An e-commerce product that opened a new business line
I owned architecture, design and deployment. It created three new jobs after its alpha release.
- Domain
- E-commerce
- My role
- Owner of architecture, design and deployment
- Where
- Gray Mines, 2024 to 2025
- Stack
- Next.js, TypeScript, Strapi, AWS, CI/CD
Product and client details anonymized; UI recreated with fictional data.
Context
At Gray Mines I joined as a Senior Manager and was promoted to Assistant Vice President in September 2024. One of the products I owned there was a new e-commerce web app. It didn’t extend an existing business. It opened a new line of business for the company.
My role
I built it alone and owned it end to end: the architecture, the design and the deployment to AWS with CI/CD.
The problem
A new business line has to look and work like an established store on day one, while the business behind it is still taking shape. Its catalogue and content change often, so the people running it need to update them without waiting for an engineer.
Key decisions
Next.js with Strapi as a headless CMS
The storefront is Next.js and TypeScript, and Strapi holds the product catalogue and content as a headless CMS. That’s one more service to run and secure. In return, the people running the store can change products and content themselves, and the storefront stays typed end to end.
CI/CD on AWS from the start
Deployment ran through a CI/CD pipeline to AWS from the beginning. Setting that up before there was much to deploy took time away from features, but it made small, frequent releases routine, which is what an alpha needs.
Outcome
The app opened a new line of business for Gray Mines, and after its alpha release it created three new jobs.
Stack
Next.js, TypeScript, Strapi, AWS, CI/CD.