A Detroit Motor City heritage brand · $80K → $410K MRR.

This archetype is a slice of Detroit DTC we ship into reliably: an automotive aftermarket brand working out of Corktown or Eastern Market. It runs two product lines. A wide aftermarket parts catalog covers 8 to 14 popular vehicle platforms, and a custom-build line serves enthusiast configurations. It sells direct-to-consumer through the brand site, with a dealer B2B layer serving regional speed shops and aftermarket installers across the Midwest.

Pre-engagement, the brand sat at $80K MRR on a Shopify Standard setup. Fitment data lived in static product titles ("Fits 2015 to 2020 Ford F-150"). No real vehicle-year-make-model selector. No dealer portal, so orders came through email and PDFs. And the custom-build line converted offline, through email back-and-forth, rather than through the website.

Three structural problems compounded the revenue ceiling. First, fitment data lived in product titles rather than structured metafields, which broke site search and filtering. Conversion on aftermarket parts sat at 0.9 percent against an industry baseline closer to 2.5 percent.

Second, the custom-build line had no on-site configurator. Every order took 4 to 7 emails between buyer and team to nail down spec, costing about 8 hours of coordination per custom-build order. Third, the dealer channel stalled around 30 active accounts because the email-and-PDF workflow capped the team's manual processing capacity.

Workstream 1 · Shopify Plus migration with fitment-data integration. We moved the brand from Shopify Standard to Plus, with custom theme work for fitment-aware product detail templates. Fitment data came out of product titles and into Shopify metafields, surfaced through a vehicle-year-make-model selector. Conversion on aftermarket parts rose from 0.9 percent to 2.4 percent across 90 days post-launch.

Workstream 2 · Custom-build configurator. An on-site configurator now captures spec, calculates pricing, and posts straight to checkout without team intervention. Coordination overhead dropped from 8 hours per custom-build order to under 1.5. Custom-build orders climbed from a low single-digit share of total to 22 percent.

Workstream 3 · Dealer B2B portal. We shipped Shopify Plus B2B with regional-dealer company accounts, a NET-30 workflow, tiered pricing rules, and dealer-level reorder forecasting. Active dealer count grew from 30 to 78 over 12 months.

Workstream 4 · Drop mechanics for limited-release parts. Custom theme work added timed reveals for limited-release parts and one-off custom-builds. A Klaviyo waitlist flow gave the dealer cohort pre-access codes 24 hours before each public release. Drop sell-through landed at 89 percent across the first eight post-launch releases.

Workstream 5 · Klaviyo flows + vehicle-cohort segmentation. Welcome series, browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, and a vehicle-cohort flow that segments customers by primary vehicle. Messaging never promotes parts that do not fit the recipient's truck or build. Email revenue share climbed from 8 percent of total to 27 percent over 6 months.

If you run a Detroit automotive aftermarket DTC with a custom-build line, somewhere in the $50K to $200K MRR range, with fitment data living in product titles rather than structured metafields, this archetype maps to you. It is one of our recurring engagement shapes for the Motor City.

The 16-week timeline holds steady. It runs longer than typical because of the fitment-data restructure. Workstreams compress or expand in proportion, and the metrics typically land within plus or minus 20 percent of the archetype above.

Five capabilities transfer directly to a comparable Detroit engagement.

1. Shopify Plus migration with fitment-data integration. Moves fitment data from product titles into structured metafields and exposes a vehicle-year-make-model selector.
2. Custom-build configurator. Removes 6 to 8 hours of coordination overhead per custom-build order.
3. Shopify Plus B2B dealer portal. Scales the dealer count past the manual-overhead ceiling.
4. Drop mechanics. Timed reveals for limited-release parts.
5. Klaviyo vehicle-cohort segmentation. Messaging respects what the recipient actually drives.

Every Detroit engagement starts with a 30-minute discovery call. Scope, timeline, and budget come back in writing within 48 hours. Eastern Time, same-day response Monday to Friday 9 to 6.