Manzanita Pet Co.: Shopify Storefront
“Shop by problem, not by aisle” — a dog store organized around the mess it fixes.
- Company
- Manzanita Pet Co. (founded Aug 2026)
- Role
- Founder & E-commerce / Content Lead
- Tools
- Shopify
- Period
- Aug 2026 – Present
Context & objective
Objective
A mobile-friendly store where each product is sold as the answer to a specific everyday problem.
Challenge
Five unrelated products — a grooming vacuum, a deshedding kit, a water fountain, a puzzle feeder and a paw cleaner — had to feel like one brand, not a dropshipping catalogue.
Creative strategy
Problem-first navigation: five cards labeled by the problem: for the shedding, the zoomies, the picky drinker, the tangles, the muddy paws.
An honest voice: “Dog life, minus the mess.” and “Real dogs. Real mess. Real fix.”
A real brand story: Manzanita is a real dog belonging to one of the founders.
Production process
Pain-point product pages: each opens with one relatable line (“You vacuum. You brush. Ten minutes later, there’s fur on the couch again.”), then “Why You’ll Love It” benefits.
Category color coding: the category label and Add to Cart button share a color per product type.
Galleries rebuilt for mobile: clear previous/next controls, swipe, per-variant images, looping and preserved ARIA labels.
Order-value levers: upsells and a free-shipping incentive.
Setup: domain purchase, professional business email, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook links.
Deliverables & contribution
Deliverables
A Shopify storefront with 5 products, from $16.99 to $79.99.
Contribution
I founded the brand and lead it with two partners, who mainly record content. I own e‑commerce strategy, Shopify design and implementation, product positioning, website and product copy, product presentation and store optimization.
Current status
Live Shopify storefront.
Learnings
Positioning products around customer problems makes a more coherent store than sorting unrelated products into categories. Mobile interaction details matter heavily, because most social-commerce traffic arrives on a phone.