Arabian Oud Shopify Build
Unified E-Commerce Architecture Across 8 International Markets (17 Storefront Websites)
Executive Summary
Arabian Oud is replatforming its international e-commerce operations from Salla to a unified Shopify Plus infrastructure. The international business targets 8 international market countries (US, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Malaysia) across two primary brands (Arabian Oud and Oud Elite) plus niche fragrance line Arabian Blend, totaling 17 storefront websites. All backend management is handled by the technical e-commerce department in Arabian Oud's head office. GCC markets remain on Salla.
This document outlines commercial build ballparks for a unified e-commerce architecture designed to give the international commercial team operational agility, resolve historical conversion friction, and establish an automated, reliable fulfillment pipeline through Arabian Oud's existing central Order Management System (OTO).
Conversion & Operational Bottlenecks
Arabian Oud has identified five specific root causes depressing conversion rates and slowing commercial execution. This project directly addresses each bottleneck:
A bespoke, lightweight Shopify 2.0 theme built for rapid mobile rendering, eliminating bloated legacy code and slow asset delivery.
Custom address input and validation engineered via Shopify Checkout Extensibility to eliminate friction and failed deliveries across international destinations.
A unified store topology utilising Shopify Markets to provide tailored currencies, localised pricing, and regional catalog presentation across each international website.
Native integration with Shopify Discounts and Promotions, empowering the international commercial team to launch seasonal campaigns, bundles, and tiered promotions immediately without technical delays.
Empowers the international commercial team to adapt and change websites quickly, addressing promo activation latency and operational dependencies highlighted as a primary conversion opportunity.
Core Architectural Objectives
Unified Store Topology
Consolidate 17 international storefront websites (spanning 8 market countries) into a centralized Shopify Plus architecture using Shopify Markets for regional pricing, localized currencies, and tailored regional storefronts.
Automated OTO OMS Pipeline
Preserve existing 3PL warehouse logistics and central ERP reconciliation via direct bi-directional synchronization between Shopify Plus and Arabian Oud's central OTO platform.
Checkout Conversion & Address UX
Resolve historical sub-0.8% conversion bottlenecks through Shopify Checkout Extensibility, localized address validation, and native self-serve promotional controls.
European Compliance & Tax Hub
Automate the 6-bottle perfume checkout restriction for European destinations and integrate automated tax engines (Avalara for US, Quaderno / EU OSS for France fulfillment hub).
Architectural Rationale: Native Shopify 2.0 vs. Headless
While headless architectures (e.g. Hydrogen or bespoke decoupled frontends) are often evaluated for large international catalogs, a native Shopify 2.0 theme architecture has been selected as the optimal framework for Arabian Oud for the following reasons:
Commercial Team Autonomy
Headless frontends require engineering tickets and developer intervention for routine layout changes, navigation edits, and promo landing pages. Native Shopify 2.0 empowers the international commercial team to adapt storefronts quickly using self-serve visual controls in the Theme Editor.
Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Headless setups introduce decoupled hosting infrastructure, ongoing API orchestration layers, and custom middleware maintenance across 17 storefront websites. Native Shopify Plus eliminates hosting overhead, server maintenance, and middleware points of failure.
Native Checkout Extensibility & App Ecosystem
Native themes integrate directly with Shopify Checkout Extensibility, native promotional Functions, and standard partner apps (Avalara, WebEngage, Matrixify). Headless builds require custom API plumbing and bespoke checkout workflows for third-party tools.
Edge Performance & Multi-Theme Architecture
Modern Shopify 2.0 themes deliver fast mobile rendering and streamlined mobile-first catalog browsing directly on Shopify global CDN edge nodes without the latency of third-party rendering servers.
Scope of Work
Delivery is structured into 11 focused engineering and migration work packages addressing storefront UX, OMS integration, logistics compliance, data migration, comprehensive QA, and production go-live.
WS 01
Discovery, Technical Architecture & Data Mapping
4 Days
- Full audit of all 17 Salla website URLs and backend service configurations across the 8 international markets.
- Ingestion and schema mapping of Salla customer, order, and product data exports.
- Technical mapping of OTO OMS endpoints for bidirectional inventory and order synchronisation.
- Confirmation of multi-theme design tokens across Arabian Oud, Arabian Blend, and Oud Elite, brand asset mapping, and Quaderno tax status for France.
WS 02
Storefront UI/UX Design & Theme Development (3 Themes)
30 - 40 Days
- Premium fragrance visual design system reflecting Arabian Oud brand equity across international markets.
- Development of three tailored Shopify 2.0 themes sharing core architectural components, templates, and modular section libraries:
- Arabian Oud: Flagship luxury fragrance brand storefront.
- Arabian Blend: Contemporary fragrance collection storefront.
- Oud Elite: Prestige luxury fragrance storefront with dedicated visual styling.
- Engineered for high-speed catalog browsing and intuitive navigation across all 17 international storefront websites.
- Front-end build adhering to approved Figma designs with rapid AJAX side-cart drawer.
