case study
Methylene Blue Ultra
Supplement e-commerce with waitlist-first launch strategy.
01 the problem
A supplement brand needed to launch a new product line with pre-launch demand capture. The founder wanted a premium storefront that educated visitors on methylene blue before converting them — not a generic Shopify template.
02 the solution
Built a custom Next.js storefront with a waitlist-first funnel. Product education pages break down the science in accessible language. Stripe handles payments and pre-orders. The design matches the premium positioning — dark, clean, clinical without being sterile.
03decisions & tradeoffs
Custom Next.js over Shopify
Full control over product education pages and brand. Shopify templates can't do long-form science content that converts.
Waitlist-first over direct sales
Validates demand before inventory commitment. Captures emails for launch-day revenue.
Stripe over Shopify Payments
Portable payment infrastructure. Not locked into one platform if the storefront evolves.
04 tech stack
Next.js
App Router with static generation for product pages
Stripe
Payment processing, pre-orders, and subscription billing
Vercel
Edge deployment with instant cache invalidation
Tailwind CSS
Custom design system, dark theme
05 results
- 400+ monthly sessions within 3 months of launch
- 1.5% bounce rate — visitors engage deeply with content
- 24 returning users averaging 5+ min sessions
- Waitlist capture converting to pre-orders
06 client feedback
“Our old site was a Shopify template that looked like everyone else. Alex built us a custom storefront that matches our brand and actually educates customers. Waitlist signups started coming in immediately.”
David R.
Founder, Supplement Brand