Headless Shopify vs Shopify themes: Tank Air site breakdown

Gravel

Hey there, Blaze here.

This is the first installment of Shovel’s new email list.

I’ll expose you to breakdowns, resources, tools, and news for best-in-class web design.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reply.

Site of the week - Tank Air

www.tankairstudio.com

Design and development by Studio Otto

This is a headless Shopify build—it splits the design from Shopify’s backend, making sites faster and fully custom while still using Shopify for checkout and sales.

Fashion brands making $50M+ a month should consider this—data from my partner at Depict, who sells a Shopify app to large brands in the space.

I like how this build blends a collection section at the bottom of product pages, to create a seamless “doomscrolling” effect.

My 5 takeaways from Tank Air:

• They use Klaviyo for emails – Helps send targeted marketing to customers.
• They track everything with Google Analytics – They know what’s working and what’s not.
• Their store runs on Shopify – They use apps to manage products, payments, and sales.
• They test and tweak for more sales – They use tools to boost conversions and improve shopping.
• It’s a headless Shopify build – The design is custom, but Shopify powers the store.

For this week, keep each of these items in mind as you might build out an e-com storefront.

Many brands inquire for custom website work without making a solid income per month. ($10K+ a month). I always suggest starting with a Shopify theme. This month, I’m setting up one for BAU-HŌUSE and curated the best options on Are.na.

This will grow over time, and I will continue to reference it going forward.

New work w/ Shovel

• F1 Driver —Web design (Development in progress; I can’t share who it’s for quite yet)
• Artifaxing — Web design + development (More to show next week)
• Glomesh — Web design + development (First retainer partner)

This year has been huge for new business. As I build my web design studio, I’m sharing everything—no gatekeeping. My goal is to create websites that are best-in-class. In my mind, I can do this with a small team of the right people, and a current obstacle is finding those people.

If you’re a design or Shopify/Webflow freelancer who’s open for contract-to-hire work. Shoot me an email

These three projects came from organic social media. Most leads watch my Instagram/TikTok for ~3 months before reaching out. By then, the likelihood to start work is high if the lead is a good fit. See my onboarding flow here

I don’t do any cold outreach (although I should) and try to split my time making websites with creating content.

That’s it for now! Again, if you have any questions or feedback to this first Gravel newsletter, please reply to this email!

Thanks!

Blaze SmithWeb Designer
Milwaukee

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