Shopify Expert for Horizon Theme Development

Shopify OS 2.0 Rebuild
PHASE 1 COMPLETION — Developer Takeover Brief

PROJECT STATUS

We are rebuilding itekcanada.com (10 years in business — batteries, ink & toner) on a new Shopify OS 2.0 account, engineered to host 24,000+ SKUs.

A previous developer built the base shell on Shopify's Horizon theme (the theme we supplied), but the work did not meet our standard and Phase 1 is incomplete. We are now hiring a developer to take over: audit the existing build, remediate what is weak, and complete the remaining Phase 1 work to spec.

The Horizon framework was chosen for its modern, block-based, mobile-first design. However, the new developer must validate that Horizon performs reliably at our target catalog scale (24,000+ SKUs) — see Step 0.

This is NOT a fresh build and NOT a basic theme install. We need a Data Architect who is also a CSS/Liquid expert, and who is comfortable taking ownership of another developer's partial work and bringing it up to a professional standard.

Access to the existing development store will be provided.

SCOPE BOUNDARY

In scope (Phase 1 — this contract): Audit and remediation of the existing shell, plus completion of all outstanding Phase 1 deliverables below.

Out of scope (Phase 2 — separate contract): The mass import of the 24,000+ SKUs. Whoever completes Phase 1 well is our first choice for Phase 2.

STEP 0 — AUDIT & REMEDIATION (Existing Build)

- PRIORITY — Validate Horizon at scale. Stress-test the Horizon theme with thousands of test products to confirm it handles large-catalog collection pagination, filtering, and browsing without performance degradation or errors. Horizon is a newer framework most commonly used for small/medium catalogs; confirming it is viable for 24,000+ SKUs is the single most important foundational check. If it is not viable as configured, flag this immediately with recommended options before any further work is built on top of it.
- Review the existing build: code quality, theme-block structure, OS 2.0 section setup, and any custom components already in place.
- Establish a current performance baseline (mobile PageSpeed) and identify what is causing any shortfall.
- Produce a short written assessment: what is sound and can be kept, what must be reworked, and why.

SECTION 1 — BRAND SOUL & CUSTOM UI (audit + complete)

- Verify/finish the modernized iTekCanada identity — sleek, premium, modern. NOT a generic, boxy "Warehouse" look.
- Custom "Free Shipping Progress Bar" with truck animation (clean Liquid/CSS, no heavy app bloat).
- Custom button styles and custom trust badges.
- Achieve a 90+ mobile PageSpeed score (measured with the full app stack installed — see Technical Notes).

SECTION 2 — LEGACY DATA & HISTORY MIGRATION (10-year depth)

- Full customer database migration: tags, notes, and marketing preferences.
- 10 years of order history migrated, preserving financial reporting and customer account accuracy.
- Install and custom-style Reputon review widgets.
- Prepare the SKU mapping so reviews auto-link to products during the Phase 2 import.

SECTION 3 — STRATEGIC ARCHITECTURE & METAFIELDS (Phase 2 prep)

The data backbone — likely the core of the outstanding work.
- Metafield + metaobject structure for all technical specs:
- Batteries: Voltage, mAh, Chemistry, Compatibility Lists, Batch/Lot logic.
- Ink & Toner: Yield, Color, Page Capacity, Printer Compatibility.
- High-performance Mega Menu and Footer.
- Automated Collections built off these metafields, so future products self-categorize on import.
- Infrastructure for a Wholesale/Reseller portal (custom pricing/login) and a Loyalty/Rewards program.

SECTION 4 — APP STACK & NATIVE AUTOMATIONS (install, style, configure)

- Searchanise — Instant Search UI with advanced sidebar filters (Voltage, mAh, etc.) using metafields.
- Native Shopify automations — Abandoned Cart, Welcome Series, Post-Purchase (replacing legacy 3rd-party apps).
- Redirectify — master 301 strategy for 10 years of legacy URLs.
- EasySearch — Year/Make/Model lookup.
- Advanced Shipping Rules — hazardous-goods / lithium-battery logic.
- Transcy — EN/FR bilingual + currency.
- Google Shopping Feed Pro and Orderly Emails.

SECTION 5 — WORKING REQUIREMENTS & HAND-OFF

- All work performed on the existing development store.
- Filtering and categorization built on native Shopify metafields, NOT tags.
- Clean, fully documented hand-off (schema reference, collection-rule map, redirect map, app configuration, component docs).

TECHNICAL NOTES

- Metafield schema is the backbone — Searchanise filters, automated collections, the product template, and the review mapping all depend on it. It is built/validated before downstream work is finalized.
- Collections vs. Searchanise — native automated collections support metafield conditions but only with an "is equal to" operator. Discrete category browsing lives in collections; ranges and multi-select faceting live in Searchanise. Each metafield definition must have its "Use in automated collections" capability enabled.
- Compatibility data as metaobjects, not strings — Compatibility Lists and Printer Compatibility are modeled as referenced metaobjects to enable clean filtering at scale.
- Batch/Lot — Shopify has no native lot/batch tracking; a metafield stores the value, true lot management needs an inventory app (to confirm with client).
- B2B is gated by plan tier — native Shopify B2B requires Shopify Plus; if not on Plus, the Wholesale portal is delivered via an app (confirm before build).
- PageSpeed measured post-app-stack — 90+ on an empty shell is trivial; the real target is 90+ with all apps installed.

TO APPLY / SELECTION CRITERIA

Please address in your bid:
1. Portfolio: links to at least 2 ACTIVE Shopify stores you have built with 10,000+ SKUs. Experience with the Horizon framework on a large catalog is a strong plus — tell us specifically how it performed at scale.
2. Technical: in a few sentences, how you use native Shopify metafields (NOT tags) for technical filtering.
3. Takeover comfort: confirm you are comfortable auditing and improving an existing build, and will deliver a clean, documented hand-off on the development store.

Start your bid with the word "iTEK" so we know you read the full brief and include your proposed budget for this project. Generic, copy-paste bids will be ignored.


We are looking for a long-term technical partner, not a one-off install.