luterna — case study

01 — the situation

High revenue. Broken code.

Luterna.de is an established German e-commerce with significant revenue — but running on an old Shopify theme riddled with bugs. The brand was there. The code underneath wasn't. My job: go in, understand what was broken, fix it, and bring the frontend to modern standards without disrupting a live, revenue-generating store.

before

🐛Multiple layout and functionality bugs affecting the shopping experience

🧩Old Shopify theme with years of accumulated code patches

📱Mobile experience broken in several key sections

⚙️Shopify defaults bleeding through — no brand consistency

🐌Performance issues from unoptimized legacy code

after

✓Bugs identified and fixed — clean, predictable behavior across all pages

✓Shopify defaults removed — custom Liquid sections matching the brand

✓Mobile experience rebuilt and working properly across devices

✓Codebase refactored — maintainable, no more patches on patches

✓Revenue-critical flows (cart, checkout) working without errors

02 — the result

Clean. On-brand. No Shopify feel.

A store that looks and behaves like it was built specifically for Luterna — not a Shopify template with CSS overrides. Navigation, hero, category layout, product grid and product pages all rebuilt in pure Liquid and JavaScript.

01 desktop home

"Zeit für dich" — hero with lifestyle imagery, clean nav, category grid. No Shopify generic feel anywhere.

02 category grid

6 categories — Kerzen, Duft & Ambiente, Beauty & Pflege, Home & Deko, DIY, Feuer & Tools. Custom layout, brand imagery.

03 featured products

Aktuell beliebt — product strip with quick-add and pricing. Custom section replacing Shopify default.

03 — product pages

Rich product data. Custom layout.

Product pages rebuilt to show all the information Luterna's products need — metadata, variant selectors, color swatches, bundles. The candle variant grid alone had dozens of color options that needed to work cleanly on both desktop and mobile.

01 product + metadata

Product detail — Stabgröße, Produkttyp, Höhe, Material, Marke all structured above the fold alongside the buy button.

02 variant color grid

Custom color swatch grid — Salbei, Taupe, Elfenbein, Altrose… 25+ variants displayed in a clean, clickable grid.

04 — how it was done

Pure Liquid. No shortcuts.

Zero AI, zero visual builders. Pure Shopify Liquid, JavaScript and CSS — reading the existing code, understanding what was broken, and rewriting what needed rewriting. The kind of work that requires patience and deep understanding of how Shopify actually works under the hood.

{-- Custom category section: no Shopify defaults, full brand control --}
{%- for block in section.blocks -%}
  {%- if block.type == 'category' -%}
  <div class="lut-cat">
    <a href="{ block.settings.link }">
      <img src="{ block.settings.image | image_url: width: 600 }"
           loading="lazy" alt="{ block.settings.title }">
      <span class="lut-cat__label">{ block.settings.title }</span>
    </a>
  </div>
  {%- endif -%}
{%- endfor -%}
{-- Clean output. No Shopify boilerplate. No !important hacks. --}
  

Shopify Liquid

Custom sections and snippets from scratch — replacing old, patched templates with clean code.

JavaScript

Custom navigation, cart interactions and variant selectors — vanilla JS, no framework.

CSS architecture

Removed conflicting legacy styles, clean specificity structure. Zero !important abuse.

Bug audit

Systematic review of all pages — every reported and hidden bug identified, documented, fixed.

Mobile rebuild

Mobile was the most broken. Rebuilt from breakpoints up — proper responsive behavior throughout.

Live store care

All changes shipped carefully to a live, revenue-generating store. No downtime. Staged rollout.

05 — context

Real store. Real stakes.

Luterna.de isn't a side project — it's a real business with real customers and real revenue. Working here means every change has consequences. No breaking changes, no downtime, no experimenting in production. That discipline is part of what this project required.

🇩🇪

German market

Established e-commerce selling candles, fragrance and home decor to German customers.

4.82⭐

Trusted Shops

Top-rated on Trusted Shops. A UX that works keeps customers satisfied and coming back.

0

AI used

Pure Liquid and code. No AI assistance — just reading, understanding and writing correct code.