Preorder with Seye
Full-Stack E-Commerce Preorder Platform (Shopify Migration)
Role
Solo Full-Stack Engineer
Year
2026
Tech Stack
7 Technologies
Status
Completed
Overview
My client Seye ran her preorder business on Shopify until the platform couldn't deliver what she needed: item-level fulfillment tracking, deep analytics, and authentication flows built for Nigerian customers who use WhatsApp and SMS more than email. I migrated her off Shopify entirely to a custom-built stack — a React storefront, an admin dashboard with analytics rivaling dedicated BI tools, and a full API server handling payments, abandoned cart recovery, and multi-channel auth. Built solo in about four weeks with 31,000+ lines of code.
The Problem
Seye ran a preorder business on Shopify. The platform worked — until it didn't. Shopify's rigid feature set couldn't deliver preorder-specific workflows: item-level fulfillment tracking, deep collection-based reporting, Nigerian payment gateway integration (Paystack), and multi-channel authentication via SMS and WhatsApp OTP — channels her Nigerian customer base actually uses. The storefront felt generic. The analytics were surface-level. She needed a platform built around her business, not one she had to bend her business around.
Screenshots
Challenges
Migrating a live Shopify store to a custom platform — products, customers, order history, and images all needed to be transformed and re-uploaded without breaking the running business.
Supporting four separate login methods (email, Google, SMS OTP, WhatsApp OTP) that all converge into a single session model, while treating phone-based auth as first-class for the Nigerian market.
Preventing overselling under concurrent checkout pressure for a preorder business where inventory is already limited and stock accuracy is critical.
Solutions
Wrote migration scripts that parse Shopify CSV exports, transform variant structures, process and re-host images, and handle customer edge cases like phone-only accounts — a full data transformation pipeline, not a schema copy.
Built a unified auth system where all four login methods feed into one session model. Phone-based auth via SMS and WhatsApp is treated as first-class, not an afterthought.
Used atomic database operations for stock deduction on payment confirmation — a single call that prevents race conditions and overselling under concurrent checkout.
Key Highlights
Live Shopify Migration: Full data migration off a live store — products, customers, order history, and images all transformed and re-hosted for a running business.
Multi-Channel Nigerian Auth: Four login methods including SMS and WhatsApp OTP, treating phone-based authentication as first-class for the Nigerian market.
Preorder-Optimized Fulfillment: Item-level tracking within orders so partial preorder batches can be fulfilled independently. Atomic stock deduction prevents overselling.
Admin Analytics Dashboard: Revenue trends, RFM customer segmentation, real-time user counts, abandoned cart recovery, and CSV exports — analytics that rival dedicated BI tools.
Scale & Scope
31,073
Total Lines of Code
277
Source Files
~100
API Endpoints
14
Database Models
49
Git Commits
Technology Stack
Outcome
Live at preorderwithseye.com, processing real Paystack payments for a real business. 27 products migrated from the original Shopify store with full customer and order history intact.
