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How We Helped Sleek Lemon Save $30K without Shopify Plus

Industry

Healthcare

Services Provided

Building a Scalable Shopify Store without Enterprise Costs

Sleek Lemon is a fast-growing D2C medical apparel brand known for premium scrubs that bring together comfort, functionality, and contemporary design. As demand accelerated, its Shopify store began to strain under the demands of bulk hospital orders, complex sizing, limited product variants, and inefficient fulfilment workflows.

The conventional route was costly: Shopify Plus at approximately $2,000 a month, alongside multiple paid apps to bridge functionality gaps. Instead, Sleek Lemon partnered with WAC to engineer a custom Shopify architecture on the Standard plan, streamline fulfilment, and elevate the customer experience through smarter UX and development.

The result was an enterprise-grade commerce setup without the enterprise-grade overhead, delivering the scalability Sleek Lemon needed while saving nearly $30,000 annually in recurring operating costs.

Platform
Shopify
Technology
Liquid , HTML5
Timeline
16 Weeks

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Challenges

Shopify Standard Plan Limitations

The existing Shopify store lacked the flexibility needed to support business growth, while upgrading to Shopify Plus introduced significant recurring costs.

Inefficient Bulk Order Fulfilment

Bulk hospital orders were processed as individual line items, increasing handling costs, slowing fulfilment, and reducing B2B profitability.

Complex Product Sizing

The existing store couldn't effectively support extended sizes and gender-specific fits, making product selection more difficult for customers.

Limited Colour Variants

Native Shopify functionality limited the number of visible colour swatches, preventing Sleek Lemon from showcasing its full product range.

Rising Operational Costs

Most solutions depended on Shopify Plus and multiple paid apps, creating a costly recurring expense as the business scaled.

Objectives

Create a future-ready Shopify store that improves operational efficiency, enhances the shopping experience, and supports long-term growth while maximising value from the Shopify platform.

Enterprise-Ready Shopify

Develop advanced e-commerce capabilities, custom workflows, and scalable infrastructure while remaining on Shopify's Standard plan.

Improve Fulfilment Efficiency

Redesign operational workflows to reduce handling costs, simplify bulk ordering, and improve profit margins.

Enhance Product Discovery

Support complex sizing and expanded colour variants while maintaining a fast, intuitive shopping experience.

Elevate the Brand Experience

Refresh the website's visual identity and user experience to reflect Sleek Lemon's premium positioning.

Solutions

Leveraging deep Shopify expertise, we solved key business challenges through custom commerce solutions, operational improvements, and UX enhancements that supported scalable growth while reducing recurring costs.

Custom Shopify Solution

We built a tailored Shopify solution that delivered the advanced functionality Sleek Lemon needed on Shopify’s Standard plan. This reduced recurring platform costs while creating a scalable foundation for growth and nearly $30,000 in annual savings.

Fulfilment Optimisation

We re-engineered Sleek Lemon’s fulfilment strategy to address one of its biggest cost drivers. By introducing a workflow better suited to bundled B2B orders, we reduced handling complexity, lowered fulfilment costs, and improved profit margins.

Mobile-First Experience

We redesigned the shopping experience around mobile, optimising navigation, page speed, product discovery, touch interactions, and checkout for smaller screens. The result was a faster, more intuitive experience that reduced friction and made browsing, customising, and purchasing effortless.

Custom Sizing Framework

We introduced a custom sizing framework supporting extended sizes and gender-specific fits, making product selection more intuitive. This reduced customer confusion, strengthened purchase confidence, and created a smoother path to checkout.

Premium UX & Brand Refresh

We refined Sleek Lemon’s digital experience through stronger visual consistency, typography, colour, and product imagery. The refreshed interface created a more premium shopping experience while strengthening customer trust and brand perception.

360° Product Visualisation

We brought a more immersive, in-store experience online with 360° mannequin views, allowing customers to examine medical scrubs from every angle. This gave shoppers greater product clarity and confidence before making a purchase.

Sleeklemon mobile home screen with the New Arrivals campaign

Business Impact

Cost Driver	Conventional Approach	WAC Solution	Business Impact
Platform	Shopify Plus(~$24,000/yr)	Shopify Standard(~$950/yr)	~$23,000 Savings
Apps	Recurring Fees(~$5,000/yr)	Custom Code(One-time)	~$5,000 Savings
Fulfillment	Standard, rigid pricing	New Vendor/Better Margins	Increased Profit Per Unit
Overall	High OpEx	Low OpEx + Better Margins	~$28,000 Savings + Margin Growth

Results

Nearly $30,000 in Annual Savings

Reduced platform and operational costs by delivering enterprise-grade capabilities on Shopify’s Standard Plan.

Enterprise Capabilities, Lower Costs

Enabled advanced Shopify functionality while avoiding the recurring cost of Shopify Plus.

Faster, More Efficient Fulfilment

Streamlined bulk order processing to reduce handling complexity, improve efficiency, and protect profit margins.

Greater Product Flexibility

Expanded sizing and colour options to better serve diverse customer needs and improve product discovery.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Created a smoother shopping journey with faster discovery, clearer product selection, and frictionless purchasing.

Built for Sustainable Growth

Delivered a scalable Shopify store that strengthens brand perception and supports future expansion.

Don’t

let Your

Friend

wear

boxy scrubs

Conclusion

Sleek Lemon's transformation demonstrates that scaling an e-commerce business doesn't always require enterprise software or escalating operational costs.

By combining deep Shopify expertise with operational consulting and thoughtful UX design, WAC replaced expensive platform upgrades with intelligent engineering that delivered the same business outcomes at a fraction of the cost.

The result is a faster, more scalable e-commerce platform that improves customer experience, reduces operating costs, and supports sustainable long-term growth.

Sleek Lemon is a modern D2C medical apparel brand creating premium scrubs for healthcare professionals. With a focus on comfort, functionality, and contemporary design, the company delivers high-quality medical wear for both individual practitioners and healthcare institutions.