Optaros / MRM Commerce: Translating Iconic Brands into DTC Commerce
5 years building mobile-first e-commerce storefronts for Coach, Warner Music Group, Stella & Dot, Nestlé, and more
Executive Summary
Led design and frontend development for cross-functional teams delivering mobile-first DTC storefronts for major consumer brands at Optaros (later MRM Commerce). Each engagement required translating brand identities rooted in print, packaging, or physical retail into digital commerce experiences, on platforms that often needed significant customization to support what the brand demanded.
Platform Record
Broke Magento's record for highest sales and highest orders per minute (Coach Factory)
Revenue Growth
125% increase in YoY revenue, 50% faster stylist conversion, record-breaking monthly sales (Stella & Dot)
Platform Scale
$100MM+ in sales across multiple brands and regions (Sonae)
Certifications
Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware), Magento
The Challenge
For five years at Optaros (later MRM Commerce), I was hands-on, guiding major consumer brands into mobile-first DTC commerce. Every engagement started with the same question: how do we keep this brand feeling like itself in the digital space?
These clients had strong identities built for print, packaging, or physical retail. I turned those into digital, mobile-first storefronts. These brands weren’t getting what they needed from off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms, so we regularly pushed past default functionality to get it right.
My Role
Led design and frontend development for client-facing teams
Worked directly with in-house brand teams at each client
Turned print and retail brand guidelines into digital commerce design systems
Customized Magento and Demandware beyond their defaults for commerce models that didn't exist out of the box
Certified: Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Demandware), Magento
The Brands
Coach Factory
Coach Factory was a members-only, private-event retail site. Sales were time-bound, and loyal customers got deeper discounts based on their membership tier. Making the brand feel luxurious and exclusive was the focal point. We had to build a storefront that felt as curated as the brand itself, on a platform that didn't support that timed private sales natively.
Coach's in-house designers were print-focused with minimal digital experience. Throughout the project, I got on the phone with them and walked them through the realities of designing for screens. For example, their initial guidelines used the same color for body text and hyperlinks, so clickable elements didn’t stand out. I expanded the palette for digital (link colors, hover states, and CTAs) so it still felt like Coach while working well in digital. I also helped the team prepare and translate assets for responsive layouts. Rather than simply deliver a finished website, we collaborated to develop digital brand guidelines that would scale with the brand in the future.
On the platform side, Magento didn't support member-only login gating, tiered discounts by membership level, or timed sale events. We rebuilt those pieces to make the private-event model work.
Outcomes:
Broke the Magento platform's record for highest sales and highest number of orders per minute.
First private sales site on the platform.
Warner Music Group
We built a series of artist store pages on Magento for WMG. Artists linked to these stores from their own sites, so each store felt like an extension of the artist's pages rather than a generic merch shop.
Each artist had visual elements rooted in album art, photography, and print. I adapted those into storefront templates for responsive screens. For the Wiz Khalifa store, I pulled from his existing site's photography and color palette and reworked the storefront UI to match, so the store felt like part of his world rather than a separate destination.
For each artist store, the biggest challenge was pushing the platform’s limitations. Each template needed to look and feel different per artist, while the commerce tools (nav, cart, checkout) stayed consistent.
Stella & Dot
Stella & Dot was a social-selling jewelry brand with two audiences: customers shopping for jewelry and independent stylists building their businesses. We built a Magento-powered e-commerce store and a creator content site, called Stella & Dot University. Two sister sites sharing a cohesive brand.
I was the primary frontend developer, turning the brand's guidelines and mockups into production pages. The store had to feel polished for shoppers. The University had to feel useful for stylists. Both had to be Stella & Dot clearly.
Outcomes:
125% YoY revenue increase.
50% faster stylist conversion.
Record-breaking monthly sales.
Nestlé / Gerber BabyNes
BabyNes was a premium baby nutrition system from Nestlé, sold directly to consumers. Before designing anything, we flew to their LA headquarters to understand the brand, the product, and what it means to sell nutrition products to first-time parents.
BabyNes wanted customers to bundle a machine with their own selection of formula capsules. Magento doesn't do that out of the box. We had to rebuild bundled products and the cart so it felt seamless, rather than something we’d jammed into a template.
Sonae Worten
Sonae is Portugal's largest conglomerate. I designed and led the delivery of their flagship electronics brand's first mobile commerce experience, working across legacy ERP, OMS, and payment integrations. The platform supports $100MM+ of sales across multiple brands and regions.
What I Learned From This Work
Every brand had its own world. Coach needed to feel like a private boutique. WMG needed to sound like the artist. Stella & Dot needed to work for both shoppers and stylists. Nestlé needed to earn a new parent's confidence. I solved each one differently, but I approached them the same way.
Get inside the brand first: Before opening design software or writing code, understand what makes the brand unique. Talk directly with the team because you can't translate something you don't understand.
Don't just skin a template: Print guidelines don't automatically transfer to digital. All of it needs rethinking to work across multiple devices.
Bend the platform when you have to: None of these projects came out-of-the-box (private-event retaiing, artist-branded storefronts, pairing commerce with content, and capsule bundling). When the brand vision and the platform defaults disagree, the brand decides.
Move quickly and commit: Every engagement was two to three months, and with a fixed budget. Get to the right direction fast and execute cleanly.
The store is part of the brand. When people shop, they should feel like they're inside the brand's world, not on a generic site with a logo in the corner.
Franchise-driven companies face the same kinds of challenges: multiple properties and passionate fanbases, all sharing a common technology infrastructure.