Speed performance was one of the main reasons for a rebuild.
After a few years of building on top of an outdated version of Shopify, every addition was a ‘workaround.’ This in itself isn’t problematic, but after a while it can be difficult to organise and see clearly what’s useful and what’s not. When developers would add custom code (to try to optimise speed performance), they would have to spend a lot of time going through existing code and removing unnecessary parts. In the end, the time spent on that process was almost as much as investing in a full rebuild.
The move to Shopify 2.0 would also allow for new built-in functionalities that were until then, running on apps. The use of apps meant that the webshop ran far slower, especially with complex apps. By integrating the functionalities in the rebuild code, speed would be optimised.
Taking ownership of the custom code and moving away from a premade template would also allow the brand to influence the design in a way that felt more like themselves and enhance brand identity.