- Mobile-first responsive UX with bottle size variant selectors (50ml, 100ml, 200ml) and scent/colour collection attribute displays.
- Side-cart drawer styling with localised currency displays.
- Mobile navigation architecture optimised for high-speed catalog browsing across all 17 international storefront websites.
WS 03
Checkout Address Optimisation & Promotional Engine
7 Days
- Address Validation & Capture: Streamlined address collection via Shopify Checkout Extensibility, tailored to eliminate address input friction and checkout drop-off.
- Promotional Agility: Native configuration of Shopify Discounts and Functions, giving commercial teams self-serve promotional controls to launch and schedule promotional campaigns without technical delays.
WS 04
OTO OMS Connector & Order Synchronisation
8 - 10 Days
- Direct integration between Shopify Plus and OTO (Arabian Oud central Order Management System).
- Real-Time Stock Updates: Automated inventory sync pulling live quantity levels from OTO into Shopify Plus.
- Automated Order Injection: Orders placed on Shopify Plus pass directly into OTO for automated reconciliation with ERP and dispatch routing.
- Fulfillment & Tracking Updates: OTO pushes carrier tracking numbers and fulfillment statuses back to Shopify Plus, triggering customer notifications.
- Preserved 3PL Network: Uses OTO's established connections to all regional 3PL partners without custom carrier API development.
WS 05
European 6-Bottle Order Restriction & France Shipping Hub
3 Days
- Native Shopify Functions Checkout Validation rule enforcing max 6 perfume bottles per checkout order for European delivery addresses.
- Configuration of dedicated European fulfillment profile for shipments dispatched from France across EU member states.
WS 06
International Tax Architecture
4 - 5 Days
- United States: Avalara (AvaTax) integration for automated state sales tax calculation and reporting.
- European Union: Quaderno integration (or native EU One Stop Shop VAT rules) for orders fulfilled from France across EU destinations.
- Rest of World: Native fixed VAT rate configuration per destination market.
- Multi-Entity Tax Routing: Multiple entity linking is outside the estimated effort for this task and will need further discussion and scoping during discovery. Connecting distinct corporate entities, subsidiary tax registrations, or segregated merchant accounts into Avalara and Quaderno requires dedicated evaluation.
WS 07
Data Migration
10 - 15 Days
- Execution of a structured 3-stage data migration pipeline using direct Salla data exports, normalization scripts, and Matrixify:
- Stage 1: Initial Migration: Full catalog (~400 SKUs, bottle size variants of 50ml, 100ml, 200ml, and scent/color collections), historical customer accounts, and historical order records (<100,000 orders) ingested into Shopify Plus staging environments.
- Stage 2: Pre-Launch Delta: Incremental synchronization prior to final User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and cutover, capturing records created or modified in the previous 30 days to validate sync integrity.
- Stage 3: Launch Delta: Final cutover synchronization executed immediately prior to domain cutover, restricted strictly to customers and orders only to guarantee zero loss of live customer transactions during transition.
WS 08
Combined SEO & GTM Migration
9 Days
- Comprehensive crawl of all 17 storefront websites (spanning 8 international markets) and construction of an automated 1:1 SEO 301 redirection matrix safeguarding historical search rankings.
- Canonical URL architecture, international XML sitemaps, and multi-market hreflang configuration across all country domains.
- Google Tag Manager (GTM) container audit and tag migration from Salla to Shopify Plus.
- GA4 e-commerce dataLayer event tracking (product impressions, views, cart additions, checkout initiations, and completed purchases).
- Ad network conversion pixels (Meta CAPI, TikTok, Google Ads, Snapchat) and Google Consent Mode v2 implementation.
WS 09
WebEngage CRM Integration
2 Days
- Standard WebEngage app and web pixel installation to continue the client's ongoing marketing rollout.
- Instrument core e-commerce lifecycle events: product views, cart additions, checkout initiations, and completed orders.
WS 10
Quality Assurance, UAT & End-to-End Testing
5 Days
- End-to-end integration testing across OTO inventory sync, order capture, payment processing, and tax engine calculation.
- Cross-browser and mobile device QA across all three theme variants (Arabian Oud, Arabian Blend, Oud Elite) and responsive breakpoints.
- Comprehensive User Acceptance Testing (UAT) sign-off across all 17 international storefront website configurations.
WS 11
Production Cutover, Go-Live & Operational Handover
2 Days
- Coordinated production cutover and commercial go-live across the 17 international storefront websites.
- Full 17-website 301 redirect verification, canonical indexation check, and tag fired confirmation.
- Operational training and handover documentation for the international commercial team.
Project Exclusions
Clear scope boundaries ensure alignment and prevent project friction. The following items are explicitly excluded from this migration ballpark:
- In-Store Pickup (Click-and-Collect / BOPIS): Physical boutique pickup is not currently active across the store network. While noted as an area of client interest, all in-store pickup and POS retail integration workflows are excluded from this project scope and may be explored as a post-launch enhancement once retail store requirements are defined.
