decline 01
CBD & cannabis.
Payment-processing and ad-policy mismatch with our preferred stack. We refer to specialist agencies that handle Authorize.net + Cannmart-style workflows.
§
§ · industries
Twenty industries. One editorial practice.
From beauty and fashion to B2B and SaaS — every industry we ship into has its own compliance math, conversion math, and retention math. We do not pretend otherwise.
§ 01 · the short version
Every industry has its own math.
A beauty brand’s conversion rate is not a B2B distributor’s conversion rate. A coffee roaster’s retention math is not a luxury jewelry brand’s. A wine DTC shop has shipping-law constraints an apparel brand never sees. The twenty industries below are ones where we’ve shipped enough projects to know the specific tactics, compliance rules, tools, and operating models that actually matter — not the generic advice. Most ship on Shopify or Hydrogen, with Klaviyo, Stripe, and the Core Web Vitals targets at web.dev as the baseline.
20
industries
9
named operating methods
2,000+
projects shipped
55+
countries served
§ 01b · filter
§ 02 · cluster 01 · beauty, fashion, lifestyle
Visual-first DTC — where brand is the product.
Six verticals where merchandising, type hierarchy, and visual UX decide whether the cart closes. High-AOV, photography-heavy, returns-sensitive work.
01 · cosmetics & skincare
Beauty & Cosmetics.
Shade matching, refill subscriptions, MoCRA-ready compliance, retail dual-channel. Shopify Plus for scaling clean-beauty DTC.
read the industry →
02 · apparel & streetwear
Fashion & Apparel.
Drop calendars, size & fit UX, Loop exchange flows, EU GPSR compliance, wholesale parallel. Season as a calendar, not a content plan.
read the industry →
03 · fine jewelry
Fine Jewelry.
High-AOV UX, ring sizing, insured shipping, engraving personalisation. Appointment booking for bespoke. $15K to $180K monthly patterns.
read the industry →
04 · home + kitchen
Home & Lifestyle.
Rooms-first merchandising, AR visualisation, oversized-parcel shipping, bundled kitchenware / decor catalogs.
read the industry →
05 · furniture
Furniture & Decor.
LTL + white-glove shipping, financing, AR room placement, returns-to-re-home flows for high-ticket furniture.
read the industry →
06 · handmade
Crafts & Handmade.
Made-to-order workflows, materials provenance, maker profiles, limited drops — the Maker Method for slow-commerce pricing power.
read the industry →
§ 03 · cluster 02 · food, drink, wellness
Consumable DTC — where retention is the business model.
Six verticals where the first purchase is a test and the fifth purchase is the business. Subscription architecture, consumption-cadence tuning, compliance under real regulatory scrutiny.
07 · F&B + CPG
Food & Beverage.
Cold-chain logistics, FDA FSMA compliance, specialty food DTC, subscription-kit design for specialty brands.
read the industry →
08 · roasters
Coffee & Tea.
Roast-date freshness, flavour-profile discovery UX, single-origin storytelling, cafe wholesale. The Roast Method for 65% six-month retention.
read the industry →
09 · wine + spirits
Wine & Spirits.
Age + state verification, ShipCompliant, wine-club allocation mechanics, 3-tier system pressures. The Allocation Method.
read the industry →
10 · supplements
Health & Wellness.
DSHEA compliance, claim substantiation, subscription design for functional supplements and nutraceutical brands.
read the industry →
11 · pet
Pet.
Consumption-cadence tuning, breed / life-stage / weight segmentation, AAFCO labelling, Amazon + Chewy parallel.
read the industry →
12 · baby + kids
Baby & Kids.
Age-stage merchandising, CPSIA safety compliance, subscription boxes, gift registry, parent-intent SEO. The Stage Method.
read the industry →
§ 04 · cluster 03 · vertical commerce
Specs, catalogs, fitment.
Four verticals where catalog depth, technical correctness, and return / RMA math decide the economics. The buyer reads tables, not captions. Catalog data follows schema.org Product conventions, with ACES/PIES for fitment and ISBN-13 for books.
13 · electronics
Consumer Electronics.
Spec tables, 3-tier RMA flows, warranty-as-retention. Audio, wearables, smart home, accessories, charging, small appliances.
read the industry →
14 · publishing
Books & Publishing.
