Replatforming Checkout and Commerce on Flexible Foundation

While IPSY’s vision for a modern, secure, and extensible commerce experience was clear, realizing it would be anything but simple. Their product catalog was intricate, with bundles, assortments, and dynamic pricing, and adapting this into commercetools’ product data model would require deep consideration. Legacy systems like authentication, OMS, tax services, and internal APIs had to remain in play during the migration, adding layers of integration complexity. In parallel, IPSY also needed to transition away from their legacy CMS to a more flexible content platform while maintaining complex publishing workflows. Compounding these constraints was the tight delivery window, which would require rapid decision-making and the ability to make trade-offs without slowing down progress.

Alongside the technical changes, the internal team at IPSY would need to adapt to new workflows, like Next.js and TypeScript, as they adopted revised testing practices and took on responsibilities that shifted their established roles, including widespread upskilling. The project would require careful coordination between IPSY, Orium, and the third-party technology providers, balancing technical execution with organizational change management.

To address these challenges, IPSY partnered with Orium, using a phased delivery model that combined IPSY’s in-house expertise with Orium’s composable commerce knowledge. To begin, the teams would lay the foundation with the Orium Accelerator, which would help establish both frontend and backend scaffolding quickly by leveraging Contentful to migrate content and maintain complex publishing flows. From there, the teams would move in stages, beginning with proofs-of-concept for payments with Stripe, before layering in commercetools product and cart logic, tax integration, and Netlify workflows.

The project would follow a joint development approach, with IPSY developers working directly alongside Orium engineers to ensure knowledge transfer and alignment at every step. To solve the complexities of bundle and discount logic, the team planned alignment workshops that would bring engineering and product teams together to define and refine the data model. Testing would also be prioritized, with QA automation through Virtuoso complemented by manual validation of edge cases, particularly around payment flows, OMS synchronization, and tax calculation. And finally, to safeguard delivery in the compressed timeline, the teams would embed CI/CD pipelines, observability practices, and monitoring with DataDog, supported by vulnerability scanning and Netlify preview deployments.

What emerged was more than just a refreshed e-commerce experience. IPSY and Orium were able to build upon Contentful to create the foundation for a modern commerce platform. Contentful was introduced as the content layer of the new stack, equipping IPSY’s teams with faster publishing workflows, simplified asset management, and scheduled publishing capabilities. Stripe Elements provided secure, PCI-compliant card handling, while Klarna was introduced as an additional payment option through Stripe’s unified API. Forter’s fraud detection was integrated directly into the checkout lifecycle, validating transactions before orders were created and monitoring them afterward for added protection.

At the core, commercetools became the engine for cart, order, product, and pricing logic. It introduced support for bundles and dynamic discounting, allowed for both embedded and standalone price modes, and ensured cart states were validated to avoid issues after payment redirects. On the frontend, IPSY’s teams embraced Next.js and TypeScript, gaining a modern developer experience. Netlify provided CI/CD and frontend delivery, enabling dynamic rendering for SEO on Product Listing Pages (PLPs) and Product Detail Pages (PDPs), as well as preview deployments and rollbacks that gave the teams more flexibility.

Quality assurance and security were built into the process. Automated regression testing paired with manual checks provided confidence in edge cases. GitHub pipelines worked in tandem with Netlify to block deployments when vulnerabilities were identified. And monitoring with DataDog, supported by correlation IDs, made it possible to track requests across systems, ensuring stability and visibility throughout the platform.

With the project complete, IPSY now has a composable commerce foundation that improves customer experience and positions them for scalable growth. Cart operations have been streamlined with commercetools, reducing the burden of maintenance and freeing teams to focus on enhancing business logic and customer experiences. Customers can complete purchases with multiple secure payment options, while Forter ensures robust fraud protection. Flexible bundle and discount logic have replaced brittle legacy processes, and modern technologies such as Next.js, TypeScript, and the Orium Accelerator are now embedded within IPSY’s workflows.

The content team realized significant efficiency gains with Contentful, improving publishing times to save an average of 45 hours per month compared to their legacy CMS. Large asset upload times improved by nearly 80%, and scheduled publishing has eliminated the need for overtime work by content owners.

This foundation sets the stage for continued evolution. IPSY is now positioned to extend the architecture to support subscriptions, loyalty programs, and post-purchase experiences. There are plans to further optimize performance and SEO for dynamic product listing pages, expand payment options as the company enters new regions, and deepen the alignment between OMS, PIM, and commercetools for richer product experiences. With a modern, extensible commerce platform in place, IPSY is ready to scale its digital capabilities to meet the needs of its customers today and in the future.