Simplifying ecommerce architecture to unlock commercial growth
Permagard is a specialist supplier of damp proofing, waterproofing, structural repair and green roof products, serving both trade professionals and homeowners across the UK.
Alongside its established Permagard ecommerce store, the business operates Waterproof & Dry, offering specialist waterproofing products online.
New Icon worked with the team to simplify the underlying architecture of Waterproof & Dry, creating a more stable ecommerce setup that better supported marketing activity, ongoing development and future growth.
THE CHALLENGE
Waterproof & Dry was operating using a headless ecommerce architecture, where the customer-facing frontend was separated from the Magento backend powering the store.
While headless architecture can offer significant benefits when implemented for the right use case, the existing setup had introduced additional complexity. There were also challenges around marketing tracking and paid advertising performance. Customers weren't necessarily experiencing obvious problems when using the website, but the way the frontend interacted with search engines and marketing platforms was creating difficulties with users being able to find the site.
With the architecture beginning to affect the commercial performance of the store, the priority was to find a more reliable approach without disrupting the customer experience.
THE SOLUTION
Returning to a unified Magento architecture
Following a review of the existing setup, New Icon recommended moving Waterproof & Dry away from its headless architecture and bringing the frontend and backend back together within the existing Magento environment.
Magento already powered the backend of both Permagard and Waterproof & Dry and natively supported multiple storefronts. This meant the existing infrastructure could be used more effectively, with a single codebase serving two distinct ecommerce experiences depending on the domain being accessed.
Our development team configured the routing and server environment to recognise requests for each storefront and serve the correct products, customer experience and frontend accordingly.
We also brought Waterproof & Dry's frontend in line with features that had been introduced to Permagard over time, ensuring the storefront could take advantage of functionality already supported by the shared backend.
A key part of the project was making the transition without affecting customers. Careful preparation of the production environment allowed the new architecture to be switched over smoothly, with customers continuing to access and purchase from Waterproof & Dry without disruption.
Moving to a unified architecture also simplified ongoing security management. With a single backend and point of entry, processes such as penetration testing became more straightforward and cost-effective to manage.
THE RESULTS
The impact following the migration has been significant. In the month after the architectural change, and alongside renewed paid advertising activity, Waterproof & Dry saw sales increase more than 20-fold month-on-month.
While paid media contributed to that growth, the new setup provided a stronger technical foundation for marketing activity and removed many of the complications associated with the previous architecture.
The transition itself was completed without customer-facing disruption, giving Permagard a simpler platform to maintain and develop while retaining two distinct ecommerce storefronts.
The result is an ecommerce architecture that's less complex behind the scenes, easier to maintain and better aligned with how the business needs to operate and grow. And the work doesn't stop here. With a stronger technical foundation now in place, we're continuing to work with Permagard and Waterproof & Dry to explore the next iterations of the platforms, from further ecommerce improvements to new opportunities across search, AI and digital innovation.
