We help you sell moreRequest a Free QuoteVetFriends has connected and outfitted US veterans since 2000. Its store sat on an outdated platform, behind a design that made products hard to find and felt cramped on a phone. We moved it to BigCommerce and rebuilt it mobile first, so a veteran can shop by branch from the first screen.
The screenshots on this page show the store as we delivered it. It still runs on BigCommerce, and its header and homepage have been updated since.
Published . Updated .
The challenge
VetFriends was founded in 2000 by a US veteran with a mission to reconnect, honor, and support veterans and those still serving. Alongside helping veterans find one another, it sells products for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and more.
When VetFriends came to MAK Digital, the store ran on an outdated platform with a design to match. Finding a product was frustrating. A customer had to click once or twice before seeing anything for sale, and on a phone or a tablet the pages felt cramped and unorganized.
What VetFriends needed most was a store that was easier to navigate, with a modern design its customers would find easier to use, on a platform with more room to grow. That meant a BigCommerce store migration and a redesign at the same time.
What we did
The move to BigCommerce and the redesign were one project, built phone first.
Migration
Our job was to bring the store up to a modern standard and move it to the more robust BigCommerce platform. A migration carries the catalog, the customers, and the order history across, and keeps the old addresses pointing at the new pages so search visibility comes along too.
That work is described on our BigCommerce data migration page. The storefront was then built by our BigCommerce development team.
Design
We started by redesigning the homepage completely, with high-quality images and a structure that makes it easy to find what you came for. The main navigation is the branches themselves: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, followed by era, veterans, and patriotic collections.
Below the banner, a customer can shop by product type, shop by branch of military, and browse best sellers, all without leaving the homepage. On the previous site the same customer needed one or two clicks before any product appeared.
A row of guarantees sits high on the page: a 365-day refund policy, the store's record with veteran shoppers since 2000, its prices, and free shipping over $75. For how we approach pages like this, see BigCommerce web design.
Design
The redesign went past the homepage. We rebuilt the category pages, the product pages, and the information pages such as About Us, so the whole store shares one look and one way of working.
The new design gives customers a store that feels trustworthy and takes fewer steps to buy from. Trust and ease of use are the two things our eCommerce user experience work is built on.
Responsive design
The old site felt cramped on phones and tablets. We designed the phone layout first and made sure everything carried through to the tablet and the desktop. The pages now have room to breathe, and the menu button and the shopping cart are easier to find and easier to press.
This matters for search as well as for shoppers. Google finished moving its index to mobile-first in October 2023, so the phone version of a page is the one it reads. Our responsive design page explains the approach.
Before and after
The same homepage before and after the project, on a tablet and on a phone. Select any screenshot to open it at full size.
Before, the page opened on a sign-up form and the Military Buddy Finder. The shop was one item in the menu.
After, the branches are the menu, a product banner leads, and product types, branches, and best sellers follow on the same page.
Before
After
Before, a form and long paragraphs filled the screen, with sign-up and login links at the top.
After, the menu button and the cart sit at the top where they are easy to find and press, with the search box, the banner, and the guarantees stacked below.
Before
After
The outcome
VetFriends came out of the project on BigCommerce with every page type redesigned. Products that used to sit one or two clicks deep now start on the homepage, organized the way its customers think: by branch of service.
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | An outdated platform | BigCommerce |
| Homepage | A sign-up form and member content | Shop by branch, by product type, and from best sellers |
| Clicks to a product | One or two | None: products are on the homepage |
| Navigation | The shop as one menu item | Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and more |
| Phones and tablets | Cramped and unorganized | Designed phone first, with room around every control |
| Design | Outdated | Modern and consistent across homepage, category, product, and information pages |
The "Before" column describes the previous site as it appears in the screenshots on this page and in the original project notes.
What it shows
The customers here are veterans. The decisions apply to any store whose products are buried.
Every click before a product is a chance to leave. If your homepage leads with something else, give the store a front door that sells.
A veteran looks for a branch before a product type. Build the menu from how your customers describe themselves and what they want.
A layout that works on a small screen has already made its hard choices. Google reads the phone version too. See responsive design.
A platform move already rebuilds every template. Doing the redesign in the same project avoids paying for that work twice.
What we did for VetFriends and what it means for a store in the same position.
We migrated the VetFriends store from an outdated platform to BigCommerce and redesigned it completely: the homepage, the category pages, the product pages, and the information pages. The build was mobile first, so it works on phones, tablets, and desktops.
The old homepage opened on a sign-up form, and products were one or two clicks away. The new homepage lets customers shop by branch of military, shop by product type, and browse best sellers right away, under a row of guarantees that includes a 365-day refund policy.
The phone layout is designed before the desktop one. Controls such as the menu button and the cart are sized and placed for a thumb, and the content is ordered for a narrow screen. The tablet and desktop layouts then grow out of it. Google completed its move to mobile-first indexing in October 2023, which means it reads the phone version of a page.
Yes. As of October 2026, store.vetfriends.com runs on BigCommerce. Its header and homepage have been updated since the screenshots on this page were taken.
Yes, and it is usually the better order. A migration rebuilds every template on the new platform, so the redesign can be built once, directly on it. See our BigCommerce store migration page for how we run a move.
Yes. We design and build BigCommerce stores and redesign existing ones. See BigCommerce web design and more before and after examples, or request a quote.
Tell us what your store runs on and where customers get stuck. We will tell you what we would change first.
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