Cecilie Bahnsen

The Challenge

As the Cecilie Bahnsen brand expanded, it required additional functionalities to meet the demands of both retail and wholesale customers, including integrating Shopify for product management, building a microsite for wholesale (B2B), and adding advanced filtering and user role management. Specific tasks included:

1. User Management and Role Segmentation: The client needed a login and registration system with different user roles (end customers, PR accounts, and wholesale buyers).
2. Shop Page Filtering: To enhance the shopping experience, the site required advanced filtering options for dividing products by campaigns, categories, and other attributes.
3. Custom Sliders with Media Support: The site needed sliders capable of supporting both images and videos, leveraging Vimeo as a video provider. These sliders had to be highly customizable and performant.
4. Shopify Integration: The brand managed its product data through Shopify. To keep the client’s WordPress site synchronized, an automated solution was required.
5. Wholesale Microsite for Preorders: A microsite was needed (presentations.ceciliebahnsen.com) for wholesale buyers and PR purposes. This required a subdomain installation with separate features for different user types, including the ability to shop and place preorders.

Approach

We approached the project by breaking down the requirements into individual, manageable tasks. This helped ensure that each feature aligned with the brand’s needs and aesthetic. We analyzed how different user types—end customers, PR representatives, and wholesale buyers—would interact with the site, we explored options for integrating images and video seamlessly, and we treated the microsite as a separate WordPress installation for flexibility.

Technical Details

• We developed a custom-coded login and registration system within WordPress, using its built-in functions. We defined user roles such as “Customer,” “PR-account,” and “Wholesale Customer”, where we customized permissions and ensured that each role accessed only relevant content and functionalities.
• Product Filters: We utilized WordPress custom taxonomies and advanced search queries to create filters that allow users to sort products efficiently, enhancing the overall shopping experience.
• Slick Slider for Media: We integrated Slick Slider (JavaScript library) to support both images and Vimeo-hosted videos, and customized these sliders for responsiveness and optimized performance across all devices.
• Shopify Integration via Cron Jobs: We created a custom API script to connect WordPress with Shopify, and set up cron jobs to automate the daily import of product data, ensuring synchronization and data accuracy.
• Microsite Development: We set up a separate WordPress installation on the subdomain presentations.ceciliebahnsen.com, and developed features such as product preorders, wholesale catalogs, and role-specific content displays.

Results

The implementation of these features significantly enhanced the functionality and user experience on ceciliebahnsen.com, as well as on the wholesale microsite. The solution successfully aligned with the brand’s high-end aesthetic and operational needs, creating a cohesive platform for both retail and wholesale functions.

As the brand’s digital and e-commerce needs grew, the entire site transitioned to a full Shopify webshop.

See the website

**Disclaimer**: This project was owned by the digital agency Twentyfour. I, Alberto Dorta, served as the lead developer.