Epic Militaria (epicmilitaria.com)

Core Wins

+£500 / Day

Daily Sales Increase

With Hyvä theme, checkout improvements & expanded payments via Mollie.

0 CLS

Mobile Performance

All mobile pages moved from Poor to Good in GSC.

5,000+ SKUs

SEO Strategy

Created roadmap & tools to improve historical bad data (on-going).

Overview

When I took over Epic Militaria (built on Magento 2), the store suffered from technical debt, legacy data structures, and slow Luma theme loading speeds. Over time, I turned the platform around—migrating from Magento’s default Luma frontend to Hyvä Theme and Hyvä Checkout, rebuilding backend workflows, and caching assets via Cloudflare.

Visual Transformation

Before (Luma Theme) Before Luma Theme

After (Hyvä Theme) After Hyvä Theme

Challenges & Solutions

CHALLENGE

Strict Agency Retainer Constraints (20 Hours / Month)

We operate on a strict 20-hour monthly developer retainer to cover everything—core Magento updates, version upgrades, bug fixes, and new features. With agency rates at £70/hour, discovery and testing eat up budget fast if issues aren't pre-diagnosed.

SOLUTION

I build working HTML/CSS/JS prototypes to demonstrate exact layouts and micro-interactions before handing work over. I also use DevTools to pinpoint CSS specificity issues and console JS errors upfront. Providing pre-diagnosed fixes eliminates expensive discovery and testing hours for the agency, stretching our 20-hour budget significantly further.

CHALLENGE

Ongoing 17-Year Catalog Data Cleanup

Across a massive 5,000+ SKU catalog accumulated over 17 years, inconsistent product attributes hurt search rankings and storefront filtering.

SOLUTION

Rather than incurring extra agency or labor costs, I built custom internal AI tools and established structured workflows so our existing team can clean and update product data in-house during quiet periods.

CHALLENGE

Hyvä Theme & Checkout Migration

Magento's legacy default theme was heavy and slow, dragging down mobile conversion rates and Google Core Web Vitals.

SOLUTION

I project-led the move to Hyvä Theme and Hyvä Checkout—remaking all CMS pages in-house, managing user testing, feedback loops, and roadmapping, while directing the agency developers to execute the core migration and backend coding.

Key Achievements

+£500/Day Revenue Lift: Delivering Mollie and Hyvä Checkout within our standard agency retainer increased daily turnover by ~£500 while fixing mobile Core Web Vitals.
IOSS & Cross-Border Compliance: Built technical tax routing for IOSS and Norwegian VOEC to preserve seamless EU trade post-Brexit.
Logistics Rate Negotiation: Re-negotiated direct Royal Mail and DHL courier contracts to protect shipping margins against fuel surcharges.
Lightweight CMS Components: Built dynamic HTML/CSS/JS components directly inside Magento CMS to bypass expensive custom module development fees.

Roadmap Initiatives

Category Restructure & 4-Level Tabbed Mega Menu: Restructuring the catalog taxonomy into clear departmental pillars (WW2, WW1, Vietnam, Modern, Surplus, Gifting) with a tabbed 4-level mega menu. Resolves illogically merged categories and overcrowded product listings, backed by 301 redirect mapping to protect search equity.
AJAX Slide-Out Mega Cart: Replacing the traditional “View Basket” page with a frictionless AJAX cart featuring dynamic product recommendations.
Semantic Search Upgrades: Fine-tuning ElasticSuite search modules for natural-language search intent and item discoverability.
Fetch-Based Quick-Add: Enabling instant fetch-based add-to-cart functionality directly from category product cards.