EMPIRE is a global independent music company representing chart-topping, genre-defining artists. Their merchandise store is a major part of that ecosystem with more than 1,600 products, supporting frequent releases tied to artists, tours, and drops.

This project focused on modernizing EMPIRE’s commerce experience end to end. The existing storefront was functional, but outdated and heavily constrained by out-of-the-box Shopify patterns. The goal here was to create a flexible, CMS-driven front end in Framer while ensuring the underlying commerce system could support scale, complexity, and long-term growth.

I think we nailed it 😉

Before anything was built, the biggest challenge was alignment.

A CMS-driven front end only works if the data behind it is structured to support it. With a catalog this large, that meant stepping back and rethinking how products, collections, and metadata should be organized to power a flexible storefront.

With a catalog this large, product organization, collections, and metadata needed clearer rules to support dynamic layouts, filtering, and merchandising logic. I worked closely with EMPIRE’s internal Shopify team to define and pitch architectural changes that would better support a flexible Framer CMS setup. Their team handled the implementation; I designed the system it was built on.

EMPIRE already had an existing front end, but it was visually dated and limited by default Shopify template patterns. The redesign focused on creating a cleaner, more modern experience that felt aligned with EMPIRE’s position in music and culture.

The new design introduces editorial layouts, clearer hierarchy, and more intentional product presentation, while still supporting high-volume merchandising. Every layout was designed with CMS control in mind so the site could evolve without constant redesigns.

The storefront was built in Framer and connected to Shopify using Framer Commerce, but the scale of EMPIRE’s catalog pushed well beyond typical use cases.

Development required direct collaboration with Matt Jumper (shoutout to Matt!), creator of the underlying Framer Commerce plugin. Together, we worked through platform limitations and adjusted the plugin to support:

A large, fast-moving product catalog

Extensive CMS conditionals across layouts and components

Dynamic storefront behavior without sacrificing performance

This phase was critical to making the system reliable at scale and ensuring that CMS flexibility didn’t come at the cost of stability. More tools were used (none of them AI), but my lips are sealed.

A modern, CMS-driven commerce platform for a global music company

A redesigned storefront with UX as the driving force of the experience

A scalable system that supports a 1,600+ product catalog and frequent releases

A setup that empowers internal teams to manage content and merchandising day to day