Works | Makesy
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Execution Summary
Makesy, a fast-growing D2C brand for candle and wellness creators, needed a storefront experience as personalized and modular as their products. From product bundling and subscription logic to custom product journeys, the brand faced growing limitations on Shopify’s default capabilities. Codilar partnered with Makesy to reimagine their Shopify Plus setup — delivering a dynamic CYOC (Create Your Own Candle) flow, Recharge integration, and admin-driven merchandising tools. The result: a scalable, creator-first commerce platform that doubled subscription opt-ins and significantly boosted conversions.
Company
Overview
Makesy is a California-based D2C brand that serves as a one-stop destination for artisans and indie creators in the candle, beauty, and wellness space. With a mission to empower creative entrepreneurs, Makesy offers ethically sourced vessels, wicks, fragrances, kits, and customization tools — enabling customers to build bespoke products that reflect their unique vision.
Operating entirely online via Shopify Plus, Makesy serves a highly engaged, community-driven customer base across the U.S. and beyond. As their catalog and complexity scaled, the brand realized the need to revamp its digital experience — both for end-users navigating personalization journeys and for internal teams managing product logic, bundles, and subscriptions.
The challenge wasn’t just about scale — it was about unlocking creativity without compromising performance or manageability. That’s where Codilar stepped in.
Objectives & Challenges
To support their next phase of growth, Makesy set out to modernize their Shopify Plus setup with greater personalization, smoother logic handling, and backend scalability.
Key Objectives
- Create a guided, visual Create Your Own Candle flow for personalized shopping
- Integrate Recharge to manage subscription journeys natively within PDP and cart
- Decouple business logic from hardcoded templates to improve merchandising agility
- Improve product compatibility filters and bundle visibility
- Enable non-developers to manage kits, bundles, and dynamic offerings
- Optimize UX for mobile and increase conversion across personalized journeys
Business & Technical Challenges
Business Challenges
- Customers were confused by open-ended PDPs and often abandoned CYOC flows
- Support teams faced a surge in queries around bundle logic and delivery mismatch
- Marketing struggled to roll out new kits and bundles without developer involvement
- Subscription products weren’t clearly surfaced or adopted by users
Technical Challenges
- Shopify's native filtering and PDP logic lacked depth for compatibility use-cases
- Recharge widget needed conditional logic tied to metafields
- No structured backend for managing bundle relationships or CYOC dependencies
- Analytics tracking was fragmented across personalization steps
Solution Approach
Codilar approached the transformation with a modular, admin-friendly, and scalable architecture. The objective was to empower Makesy’s creative vision while solving practical business blockers through smart use of Shopify Plus capabilities.
Product Personalization (Build-Your-Own Candle)
Codilar designed and implemented a Create Your Own Candle (CYOC) experience that allowed users to:
- Start by selecting a vessel
- Automatically view only compatible wicks (filtered by diameter, burn type, etc.)
- Select scents grouped into curated families
- Optimize UX for mobile and increase conversion across personalized journeys
This flow was powered by Shopify metafields and advanced frontend logic to eliminate invalid combinations and reduce decision fatigue.
Subscription Enhancements (Recharge)
Recharge was fully integrated and visually aligned with the storefront. Custom logic was added to:
- Show/hide widgets only on eligible products
- Preselect default options where applicable
- Reflect subscription price and benefits across cart and PDP
This drove clarity and higher adoption rates.
Smart Filtering & PDP Logic
Codilar rewired the PDP and collection logic to support metafield-driven filtering:
- Products could now be filtered based on wick diameter, scent category, vessel compatibility
- Customers were guided through bundled and variant selections with visual prompts
- Filtering behavior was responsive and mobile-optimized
Admin Empowerment
One of the core achievements was enabling merchandising independence:
- Codilar built a system of metafields + Shopify Flow that allowed teams to configure kits, subscriptions, and bundles with no developer help
- Seasonal campaigns, curated collections, and upsell flows could now go live in hours, not weeks
UX Improvements
Codilar refreshed the entire customer journey with:
- A new mega menu with grouped categories and themes
- Streamlined mobile filter UX and spacing adjustments
- Visual clarity in CYOC selections with icons, highlights, and scroll-to behavior
- Enhanced PDP layout with bundle summaries and gift note options
Tracking & Data Layer
Codilar implemented GA4 + GTM-based tracking for:
- Subscription selections
- Variant toggles in CYOC
- Filter and search usage
- Cart interactions and funnel drop-offs
This data is now actively used by Makesy’s growth team to optimize campaigns.
Implementation
- Shopify Plus storefront customized using Liquid and Custom Scripts
- CYOC logic built using Shopify metafields, product tags, and conditional flows
- Recharge integrated with widget conditions and branded styling
- Admin enablement powered via Shopify Flow and Metafield UI extensions
- Delivered via agile sprints with iterative stakeholder feedback and QA cycles
Tech Stack
Shopify Plus, Recharge, Klaviyo, GA4, GTM, Gorgias, Shopify Flow, Custom Scripts
Results and Impact
Operational Efficiency
- Merchandising teams can now launch bundles and kits without developer support
- Time to market for seasonal collections dropped from 3 weeks to 48 hours
Customer Experience & Revenue
- 35% increase in conversions through CYOC journeys
- 2X growth in Recharge opt-ins post UI and logic revamp
- 60% fewer customer queries about bundle logic or pricing discrepancies
Future-Readiness
- Built-in support for Hydrogen or headless expansion
- Framework supports AI-based personalization and multi-market localization
Conclusion
From an open-ended shopping experience to a guided, brand-aligned, and scalable storefront — Makesy’s Shopify Plus transformation is a blueprint for creative D2C commerce done right.
With Codilar’s strategic implementation, Makesy now delivers a personalized, subscription-friendly experience at scale — all while empowering internal teams to move faster. This collaboration reinforces Codilar’s position as a trusted Shopify Plus development partner for ambitious, experience-led brands.