About the client

Maison and Aurora is a new brand preparing for launch. They sell various fashionable activewear pieces worldwide with their product line targeting primarily women.

Client needs & requirements

All products in the spreadsheet had their color information in their name (eg. “Aria Leggings - Slate Blue”), missing from the dedicated color column. To make it possible to display color options in the online store, the task was to extract color for each product from the title, format it and paste it into the dedicated column. Additionally, every product variant was made as an individual, independent product in the spreadsheet, so I had to group variants of the same product in a special column to display them on the product page as variants.

Proposed solution

Since client's product spreadsheet got very inconsistent structure, simple Excel formulas were not enough. The most optimal way to perform such complex catalog operations is to write a custom script, which we agreed on.

Project process

The project process consisted of 3 steps: color extraction, product grouping, and theme edits.

Color extraction

First, the script looked at each product's name. If the name included a color (like “Aria Leggings - Slate Blue”), it would pull out just the color part (“Slate Blue”), format (lowercase it and replace spaces with dashes), and put it into the right column.

Product grouping

After sorting out the colors, the script grouped products that were actually the same item but in different colors. It extracted the base product name (eg. “Aria Leggings”), and compared to other product base names if they match. For example, all “Aria Leggings” in different colors were grouped together in a special column. This grouping made it possible to link these products in the store, so customers could easily choose between colors.

Theme edits

Along with spreadsheet formatting, this project included some storefront edits: adding feature product slider to the store menu, shoppable video slider to the home page, and a few minor changes to the site footer and product page template. All changes were made with custom code since the theme functionality is limited.

Results

In just 3 days I developed the script which successfully formatted the spreadsheet, saving the client tens of hours of manual work. Additionally, custom coded theme edits allowed the client to showcase their products in a way they need, not how the theme allows.