CASE STUDY
Gelson's Markets
Long-Term Digital Partnership for a Complex Commerce and Marketing Platform
Platform
Craft CMS, Craft Commerce, Headless Architecture
Services
Strategy, UX Planning, Development, Systems Administration, Project Management, Quality Assurance, Ecommerce Development, Third-Party Integrations
Overview
Gelson’s Markets is a premium grocery brand known for high-touch customer experiences, seasonal promotions, specialty offerings, and flexible merchandising needs. To support that brand promise online, the company needed a website and commerce platform capable of handling far more than standard ecommerce.
SunnyByte partnered with Gelson’s to modernize the underlying platform, support a wide range of complex ordering scenarios, and create a more flexible digital foundation for both the marketing team and the business as a whole. What began as a major redevelopment project evolved into a long-term partnership built on trust, responsiveness, and ongoing platform growth.
The Challenge
Gelson’s business includes a wide range of distinct offerings — including gift cards, gift baskets, floral, catering, holiday meals, seasonal promotions, golf events, and wine tastings — each with its own business rules, payment logic, timing requirements, and merchandising needs. At the time, the existing technology stack was making those experiences harder to manage than they needed to be.
The company was using Adobe Experience Manager for assets and marketing while relying on a separate ecommerce platform with limited capabilities. The system was cumbersome to update and did not adequately support the evolving needs of the marketing team or the business. Many customer-facing offerings also depended on manual form submissions and email-based processes, creating friction for both users and staff.
Our Appproach
Sunnybyte worked with Gelson’s to replace that fragmented setup with a more flexible digital platform built on headless Craft CMS and Craft Commerce. A core part of the solution was designing a proprietary order-type structure that allowed different offerings to carry their own unique business rules while still supporting a unified customer checkout experience.
This gave the Gelson’s team a much more adaptable system for managing a wide variety of products, promotions, and seasonal programs. It also gave marketing more control over merchandising and helped reduce dependence on manual workflows that had previously slowed the business down.
Key Features
Headless Craft CMS + Craft Commerce Platform
We redeveloped the platform using a headless Craft CMS and Craft Commerce architecture designed to support both marketing flexibility and complex commerce requirements.
Migration from Adobe Experience Manager
We helped move Gelson’s away from Adobe Experience Manager into a platform better suited to the organization’s operational and marketing needs.
Proprietary Order-Type Logic
SunnyByte developed a custom order-type system that allowed different business rules to be applied to different offerings and carts, while still giving customers a seamless single-cart checkout experience. This created a much more flexible foundation for Gelson’s varied programs and promotions.
Loyalty Platform Integration
The new platform included integration with Gelson’s loyalty rewards system, helping connect the digital experience more directly to customer engagement initiatives.
Long-Term Enhancements and Support
Since the original project, SunnyByte has continued to serve as a high-impact partner for Gelson’s through ongoing maintenance, third-party integrations such as Instacart, multiple major Craft CMS upgrades, and ongoing support aligned to the needs of the marketing team.
The Outcome
The rebuilt platform gave Gelson’s a much more flexible and scalable foundation for supporting its unique mix of ecommerce, promotions, specialty programs, and marketing initiatives. It reduced reliance on manual processes, improved how complex offerings could be managed, and created a better fit for the way Gelson’s actually does business online.
Just as importantly, the relationship did not stop at launch. Over nearly a decade, Sunnybyte has continued to function as a dependable extension of the Gelson’s team — helping the organization adapt to new goals, support new integrations, stay current through major platform upgrades, and maintain a high-performing digital presence over time.
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