How AG Jeans Modernized Shopify to Improve Performance and Reduce Merchandising Overhead
As the business expanded into more categories, the team saw that search and browse had a direct effect on performance, shopper confidence, and revenue. Over time, their previous setup became harder to maintain and to justify from both technical and operational perspectives.
As the business expanded into more categories, the team saw that search and browse had a direct effect on performance, shopper confidence, and revenue. Over time, their previous setup became harder to maintain and to justify from both technical and operational perspectives.
“[The merchandising team] needed 26 JavaScripts to render a collection page. And that was putting a tremendous amount of load on our web vitals that were in the red altogether.”
- Milosh Nikodijevic, Director of Product Management, AG Jeans
At the same time, the merchandising team was dealing with a setup that was harder to operate than it should have been. Routine merchandising changes were tied to complex JSON rule management, which slowed execution and made even straightforward updates more dependent on developer time than AG Jeans wanted.
That combination — performance overhead on one side, operational complexity on the other — created a bigger business problem. Discovery was becoming something the team had to fight through instead of something they could use to move faster.
“[The merchandising team] needed 26 JavaScripts to render a collection page. And that was putting a tremendous amount of load on our web vitals that were in the red altogether.”
- Milosh Nikodijevic, Director of Product Management, AG Jeans
At the same time, the merchandising team was dealing with a setup that was harder to operate than it should have been. Routine merchandising changes were tied to complex JSON rule management, which slowed execution and made even straightforward updates more dependent on developer time than AG Jeans wanted.
That combination — performance overhead on one side, operational complexity on the other — created a bigger business problem. Discovery was becoming something the team had to fight through instead of something they could use to move faster.
When the AG Jeans team began evaluating alternatives, they also considered broader platforms. But the criteria became clearer as the evaluation progressed.
First, they needed architectural alignment with Shopify. The closer a tool is to Shopify’s ecosystem and execution model, the easier it is to preserve site speed — and the less likely it is to introduce hidden overhead.
“The conversation started regarding how close would a search and merch tool be to Shopify? The communication [with Constructor] led me to conclude that Constructor is architecturally very close to Shopify… Therefore, you need only one JavaScript to render a page in Shopify.”
- Milosh Nikodijevic, Director of Product Management, AG Jeans
When the AG Jeans team began evaluating alternatives, they also considered broader platforms. But the criteria became clearer as the evaluation progressed.
First, they needed architectural alignment with Shopify. The closer a tool is to Shopify’s ecosystem and execution model, the easier it is to preserve site speed — and the less likely it is to introduce hidden overhead.
“The conversation started regarding how close would a search and merch tool be to Shopify? The communication [with Constructor] led me to conclude that Constructor is architecturally very close to Shopify… Therefore, you need only one JavaScript to render a page in Shopify.”
- Milosh Nikodijevic, Director of Product Management, AG Jeans
Implementation stood out for its speed and clarity, both of which kept the rollout moving and reduced the amount of project overhead typically associated with a platform change.
“[It was] very impressive, how smooth it all went. The team was so responsive and answered our dev questions in a super rapid and detailed way. I honestly don't recall getting answers so fast and so clear from anybody ever [before].”
- Jason Humphrey, Senior Site Merchandiser, AG Jeans
Implementation stood out for its speed and clarity, both of which kept the rollout moving and reduced the amount of project overhead typically associated with a platform change.
“[It was] very impressive, how smooth it all went. The team was so responsive and answered our dev questions in a super rapid and detailed way. I honestly don't recall getting answers so fast and so clear from anybody ever [before].”
- Jason Humphrey, Senior Site Merchandiser, AG Jeans
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