Hilman Inc.’s customers were dropping off mid-purchase, not because they’d stopped wanting the part, but because a bolted-on Shopify storefront sent them into a different-looking world right when they were closest to buying. David Taylor Digital stepped in to bring commerce home, fully and natively, under one roof.

MEET THE CLIENT

Hilman Inc. has spent decades engineering the equipment that moves what most companies can’t: rollers, dollies, toe jacks, and powered systems built to relocate heavy machinery safely and efficiently. Manufactured in the USA out of Marlboro, New Jersey, and backed by a five-year warranty on most standard products, Hilman’s gear shows up on some of the most demanding job sites in the world and is trusted by organizations like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bechtel, Skanska, GE, NASA, and SpaceX. That’s the kind of credibility a storefront needs to live up to.

THE CHALLENGE

Hilman’s online store was running on Shopify and technically functional, but visually and structurally disconnected from the rest of their site. For a buyer researching heavy-load equipment, that seam was more than cosmetic: it broke trust at exactly the moment they were closest to purchasing.

The key issues:

  • The Shopify storefront looked and felt like a different website, creating a jarring, inconsistent experience that confused users mid-journey.
  • Sales were softening as a direct result due to customers dropping off before completing purchases.
  • Conversion tracking on the Shopify pages was limited, making it hard to see where and why buyers were bouncing.
  • Calls-to-action across the site were inconsistent and often confusing, with too many paths leading into Shop pages that badly needed streamlining.
  • Behind the scenes, the Shopify product catalog itself was disorganized, with duplicate and repeating product listings making it hard for customers to find the right part or for Hilman’s team to keep the catalog accurate.

THE SOLUTION

David Taylor Digital’s approach centered on bringing e-commerce entirely into Hilman’s existing WordPress environment via WooCommerce — eliminating the seam between browsing and buying, and giving Hilman’s team a single platform to manage going forward.

ONE STOREFRONT, FULL UNIFIED

The complete product catalog was migrated from Shopify into WooCommerce, but the migration was also used as an opportunity to clean house. Duplicate and repeating listings were identified and consolidated, and product information was reorganized so customers can actually find what they’re looking for. Bundling and inventory management add-ons were implemented alongside a new Quick-Ship option, an on-demand shipping choice that gives customers more flexibility at checkout, so the store didn’t just move, it got cleaner and more capable in the process.

BUILT TO WORK EVERYWHERE, FOR EVERYONE

The new storefront was developed and coded with a fully collapsible, responsive design tested across the most current computer platforms and browsers (Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome) so the experience holds up no matter how a customer arrives. SEO coding best practices were built in from the start, and nationwide shipping was configured to support Hilman’s national customer base.

CLARITY FOR CUSTOMERS, CONTROL FOR THE TEAM

The confusing web of CTAs that used to scatter visitors across mismatched Shop pages was cleaned up and streamlined into clear, consistent paths to purchase. Behind the scenes, Google Analytics was fully set up so Hilman can finally see the conversion data that Shopify couldn’t provide, and the team was equipped with a custom training manual and training video, plus automated purchase-confirmation emails, so day-to-day management of the new site doesn’t require a developer.

THE RESULT

With everything running through one platform, Hilman’s online store finally feels like an extension of the brand rather than a detour from it. The confusing hand-off between site and storefront is gone, replaced by a single, streamlined path from product page to purchase — with clear calls to action guiding buyers the whole way. Page views on the shop page alone jumped 248%, and visitors are sticking around longer and coming back more often, a clear signal that the new experience is earning trust rather than losing it.

Post Launch
6+
Leads Generated of
Fortune 500 Companies
+248%
Shop Page
Views
+15%
Montly
Users
+25%
Time Spent
on Website
+185%
Phone
Calls

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