw a direct uptick in user engagement.
2. The "Frictionless" One-Page Checkout
Louie Long designed a bespoke checkout experience that completely bypassed the standard, multi-step industry norms. We built a single-page, AJAX-powered checkout that validates addresses in real-time and integrates directly with Apple Pay and Google Pay. By reducing the number of required clicks by 50%, we made it almost "too easy" for customers to complete their purchase while on the move in London.
3. Real-Time Scarcity and Inventory Logic
To drive conversions, we built a custom Django "Urgency Engine." This wasn't a fake countdown timer plugin; it was a real-time data feed showing exactly how many items were left in a specific size at their Hackney warehouse. This transparency built trust and encouraged users to act quickly on limited-edition drops.
The Result: A 42% Surge in Conversions
The transition from a "rented" template to a "custom-owned" Django application delivered immediate results. Within three months of the new site going live, the metrics were undeniable:
- Conversion Rate: Increased from 1.8% to 2.55% (a 42% relative increase).
- Revenue per Visitor (RPV): Grew by 30% as users found it easier to browse and add multiple items to their carts.
- Mobile Bounce Rate: Dropped from 58% to 22%, a testament to the lightning-fast mobile UX.
- SEO Performance: Urban Gear London now ranks in the top 3 for "Premium Streetwear East London" due to their perfect 100/100 Core Web Vitals score.
Why Custom Code is the Secret to E-Commerce Success
Most London agencies will sell you a "customized" Shopify or WordPress theme. At Custom Coded Websites, we believe that’s a compromise. Urban Gear London’s success came from the fact that we didn't just skin a platform—we built a business tool designed for their specific audience.
When you own your code, you own your data, your speed, and your conversion rate. You aren't at the mercy of platform updates or plugin vulnerabilities. You have a platform that is as unique as your brand, optimized for the highest possible ROI.