- Custom ERP Middleware & Carrier API Builds: No bespoke middleware or direct carrier API builds are included, as inventory sync, order reconciliation, and 3PL carrier handoffs are managed entirely through the existing OTO OMS connection.
- Translation Authoring & Content Entry: All localized copy, product descriptions, and multi-language translations across the 17 international storefront websites are to be provided by Arabian Oud. The project scope is strictly limited to template engineering and storefront presentation.
Project Effort Breakdown & Commercial Investment
Effort is estimated in working days (1 Day = 8 Hours). QA, project management, and technical architecture are absorbed within each workstream.
| # | Workstream Deliverable | Core Focus & Deliverables | Effort Range | Ballpark (AED) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Discovery & Technical Specifications | 17 Salla website audit, OTO endpoint mapping, language matrix, Quaderno verification | 4 Days | AED 16,000 |
| 2 | Storefront UI/UX Design & Theme Development (3 Themes) | Three Shopify 2.0 themes (Arabian Oud, Arabian Blend, Oud Elite) sharing core architecture with tailored brand styling, luxury PDP selectors, AJAX side-cart | 30 - 40 Days | AED 120,000 - 160,000 |
| 3 | Checkout Address UX & Promo Engine | Address validation via Checkout Extensibility; native Shopify Discounts setup | 7 Days | AED 28,000 |
| 4 | OTO OMS Connector & Order Sync | Bi-directional OTO sync: real-time stock from ERP, automated order return, tracking sync | 8 - 10 Days | AED 32,000 - 40,000 |
| 5 | European 6-Bottle Order Restriction | Shopify Functions rule enforcing max 6 perfume bottles for EU delivery; France hub config | 3 Days | AED 12,000 |
| 6 | International Tax Architecture | Avalara AvaTax (US); Quaderno / native EU VAT (France hub); fixed VAT for Global / Rest of World | 4 - 5 Days | AED 16,000 - 20,000 |
| 7 | Data Migration | Structured 3-stage migration (initial catalog & historical data, pre-launch 30-day delta, launch delta for customers & orders only) via Matrixify | 10 - 15 Days | AED 40,000 - 60,000 |
| 8 | Combined SEO & GTM Migration | 17-website 301 URL redirect matrix, canonical setup, GTM container migration, GA4 dataLayer events, and ad pixel setups | 9 Days | AED 36,000 |
| 9 | WebEngage CRM Integration | WebEngage app and web pixel setup with core e-commerce lifecycle event tracking | 2 Days | AED 8,000 |
| 10 | Quality Assurance, UAT & End-to-End Testing | End-to-end testing with OTO, tax validation, cross-device QA across all three themes, and client UAT | 5 Days | AED 20,000 |
| 11 | Production Cutover, Go-Live & Handover | Coordinated 17-website production cutover, 301 redirect verification, and operational team handover | 2 Days | AED 8,000 |
| Total Build Ballpark | 84 - 102 Days | AED 336,000 - 408,000 | ||
Commercial investment based on a fixed agency blended rate of AED 4,000 per day (AED 500 per hour; equivalent to £880/day / £110/hour). Effort ranges reflect functional discovery variance and scope refinement across the 17 international storefront websites.
Stage Payments Schedule
Payments are strictly tied to milestone completions and formal client sign-off gates.
| Milestone Gate | % Billed | Amount (AED) | Trigger & Acceptance Gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project Kickoff & Deposit | 40% | AED 134,400 - 163,200 | Contract execution, project initiation, and kickoff. |
| Design & Specs Approval | 20% | AED 67,200 - 81,600 | Client sign-off on Statement of Work and 3-theme UI design kit (Arabian Oud, Arabian Blend, Oud Elite). |
| Release for UAT | 20% | AED 67,200 - 81,600 | Frontend code freeze, verified bi-directional OTO sync on staging, data migrations loaded, SEO redirects & GTM tags ready. |
| UAT Sign-Off & Cutover Approval | 10% | AED 33,600 - 40,800 | Completion of end-to-end integration testing, QA across all three themes, and client UAT sign-off for production cutover. |
| Final Go-Live & Project Handover | 10% | AED 33,600 - 40,800 | Commercial go-live across the 17 international storefront websites, 17-website SEO 301 verification, and operational handover. |
| Total Project Invoicing | 100% | AED 336,000 - 408,000 | Stage-gated billing structure. |
Next Steps: Ballpark to Final Proposal
This document provides preliminary commercial build ballparks. Full project kickoff takes place following initial discovery and production of a final proposal and quote.
Arabian Oud - Review Ballparks
Review and evaluation of ballpark scope and commercial investment estimates.
Meeting at Arabian Oud Office
Face-to-face meeting to fine tune requirements.
B2 - Finalise Proposal
Make any adjustments based on the face-to-face meeting.
Arabian Oud - Review and Signoff
Final review and formal sign-off on the agreed proposal ahead of project kickoff.