haloheadband.comVolusion to BigCommerce Migration

The Situation

Halo Headband, a high-performance sweatband manufacturer led by CEO Paul Ketchen, came to MAK Digital to modernize their aging digital infrastructure. After 20 years on Volusion, their site was severely outdated and no longer met customer expectations or modern eCommerce standards. The outdated platform, tired visuals, and frustrating checkout experience were costing them sales, especially problematic when their Amazon presence was thriving but their own website was driving customers away. For a brand targeting active athletes who shop on mobile devices, an outdated, friction-filled site meant losing direct sales to competitors with better digital experiences.

The Core Challenge

The site had no search bar, making product discovery more difficult than necessary. The problems extended to checkout: coupon code fields were poorly placed and hard to find, creating friction at the moment customers were ready to buy. On mobile devices, where active athletes frequently shop while training or traveling, the outdated layouts didn't translate to smaller screens, turning simple tasks like browsing or checking out into frustrating exercises.

This outdated platform cost Halo Headband in concrete ways. The limited discovery paths like the navigation and poor mobile experience meant lost sales from their core customer base of runners, cyclists, and lacrosse players who expect seamless shopping experiences. More critically, the outdated design failed to showcase what makes Halo Headband different: their patented SweatSeal with Grip Technology that actually keeps sweat out of athletes' eyes. Instead of prominently highlighting this innovation that sets them apart from generic sweatband competitors, the outdated design did a poor job of showcasing it, making Halo Headband look like just another athletic accessory brand. For a premium product competing in a crowded market, the 20-year-old platform wasn’t just outdated, it limited their ability to drive conversions and clearly showcase their competitive advantage.

Additional Obstacles

Halo Headband also faced technical challenges apart from the outdated design. The site operated on store.haloheadband.com instead of haloheadband.com, which hurt brand recognition and made it harder for search engines to rank the brand properly. Moving to the root domain while preserving 20 years of search rankings required complex technical work with 301 redirects to ensure they didn’t lose the authority built over two decades. Halo Headband also had a sizable and complex product catalog, including roughly 200 SKUs with multiple color variations. Migrating this data from Volusion to BigCommerce without errors, data loss, or downtime was critical for maintaining day-to-day sales during the transition.