How Shultzilla Supercharged Its T-Shirt Business with WooCommerce

Background

Shultzilla started in November 2009 as a creative outlet for the Millers, founders of JAM Creative in New Orleans. They wanted an online platform to showcase witty, regionally inspired shirts that play on local phrases like “Colloquial Jibba Jabba.” Though they knew WordPress inside out, their go-to e-commerce plugin failed under real traffic. Payment errors, missing support, and a clunky admin made it impossible to keep inventory moving.

Despite regular conversations about a redesign, client deadlines always won out. It wasn’t until August 2012 that they committed to a relaunch by September 1st. The mission: a clean, fast store with reliable support, seamless WordPress integration, and an intuitive back end they could update themselves.

Choosing the Right Platform

They tested hosted solutions but needed full control over layout and code. In the end, WooCommerce fit the bill: it runs on WordPress, packs in shop essentials, and is backed by an active support team. After a quick install and play session, they saw the potential: a solid framework and countless extensions to cover every feature on their list.

Time was short, so they picked the Buro theme from WooCommerce’s marketplace. It offered a responsive slider, custom post types for press, and an easy points to jump off from. They stripped out default styles and rebuilt a clean, custom look.

Designing Mobile-First

Following A List Apart’s mobile-first advice, they began with smartphone designs under 480px. That forced clarity: remove distractions, highlight the shirt images, and keep calls-to-action front and center. Once the small screens worked, they scaled up to a fluid grid for 480px to 780px, then to a small sidebar layout for 780px to 990px. At 990px to 1210px they locked in a 950px grid, and above that they expanded to a 1030px frame. Content widths used percentage-based layouts to flow seamlessly at each breakpoint.

They created 40 mockups total—five screen sizes across each page type—so that when coding started there was no guesswork. The process took just over a week, then development began in earnest.

Plugin Stack and Customizations

Building with WooCommerce was straightforward. They added:

• Product Gallery Slider for touch-friendly image carousels
• Variation Swatches and Photos to showcase color options
• DVin Wishlist from Themeforest to let customers save favorites
• Viral Coupon plugin to offer discounts in exchange for social shares

On the checkout page they reordered shipping and total fields, added a clear “proceed to checkout” button, and restyled the cart table to fit on phones without wrapping. Some tweaks required editing core files, but only after owning backups and planning ahead.

Rounding Out the Site

They also installed official WooCommerce add-ons:

• CSV Export for sending reports to accounting
• PayPal Pro Gateway for secure on-site payments
• Print Invoice and Packing List to simplify order fulfillment
• Shipment Tracking to send real-time updates
• Newsletter Subscription for email marketing
• USPS integration for accurate shipping rates

Other tools included Google XML Sitemaps for SEO, HeadSpace2 for meta data, My Calendar for event listings, and W3 Total Cache to speed up page loads. A custom notification bar in the header used cookies so users wouldn’t see the same message more than once.

Performance and Growth

After launch the results were dramatic. Comparing September 2012 to the same month in 2011:

• Site visits increased by 202.43%
• Bounce rate fell by 89.17%
• Pageviews jumped 416.69%

Against the month before launch (August 2012), visits rose 58.05%, bounce rate dropped 89.83%, and pageviews climbed 249.36%. Mobile users also made up a bigger slice of traffic, proving the value of a responsive build when selling on phones or tablets.

Lessons Learned

Shultzilla’s relaunch shows that a clear plan, the right theme, and targeted extensions can turn a shaky store into a high-performing shop. Starting with mobile layouts, mocking up every view, and selecting proven plugins helped the Millers meet their deadline and delight customers with a smooth shopping experience.