How We Gave Walter Davison a New Storefront That Isn't an Island

When Walter Davison Wholesale, the US sister company of UK Hip Flasks, needed a new storefront, the easy answer was a fresh theme and a launch date. But we had just written about why an online store is only half the system, and this was a chance to prove it.

The brief: a new store, not a new silo

The owner already trusted us with the inventory system that runs UK Hip Flasks, so this was a returning client, which is the best kind of brief. Walter Davison needed a modern Shopify storefront for the US market. The risk was obvious: a separate store with separate stock means two sources of truth, double data entry, and orders that do not match what is actually on the shelf.

Rebuilding the storefront properly

We rebuilt the storefront rather than patching the old one, with a clean structure the team can manage day to day and a real focus on speed. As always, we explained every decision at a high level, gave options instead of orders, and got a yes before building anything new.

Connecting it to the system underneath

This is the part that makes it more than a store. We connected the Shopify storefront to the same inventory system behind UK Hip Flasks, so stock and orders stay in sync across both brands automatically. We tested that connection hard, because a sync you cannot trust is worse than no sync at all.

The result

Two brands, two markets, one source of truth. A US storefront that knows exactly what is in stock, feeding the same system the UK side already relies on. And a client who came back for a second project, which says more than any pitch we could write.

Ivy, who worked with us on the Walter Davison side, put it this way:

“I really enjoyed working with Altos on our recent Shopify project. They were easy to communicate with, responsive to feedback, and proactive in suggesting solutions whenever we encountered challenges. They worked efficiently while still paying close attention to the quality and functionality of the website, and I especially appreciated how collaborative they were throughout the project. I'd be happy to work with them again on future projects.”

Ivy Cajara, Marketing Manager, Walter Davison Wholesale

If you are launching a new store, or adding a brand to a business that already runs on its own systems, that connected half is the part we build.