Van Schaik's Shopify E-Commerce Platform Migration

CLIENT CONTEXT

A century of academic retail, and the digital infrastructure to match

Van Schaik has been part of South African education since 1914. With physical stores across South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, and Namibia, a library supply division, and an e-commerce store serving everyone from Grade R parents to postgraduate students, the business operates at a scale that few retailers in the education sector match. Their catalogue runs to over 50,000 products. Their customer base spans school learners, university students, lecturers, schools, and academic institutions.

For years, Van Schaik’s online store ran on a custom platform Realm had built and maintained for the business. As Van Schaik’s ambitions grew and the e-commerce landscape matured, the opportunity to move to a modern commerce platform – with a broader ecosystem, built-in scalability, and lower total cost of ownership – became the right strategic move. Integrations with their order management system, payment gateways, courier providers, e-book token systems, and a physical POS network all required ongoing custom maintenance. Managing a custom integration map of that complexity required ongoing attention, and consolidating it onto a platform like Shopify made operational sense.

Eight integrations. Over 50,000 products. One peak season window to get it right.

THE CHALLENGE

Moving a mature, deeply integrated commerce operation without losing any capability

Van Schaik’s peak trading periods are unforgiving. Back-to-school and back-to-university seasons bring sharp, predictable spikes in traffic and transaction volume. A migration that reached into one of those periods without full system stability would have real commercial consequences.

The problem was not simply moving to Shopify. It was re-architecting an operation with years of custom logic, a complex integration map, and a product catalogue that covered physical books, e-books, stationery, electronics, and non-standard academic products, onto a new foundation while preserving every capability the old system had.

A custom platform ready for its next evolutionThe existing platform was a purpose-built system that had served Van Schaik well for years. Moving to Shopify meant not just switching platforms but carefully mapping all of the logic and capability that had been built up over time and rebuilding it on a new foundation – without losing anything. Realm’s discovery and specification process before any development began was the mechanism for making sure nothing was missed.

Eight integrations, each with its own complexityThe new Shopify store had to connect to Van Schaik’s order management system, PayU, Payflex, Shiplogic, Internet Express, Freshchat, e-book token management, and Google Tag Manager. Each had its own data formats, authentication requirements, and failure modes. Several had no standard Shopify equivalent and required custom development against Van Schaik’s internal systems.

A catalogue migration that cannot failThe migration covered over 50,000 products across multiple categories, alongside full customer account data. Getting the full catalogue live and correctly structured on the new platform – without losing a single product or disrupting an active customer base – was non-negotiable.

REALM’S APPROACH

The kind of partnership where you spot problems before they’re asked

Realm has worked with Van Schaik for over 15 years. The migration was not Realm responding to a brief. Realm identified the problem and brought the recommendation. The decision to move to Shopify was based on a clear assessment of where the existing platform was heading and what Van Schaik needed from a commerce infrastructure over the coming years.

Discovery and System Design

Realm ran a full specification process before any development began – translating Van Schaik’s operational reality into a precise, buildable document. The integration map covered eight external systems, each documented in terms of data flow, authentication, and failure handling. The architecture was designed to support the specific user journeys Van Schaik’s customers needed, including complex catalogue browsing and institutional ordering, that required custom development beyond Shopify’s standard capabilities.

Migration Without Disruption

Customer account data, product catalogue data, and store location data were all migrated as part of the project. The customer migration used a passwordless login model, allowing existing Van Schaik customers to access their accounts on the new platform without a password reset flow. That decision reduced friction at go-live and maintained continuity for the customer base.

Custom Development on Shopify

Several core Van Schaik features had no off-the-shelf equivalent on Shopify and were built as custom applications:

Product sync, keeping the Shopify catalogue aligned with Van Schaik’s internal systems
Third-party inventory system integration for order management and fulfilment
Quote functionality for institutional orders and a store locator

The integration work was the real project
The most visible part of any platform migration is the new storefront. The harder work is everything behind it. For Van Schaik, the inventory and order management integration – which handles order flow between the website and Van Schaik’s fulfilment infrastructure – required close collaboration with Van Schaik’s internal team and careful handling of edge cases that only surface at the volumes Van Schaik processes during peak season. Getting that right was not optional.

THE OUTCOME

A commerce platform that matches the scale and complexity of the business

The migration delivered a Shopify storefront capable of handling Van Schaik’s full catalogue and customer base, with the seasonal scalability Shopify’s infrastructure provides. The custom development work preserved every capability the previous platform carried while rebuilding it on a foundation that Van Schaik’s team can manage and that Realm can extend as the business grows.

Over 40% increase in e-commerce sales following launch.

What the migration made possible

A stable, scalable platform that handles back-to-school and back-to-university traffic spikes with the reliability those periods demand
Abandoned cart notifications, a capability that did not exist on the previous platform, giving Van Schaik a direct recovery tool for customers who do not complete a purchase
Full customer account continuity through a passwordless migration, with no disruption to existing account holders
A significantly reduced cost of ongoing maintenance, replacing a system that required custom development for every change with a platform that carries a mature ecosystem of tools and extensions

“The migration from our old website to Shopify was an almost seamless transition, despite numerous external challenges. This was made possible through the hard work, dedication, and close collaboration of the project team, as well as other internal and external role players and stakeholders. Their collective commitment ensured continuity for our customers while positioning us on a far more scalable and capable platform for future growth.”

– Chris Fouche, Special Projects and Group Business Development Manager, Van Schaik

WHAT THIS TELLS YOU ABOUT HOW WE WORK

This is what fifteen years of partnership looks like

This project did not begin with a client brief. It began with Realm identifying a structural problem in a long-standing client’s technology and making the case for change. That kind of recommendation only lands when the relationship has the depth to carry it. Fifteen years of working with Van Schaik meant Realm could make the argument credibly and execute it with the institutional knowledge that no new partner could have brought to the table.

Partners bring recommendationsA decision of this scale required confidence – in the plan, the approach, and the partner. Realm’s role was to make the case clearly, build a specification rigorous enough to justify the move, and then execute it. Van Schaik rightly wanted that confidence before committing. The answer was a better plan. This is what a long-term partnership looks like in practice.

Integration is the real architectureThe Shopify theme was the visible deliverable. The integration architecture was the real project. Realm treated every connection point as a potential point of failure and designed accordingly, which is why a migration of this scope was described by the client as “almost seamless”. That outcome does not happen by accident. It happens because the hard work is done in the planning, not recovered in the execution.

Institutional knowledge reduces riskRealm knew Van Schaik’s systems, their seasonal patterns, their customer base, and the specific constraints of their operations before the project specification was written. That knowledge compressed the discovery process and reduced the risk of the migration in ways that are difficult to quantify but easy to understand. It is not something a new partner could have replicated.