Case Study
Sarah's Candy Factory: a weight-based bulk candy storefront built to scale
Sarah's Candy Factory sells candy by the pound, marshmallows, gummies, hard candy, chocolates, nuts and Turkish kadayif sweets, where every product ships in multiple bag sizes and the cart has to make sense of all of them.
The brief
A bulk candy catalog is deceptively hard to merchandise. Almost every item at Sarah's Candy Factory, from Vegan Jumbo Vanilla Marshmallows to Orange Slice Candy and Milk Chocolate Melting Wafers, sells in several weights (1 lb, 2 lb, 2.5 lb, 5 lb). Shoppers needed to see per-bag pricing clearly, switch sizes without confusion, and cross the free-shipping-over-30 threshold, all across eight distinct candy categories.
- Nearly every SKU has multiple weight options, so variant selection and per-size pricing had to be obvious, not buried in a dropdown
- Eight overlapping categories (Marshmallows, Hard Candy, Gummies, Kadayif and Turkish Sweets, Chocolates, Toppings, Nuts, Best Sellers) needed clean browsing and discovery
- The free shipping over 30 dollars offer had to feel motivating in the cart without nagging shoppers buying single small bags
What I built
Gencer built a fully custom Shopify theme around the realities of selling candy by weight. Product templates surface size and weight variants as tappable options with live per-bag pricing, so choosing a 2 lb versus a 5 lb marshmallow jar is a single clear action. Collection pages were structured around the eight candy categories with fast filtering, and the cart reinforces the free-shipping-over-30 incentive with a running progress cue.
- Custom Liquid product template with weight and size variants shown as visible swatches plus live price updates per bag, including vegan and Dubai-style chocolate variants
- Category-driven collection architecture for Marshmallows, Gummies, Chocolates, Kadayif and Turkish Sweets, Nuts, Toppings, Hard Candy and Best Sellers, with filtering for bulk buyers
- Cart drawer with a free-shipping-over-30 progress indicator to lift average order value on small candy bags
- Performance and mobile work tuned for image-heavy candy photography, keeping Core Web Vitals healthy on a large variant catalog
FAQ
How does the store handle candy sold in different weights and bag sizes?
Each product uses Shopify variants for its weight options (for example 1 lb, 2 lb, 2.5 lb and 5 lb). The custom theme renders these as tappable choices with the price updating live per bag, so bulk and single-bag buyers both see exactly what they pay before adding to cart.
Was the storefront custom built or a stock Shopify theme?
It is a fully custom Shopify theme built by Gencer Karakaya in Liquid. The product pages, collection layouts for the eight candy categories, and the free-shipping cart logic were all hand built around how Sarah's Candy Factory actually sells, rather than retrofitted onto a generic template.
How is the free shipping over 30 dollars offer built into the experience?
The cart includes a progress cue that shows how close a shopper is to the 30 dollar free shipping threshold. For a store selling small bags of marshmallows and gummies, this gently encourages adding one more item without resorting to pop-ups or pressure tactics.