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DACHI Group

THE CHALLENGE

Dachi Group required a highly performant, modern digital storefront capable of seamlessly integrating with a local South African payment gateway (Stitch) and a specific 3PL fulfilment partner (Inospace). Initially, the proposed technical route involved a standard, monolithic Shopify architecture. However, this approach presented critical creative limitations. A purely templated build threatened to drastically throttle rendering performance, complicate 3D product visualisations, and—most dangerously—strip our GSAP engineering team of their ability to use advanced DOM manipulation to build immersive scroll animations. The business was facing the prospect of an under-engineered frontend, a sluggish user experience, and a rigid interface they could not easily scale post-launch.

SERVICES

  • Frontend Engineering
  • Technical Architecture
DACHI Group Mockup

THE STRATEGY

Operating on a principle of performance and architectural continuity, we executed a strategic pivot away from rigid templates and server-side rendering. We transitioned Dachi Group to a decoupled "Astro Headless" architecture.

This strategy allowed us to natively support 3D visualisers and complex animations without building expensive, bloated frontend bundles. Instead of a heavy monolithic frontend, we modernised the digital storefront by integrating a JavaScript-first pipeline using Three.js and GSAP. This gave us the rapid development speed and performance of a modern tech stack while preserving the native Shopify backend for the client. Furthermore, we implemented strict AI-Native data standards, structuring our Vercel Postgres databases to ensure the platform is "Agent-Ready" for future AI marketing integrations and automated restock bots.

USER EXPERIENCE (UX) & DESIGN FOCUS

The user journey needed to be entirely frictionless, optimising for immediate conversions. To achieve this, we bypassed traditional, clunky e-commerce flows by engineering a "Direct-to-Checkout" experience.

We designed an intuitive interface where users can instantly interact with 3D product models directly on the main page. By utilising Astro's island architecture, we handled lightweight, lightning-fast interactive states—such as variant selectors and dynamic cart overlays—without the heavy payload of a bloated JavaScript framework. The UI remains exceptionally clean, accessible, and highly responsive across all mobile breakpoints.

THE IMPACT

By identifying the architectural mismatch early, we successfully launched Dachi Group's premium digital storefront in a single two-week sprint, effectively unlocking immersive web experiences without sacrificing speed.

Dachi Group gained a blazing-fast, highly converting user interface whilst retaining total logistical autonomy over their Shopify operations. The streamlined, direct-to-checkout flow eliminated navigational friction, positioning the brand for increased user retention, reduced cart abandonment, and robust operational scalability alongside their 3PL partner.

ENGINEERING NOTE:

Overcoming the Headless Checkout Hurdle: A core UX requirement was the "Direct-to-Checkout" flow, bypassing standard validation pages. Rather than rebuilding complex payment routing and 3PL webhooks from scratch that can cause latency or fail on slower devices, we engineered a native workaround. We embedded the Storefront API within the Astro cart and utilised the specific checkoutUrl attribute on the submission payload.

This natively instructed the frontend to intercept the mutation and push the user instantly into the secure, hosted Shopify checkout pipeline. Coupled with our custom Vercel edge deployment to compile Astro components directly, we achieved maximum graphic performance within a stable e-commerce environment.

Tech stack

Frontend

  • • Astro
  • • GSAP (GreenSock)
  • • Three.js (WebGL)
  • • Tailwind CSS

Backend & CMS

  • • Shopify Headless (Storefront API / GraphQL)

Database & APIs

  • • Vercel Postgres (Neon Engine)
  • • Resend API (Transactional Emails)

Payments, Logistics & Infrastructure

  • • Stitch (via Shopify Hosted Checkout)
  • • Inospace (3PL Fulfilment Integration)
  • • Vercel Edge Hosting (Pro Tier)

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