---
title: "Camouflage Store"
description: "Migrating and managing an ecommerce store, in addition to creating informational video content."
#date: 2020-12-03T09:17:23+00:00 # Date of site creation
date: 2022-10-18 # Date Persuit theme was purchased
updated: 2024-12-05
image:
  {
    url: "t_pkD9Wf0QU-HD.jpg",
    alt: "Camouflage Store YouTube video regarding Altberg boots comparison.",
  }
tags: ["ecommerce", "shopify", "docker"]
categories: ["client work"]
featured: true
---

import Gallery from "@components/Gallery.astro";

import image1 from "498716393_18281280967255851_1966890370925725070_n.jpg";
import image2 from "DSC_0641E.jpg";
import image3 from "DSC_0520E.jpg";
import image4 from "116910844_2747434862158229_7956040150195574201_n.jpeg";

My role has me in charge of managing an [ecommerce store](https://camouflagestore.uk/) in addition to creating, editing, and publishing informational YouTube and social media content for a family run outdoors store. This includes the redesign shown below but also any maintenance and general upkeep of the site and all related systems.

## YouTube content

As of 2024-12-05 the [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@camouflagestoreuk) has 1.37k subscribers and 312,241 views over a total of 168 videos. If were to pick one video that displays the quality of the content we produce, it would probably be [SOLO ATP SAS SMOCK MK2 (2022) OVERVIEW | Camouflage Store](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7wlm60rXVs). I am incredibly grateful to Steve for giving me the opportunity to continue working with him, and for the amount of creative freedom he gives me when experimenting with new ideas.

![SOLO ATP SAS SMOCK MK2 (2022) OVERVIEW | Camouflage Store YouTube Video Thumbnail](K7wlm60rXVs-HD.jpg)

## Site redesign

Most recently I completed modernising the website which included moving it to [Shopify](https://camouflagestore.uk) from its previous CMS platform. This has resulted in the owner gaining more control over his business as he can now make changes to the site that would have previously required hiring a developer to do. Additionally, the new site is far more modern introducing benefits such as being mobile friendly, fast, and much more secure which will improve the experience for everyone.

![Camouflage Store homepage as of 2022](camouflage-store-homepage.avif)

The default border-radius of buttons was also unable to be changed within the theme so I used Shopify's custom CSS feature to override the default styling on all affected elements. This instantly makes the site look more unique compared to others using the same theme. Additionally, keywords have been added into the HTML head for better SEO using Liquid and a custom product metafeild.

```liquid
<meta name="keywords" content="camouflage store, camo, outdoors, devon, uk, ..., {{ product.metafields.custom.keywords }}">
```

Whilst making these modifications to the theme, I found two bugs. Initially with the variant selection options on product pages which I was able to diagnose and fix in communication with the original theme developers. The change was then included within the next update. And lastly, an issue with pages locking up and crashing the entire browser tab or application. According to the developers this was due to the JavaScript in the theme having quotes within option names.

Here's a look at the prior site as it was the day we switched over to using the new redesign.

![Camouflage Store Previous Design](camouflage-store-previous.avif)

Many of the product images included on the site were taken by myself specifically for the Camouflage Store. These are often necessary as many promotional images we are provided have a resultion too low to make out any important details in the material or specificities of each item.

<Gallery
  items={[
    { src: image1, alt: "Altberg summer selection photoshoot variant 2" },
    {
      src: image2,
      alt: "Altberg Jungle Panama Classic MK2 (Camouflage Exclusive)",
    },
    { src: image3, alt: "SOLO Tactical Alpha Shirt" },
    { src: image4, alt: "Altberg summer selection photoshoot variant 2" },
  ]}
/>

## Branding

Along with the switch of platform, we came to the decision that the domain and overall branding would need to be updated to to go along with the rest of the work being done. I felt it was important however that the original red colour of <span class="bg-[#dd3e3e] rounded-sm p-0.5">#dd3e3e</span> was kept as it was a key part of the brand from all the way back in 2007.

For the domain, we have gone with [camouflagestore.uk](https://camouflagestore.uk) (and its equavalent .co.uk tld). This was chosen as the location of the store is a key factor in its identity, and having this represented from the get-go meant a lot to the client. The legacy domain of [camouflage-store.com](https://camouflage-store.com) has also been kept since it has also been with Steve since 2007 and holds significant personal value.

## VPS

Continuing my goal of giving Steve the most amount of freedom possible without having to rely on thirdparty services, I have setup a VPS on his behalf to host a variety of services.

The first of which is an instance of [Umami](https://umami.is/), a self-hostable analytics platform. This has been hosted using Docker and includes automatic redeployments using Watchtower, and reverse proxying with Traefik.
