Case Study | Food and Beverage
Graeter’s Ice Cream: Perishable eCommerce Migration
Legacy platforms can’t ship ice cream.
INDUSTRY
Food and Beverage
PLATFORM
Magento 2
MODEL
Direct-to-Consumer + Wholesale B2B
FOCUS
Zero-Loss Migration + Perishable Shipping Logic
Constraint: zero data loss during migration
A 150-year-old brand with zero tolerance for lost records
Moving a live business costs trust the moment a customer discovers lost order history, a missing gift certificate balance, or a broken account. Graeter’s had thousands of registered customers, years of accumulated order records, and gift certificates representing real customer value.
The migration strategy was built around parallel infrastructure. Fresh Magento 2 servers ran in sync with the live Magento 1 store through continuous data cycles. Customer groups, segments, and order history moved with data integrity verified at every step. Zero customer records were lost.
Passwords were hashed with MD5; modern systems use bcrypt. Over 800 product and category URLs needed mapping to preserve SEO. Every piece of customer data – reviews, segments, original order IDs – had to survive the move intact.
Architecture
Perishable shipping logic built for ice cream
Most eCommerce platforms ship assuming products survive in transit. Ice cream doesn’t. We built a custom delivery date module where every proposed date is validated against carrier capacity, seasonal shipping windows, and FedEx availability.
Peak season doesn’t mean “try harder.” The platform automatically caps orders when daily production is full and shows customers the next available ship date. No overselling. No broken promises.
What we delivered
eCommerce that respects physical constraints
Zero-loss platform migration
Parallel infrastructure with continuous data sync. Customer accounts, order history, gift certificate balances, and SEO URLs all migrated with verified integrity. Zero downtime.
Custom delivery date validation
Every delivery date validated against carrier capacity, seasonal windows, and FedEx availability. Customers see only dates when ice cream can actually ship safely.
Build Your Own Pack
Customers design custom flavor assortments in real-time. The interface shows inventory and seasonality. Shipping costs and delivery dates recalculate as selections change.
Production capacity management
The platform automatically caps orders when daily production is full and shows the next available ship date. Peak season no longer collapses operations.
Wholesale B2B ordering
Retail partners with independent pricing, fulfillment queues, and order minimums. Partners who previously called in orders now log in and place them 24/7.
The bottom line
If you sell perishable products, your platform can’t treat shipping as generic.
Standard platforms assume products survive in transit. Your margin and reputation depend on preventing customer disappointment. Shipping logic that matches physical constraints has to be built in from the foundation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Parallel infrastructure running in sync with the live store through continuous data cycles. Customer groups, segments, order history, gift certificate balances, and SEO URLs all migrate with data integrity verified at every step. Customers experience zero downtime.
Ice cream melts. Standard platforms don’t validate delivery dates against carrier capacity, seasonal shipping windows, or regional temperature constraints. Custom shipping logic ensures customers see only dates when products can actually ship safely.
If you sell products that degrade in transit, your platform needs shipping logic built for physical constraints. Let’s talk.
Ready to solve perishable shipping?
Let us discuss what you’re building.
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