Selling tiles online is harder than most product categories. The item cannot be held, the colour reads differently on a screen than on a floor, and ordering the wrong quantity or shade is expensive to fix after delivery.

Ceramishop's existing setup was not built around how buyers actually make this decision. The catalogue was wide but hard to navigate. A customer who knew they wanted a wood-effect porcelain tile in a warm tone for an outdoor terrace had no structured path to find it. Filtering by colour, effect, size, and outdoor suitability simultaneously either returned too many results or broke entirely.

Quantity calculation was a manual process. Buyers worked out their own square meterage, converted that to boxes, accounted for wastage, and verified stock levels themselves. Most did not bother. They called instead, and the support team absorbed the volume.

Trade buyers had no separate route. A contractor pricing a large commercial job and a homeowner buying six boxes hit the same checkout, with no volume pricing, no quote path, and no account structure that told them apart.

Delivery was a friction point at checkout. Tile is heavy, arrives on pallets, requires street-level unloading, and needs the customer present to inspect for transit damage. None of that was communicated before the payment step. Carts abandoned.

Tiles IT Solutions built Ceramishop on Magento Open Source 2.4 with a Hyvä storefront theme, and developed custom modules to handle the functions a standard ecommerce platform does not cover for this product category.

Navigation was rebuilt from the ground up. The category structure leads with product type: indoor porcelain, outdoor porcelain, 3mm porcelain, wall ceramic, mosaic, SPC, laminate, outlet. Within each category, buyers filter by material effect (wood, marble, stone, concrete, metal), colour, size, shape, style, and environment. A buyer looking for a large-format warm-stone outdoor tile gets there in three clicks. Search runs across the full catalogue with the same filters available inline.

The product page was designed around the decision, not the transaction. Room imagery and product swatches show how the tile reads in a real space. A specification panel below surfaces every technical attribute: effect, finish, slip rating, thickness, rectification status, frost suitability, usage area, dimensions, and packaging data. The purchase panel has square-metre and box inputs that calculate the correct quantity for a given project area, display the price for that exact quantity, flag availability, and show an estimated delivery window before the buyer adds to cart.

The harder engineering problem was the sample and quote layer. A custom sample basket sits alongside the main basket, letting buyers request physical samples without disrupting the main shopping flow. Quote requests are available from product pages for project-scale orders and route to the right account manager with full tracking through to resolution.

Delivery information was moved forward in the journey. Country selection and a shipping cost estimator appear on the product page. A dedicated delivery guide explains pallet delivery, street-level unloading, customer presence requirements, inspection steps, and photographic documentation of transit damage. Buyers arrive at checkout with correct expectations.

Stripe, Klarna, PayPal, and bank transfer cover payment preferences across markets. Trustpilot reviews surface on product pages. WhatsApp sits as a live contact point at the exact moment a buyer is deciding on a high-value item.

Before: A customer wanting a specific tile effect for a specific room had no structured way to find it. Quantity calculation was manual and error-prone. Trade buyers and retail buyers hit the same checkout with no differentiation. Delivery expectations were not set until the payment step. The support team fielded the overflow from all of it.

After: Category navigation guides buyers by effect, colour, size, and environment from the first click. Square-metre inputs calculate quantities and prices on the product page. Trade buyers access quote workflows and volume pricing. Delivery costs and logistics requirements are visible before checkout. Samples can be requested without interrupting the main purchase flow. WhatsApp and phone support are available at every decision point.

• 10,000+ SKUs made navigable through a structured category and filter system built around material effect, colour, size, and environment
• Quantity calculation moved to the product page, removing the manual step that was driving customers to call rather than buy
• Trade and retail buyers separated with distinct quote workflows, volume pricing, and account structures for each
• Delivery expectations set before checkout, with a shipping estimator and detailed logistics guide reducing cart abandonment from delivery friction
• Sample request workflow integrated without disrupting the main basket, supporting longer research cycles for high-value orders
• Multi-market coverage achieved through country and currency switching, multi-language support, and international shipping guidance

Ceramishop sells a product that most buyers want to touch, stand on, and see in natural light before committing. The platform cannot replicate that entirely. What it can do is give buyers every other piece of information they need, at the moment they need it, in a way that makes the decision feel manageable. That is what this build delivers.