Harvesting History

Helping a heritage brand grow beyond its limits with a high-performing eCommerce platform built for scale, beauty, and usability.

Services
e-Commerce
Technical Architecture & API Integration

Seeding the Future

Business Challenge

Harvesting History is a beloved heirloom seed company serving a loyal base of gardening enthusiasts. As their popularity bloomed, so did the volume of traffic to their website—especially during peak planting months. But their digital infrastructure couldn’t keep up. Customers were experiencing broken carts, checkout failures, and painfully slow page loads. The result: lost revenue, frustrated users, and missed opportunities during their highest-earning months (April–May).

Under the hood, the issues were deep: an outdated WordPress installation, bloated plugins, an overloaded theme, an underperforming server, and an events calendar plugin dragging site speed. Google Analytics wasn’t tracking key user behavior, and customers couldn’t even add more than one item to their cart.

Without intervention, Harvesting History risked losing a significant share of seasonal revenue during a global crisis (COVID-19) where every sale counted.

Strategic Approach

We started with a full technical audit, analyzing server logs, database performance, front-end behavior, and site speed bottlenecks. Key insights included:

  • Their current server lacked the elasticity to handle peak loads.

  • Plugin overload and outdated theme code created conflicts.

  • Their checkout experience was fragile, especially on mobile.

Highlights

  • Migrate from a dedicated server to a cloud-based environment for flexible scaling.

  • Replace legacy WordPress theme with a custom-built, performance-optimized theme.

  • Reduce plugin dependency and clean out deprecated or conflicting code.

  • Set up a staging environment for safe, parallel testing.

  • Begin groundwork for future feature additions: wholesale logins, planting zone maps, and educational content.

Outcome

Within 10 days of engagement, we launched a fully optimized version of the site.

Performance Gains

  • Page load time improved by 47%
  • Add-to-cart failures dropped to 0%
  • Checkout abandonment reduced by 26%
  • Google Analytics now tracks product quick views and conversions

Business Wins

  • Site remained fully operational during peak season
  • Recovered thousands in otherwise lost sales
  • Set up infrastructure for future features: wholesale pricing, video content, and education-driven UX

”We’ve never seen the site run this fast. The photos shine, our customers can finally buy what they want, and we’re ready to keep growing. Thank you!

BarbFounder