ISBN catalog, pre-order mechanics, author / imprint pages, multi-format SKUs, trade portal. The Shelf Method.
read the industry →
15 · aftermarket
Auto Parts & Accessories.
YMM fitment, VIN decoder, core-exchange workflows, ACES/PIES catalog, dealer portal. The Fitment Method.
read the industry →
16 · outdoor
Outdoor & Sports Gear.
Seasonal drops, fit UX, repair & warranty programs, dealer portals, sustainability claims. The Trail Method.
read the industry →
§ 05 · cluster 04 · platform, B2B, mission
Where commerce looks different.
Four verticals where the job is not “sell one unit to one person” — it is annual contracts, cohort enrollment, grant reporting, or mission transparency. Shopify B2B handles company accounts and NET-30; Klaviyo handles cohort lifecycle.
17 · wholesale + trade
B2B & Wholesale.
Shopify Plus B2B, NET-30 terms, company accounts, catalog pricing, approval workflows, NetSuite integration.
read the industry →
18 · B2B SaaS
SaaS Marketing.
PLG funnel design, onboarding activation, demand gen, attribution, SEO + content for self-serve and sales-assist.
read the industry →
19 · online learning
EdTech & Courses.
Cohort enrollment windows, drip-content gating, certification, institutional bulk-seat sales. The Cohort Method.
read the industry →
20 · 501(c)(3)
Non-profit & Cause.
Donation + merch cart, tribute giving, recurring-membership engine, grant-reporting transparency. The Impact Method.
read the industry →
§ 06 · questions
The five we get most.
If your industry isn't on the list above and you're wondering whether we'd take it on, the answers below cover the ninety per cent of cases we get asked about.
How do you decide whether you can serve an industry well? +
Three filters. One: the regulatory and compliance math has to be a problem we've already solved more than once - DSHEA for supplements, AAFCO for pet, ShipCompliant for wine. Two: the platform fit has to match what we ship into - Shopify Plus, Hydrogen, custom Next.js. Three: the operating model has to be one of the nine we've named - the Roast Method, the Allocation Method, the Stage Method, and so on. If two of three fail, we refer out.
What are the named operating methods you reference on each industry page? +
Nine named methods so far: the Roast Method (coffee), the Allocation Method (wine), the Maker Method (handmade), the Stage Method (baby + kids), the Shelf Method (books), the Fitment Method (auto parts), the Trail Method (outdoor), the Cohort Method (EdTech), the Impact Method (non-profit). Each is a documented playbook for the specific math, compliance, and merchandising patterns that win in that vertical.
Do you do generic ecommerce work or only the twenty industries listed? +
We ship Shopify and custom commerce work in any vertical that doesn't hit our four declines (CBD, adult, MLM, firearms). The twenty industries listed are the ones we've shipped enough projects in to have a documented playbook. Outside those twenty, the work runs on first principles rather than a method - same six-week cadence, same team, just less institutional pattern memory.
How does the engagement work once we sign? +
Six-week cadence, same as every other engagement. Discover (week one), Design (weeks two and three), Build (weeks three through five), Launch (week five), Optimize (week six). Two live calls a week, async on Slack between. Friday note every Friday with what shipped, what's next, and what's blocked. Read the full cadence on the Services hub.
Why don't you list more industries? +
Because honest specialisation is more useful than a long list. The twenty pages here are ones we'd happily defend in a stakeholder meeting - we know the compliance math, the conversion benchmarks, the platform stack, and the named operating method. Adding industries we've shipped only one or two projects in would be a marketing claim, not a specialisation. The list grows when the case-study count for a vertical reaches three or more.
§ 07 · not on this list
Industries we don’t take.
Four verticals we decline by default. Not because the work is unserious — because the math, the compliance, or the platform fit doesn’t match what we do well.
decline 02
Adult & age-restricted novelty.
Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy restricts several categories we’d otherwise build for. Not a moral judgement — a platform fit issue.
decline 03
MLM / network marketing.
The downline / compensation-plan architecture is a different domain than what Shopify is built for and not a pattern we specialise in.
decline 04
Firearms, ammunition, high-risk.
Payment-processor availability and platform TOS realities take these off the table on our preferred stack.
§ 08 · your industry
Industry-fit before engagement-fit.
Thirty-minute call. We talk the specifics of your industry math — not generic Shopify advice. If the fit is wrong, we refer out.