University Co-op

For nearly 130 years, University Co-op has served the University of Texas at Austin as a nonprofit bookstore where every purchase funds student scholarships. Last year, nearly 7,000 students received free course materials. But their aging ecommerce platform was slowing them down and undermining their mission.

• Platform: Shopify Plus
• POS: Shopify
• Theme: Wyatt, our in-house Shopify theme built for speed and flexibility
• ERP: NetSuite
• Integrations: Shopify PPP custom scholarship payment, Shopify POS

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University Co-op's scholarship payment system required students to split payments between scholarship funds and credit cards, but their multi-page checkout caused frequent data drops and transaction failures. Students couldn't check balances or track spending, creating confusion during textbook buying season.

Key Pain Points:

• 20+ second page load times killing conversions
• Scholarship payment failures frustrating students
• No behavioral data capture for decision-making
• Months to implement basic features like strikethrough pricing
• Manual content updates limiting marketing agility

Working closely with the Co-op team, we mapped out a phased approach to balance immediate needs with long-term growth:

• Launch a modernized online store on Shopify Plus.
• Implement POS across campus stores.
• Build in support for academic shopping workflows, including course materials and scholarships.

1. Performance transformation: Migrated from NetSuite to Shopify Plus, cutting page loads from 20+ seconds to under 3.
2. Scholarship-first checkout: Built one of the first PPP scholarship integrations—clear balances, smooth split payments, real-time verification, zero failures.
3. Unified commerce: Rolled out Shopify POS across store and pop-ups, syncing inventory, pricing, and customer data in one system.