Fire Mech Fixings: A B2B Shopify platform for a specialist trade supplier

The Client

Fire Mech Fixings is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of specialist fixings, fasteners and fire protection products for the construction industry. Supplying contractors, installers and trade professionals nationwide, the company stocks thousands of products across a wide range of specialist categories.

As the business continued to grow, its existing WooCommerce website was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. With an extensive product catalogue, specialist customer requirements and ambitious plans for future ecommerce growth, Fire Mech needed a platform that could provide greater performance, scalability and flexibility.

Pixel Kicks was appointed to migrate the business to Shopify, creating a modern B2B ecommerce platform designed specifically around the needs of a growing trade supplier.

The challenge

Although this project centred around a migration from WooCommerce to Shopify, it quickly became clear that this would be far more than a simple platform rebuild.

Fire Mech’s catalogue consists of approximately 6,500 specialist products, each containing a large amount of technical information, downloadable documentation, product attributes and imagery. Preserving this data whilst significantly improving the customer experience formed one of the biggest technical challenges of the project.

The new website also needed to deliver functionality expected by today’s trade customers, whilst providing the Fire Mech team with a platform that was easier to manage and capable of supporting future business growth.

Our objectives included:

• Migrating the business from WooCommerce to Shopify.
• Preserving SEO authority and existing product URLs.
• Improving website speed and performance.
• Simplifying navigation across thousands of products.
• Supporting trade customers with tailored purchasing journeys.
• Creating a scalable ecommerce platform ready for future expansion.

A Shopify platform built for trade ecommerce

Following a series of discovery workshops and technical planning sessions, we recommended Shopify Advanced as the ideal platform.

Its reliability, scalability and extensive ecosystem of specialist apps provided the perfect foundation for Fire Mech’s long-term ecommerce strategy, whilst giving the business a significantly more robust platform than WooCommerce.

Working closely with the Fire Mech team, we delivered:

• Complete migration from WooCommerce to Shopify.
• Bespoke Shopify development using the Athens theme as the foundation.
• Migration of approximately 6,500 products.
• Structured collection hierarchy to improve product discovery.
• Responsive, mobile-first user experience.
• Technical SEO migration with redirects to preserve rankings.
• Comprehensive browser, device and performance testing prior to launch.

Managing thousands of specialist products

A key part of the project was restructuring and migrating Fire Mech’s extensive product catalogue.

Each product contains detailed technical specifications, downloadable datasheets, multiple product images and a large number of custom product fields. Rather than simply importing products, we implemented a structured migration process that ensured information remained accurate whilst creating a far more manageable catalogue for the future.

The new platform also supports:

• Rich technical product information.
• Downloadable product documentation.
• Grouped and related products.
• Improved search functionality with search synonyms.
• Intelligent product filtering.
• Cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
• Discount code support.

The result is a product catalogue that’s considerably easier for customers to browse whilst giving Fire Mech greater flexibility when expanding their range.

Built around the trade customer journey

Unlike many ecommerce websites, Fire Mech primarily serves professional trade customers. The new platform has therefore been designed around a B2B purchasing experience rather than a traditional consumer checkout.

Key functionality includes:

• Trade account registration and approval workflow.
• Login-restricted purchasing.
• Customer-specific trade pricing and discounts.
• Payment by invoice.
• VAT-inclusive and VAT-exclusive price display.
• Order history and previous invoices.
• Quote request functionality for bespoke products.
• Document upload capability for quotation enquiries.
• Selection of account managers during the purchasing process.

These features allow Fire Mech to provide a streamlined purchasing experience whilst maintaining the personalised service their customers expect.

Flexible fulfilment and delivery

Delivering specialist construction products presents unique logistical challenges.

To support Fire Mech’s fulfilment operation, we implemented flexible shipping functionality capable of handling:

• Weight and size-based shipping rules.
• Multiple courier services.
• Pallet deliveries.
• Royal Mail, APC, DX and express delivery options.
• Click & Collect from multiple UK locations.
• UK-wide delivery rules tailored to Fire Mech’s operational requirements.

This gives the business a shipping setup that reflects the complexity of its product range whilst remaining straightforward for customers to use.

The result

Fire Mech Fixings now benefits from a powerful Shopify ecommerce platform that reflects the scale and professionalism of the business.

The migration has transformed an ageing WooCommerce website into a fast, scalable solution that’s considerably easier to manage internally whilst delivering a significantly improved experience for trade customers.

With thousands of products, advanced B2B functionality and a platform designed around future growth, Fire Mech is now well positioned to continue expanding both its product range and online sales for years to come.