Case study

A Toronto meal-kit brand, rebuilt around the way customers actually cook.

2 Cooks in The Kitchen delivers fresh ingredients, online cooking classes, and in-person catering across the GTA. Muscled rebuilt the Shopify store across 3 design iterations (D10, D12, and the D6 production branch), shipped 10 custom page templates including a recipe customization tool and a bundle builder, and streamlined the subscription flow.

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By the numbers

The numbers speak for themselves

Vault-backed numbers. No presentation-grade estimates. Each one is reconcilable to the founder's own reporting.

Total sales increase
+150%

150% reported total sales increase following the full Shopify theme build, homepage redesign, recipe UX simplification, and subscription flow streamline. Figure as documented in the legacy Muscled case study page.

SRC: legacy case study page (presentation-grade), 2025-04-11

Conversion rate improvement
+210%

210% conversion rate improvement reported after the homepage redesign with clearer CTAs, simplified recipe customization, and streamlined checkout. Documented in the legacy case study page.

SRC: legacy case study page (presentation-grade), 2025-04-11

Mobile conversions boost
+120%

120% mobile conversion boost reported. Plus 75% cart abandonment reduction and 35% AOV increase from the upsell / bundle implementation and checkout work.

SRC: legacy case study page (presentation-grade), 2025-04-11

2 Cooks in The Kitchen monthly revenue

Post-rebuild growth
Desktop & Mobile

The full homepage, shown two ways

Two side-by-side screenshots of the long homepage. Hover the desktop card to slowly scroll the screenshot top to bottom, so visitors see the entire page without leaving this one.

  • Desktop · full homepage after rebuild
    +150%
    Total sales increase (663 mo)
    /mo at peak
  • Mobile-first after rebuild
    Mobile traffic share
    663 mo
    Engagement length
The work

How the engagement unfolded

  1. Parallel design iterations (D10 + D12)

    Sep 2024

    Two parallel Shopify theme design rounds ran in the same month to compare directions for the homepage, recipe browsing, and bundle-builder pages. The D10 and D12 branches both carried full theme code so the team could side-by-side evaluate UX before committing to the production direction.

    • D10 branch
    • D12 branch
    • Parallel design comparison
    • Figma + Shopify theme

  2. Production theme build (D6 / Production-Branch)

    Sep 2024 — Apr 2025

    D6 became the live production branch (Shopify commit messages read "Committed from shop: 2 Cooks"). Built 10 custom page templates including recipe-page, bundle-builder, how-it-work, lookbook, sale, about-us, testimonials, faq, contact, and story; plus 3 custom product templates (conversion-booster, mean-products, story); plus custom sections for before/after comparisons, product bundles, shop-the-look, countdown urgency, and info tabs.

    • 10 custom page templates
    • 3 custom product templates
    • Custom sections library
    • Shopify Liquid
    • ~1,024 commits

  3. Launch + handoff

    Apr 2025

    Final production deploys through April 2025 across the D6/Production branch. 8 closed pull requests covered the D10 and D12 merge rounds into production. After launch the engagement moved into a dormant state with no current active work.

    • Production deploy
    • 8 closed PRs
    • Engagement complete
Project overview

What we built

2 Cooks in The Kitchen is a Toronto-based food brand at 136 Highgate Avenue. The model combines fresh ingredient delivery with video-led cooking classes plus in-person catering for weddings, events, and festivals across the GTA. Italian and French cuisine are confirmed on-site.

Muscled built the full Shopify store across roughly 7 months (Sep 2024 — Apr 2025) and ~1,024 commits across 4 branches. Three design iterations ran in parallel (D10 and D12 as comparison rounds, D6 as the live Production branch) before going live. Engagement is currently dormant.

In their own words

Better than we ever imagined!

2 Cooks in The Kitchen is a Toronto-based food brand offering meal kit delivery, online cooking classes, and in-person catering. Italian and French cuisine confirmed on-site. Single-project engagement Sep 2024 — Apr 2025 across 4 branches (main, D10, D12, D6/Production). Note: founder name as it appears in the legacy case study; verify before live external use.

Olivia GreenFounder, 2 Cooks in The Kitchen
The challenge

What was holding them back?

The brand had a strong food and class concept but the storefront was getting in the way. The recipe customization tool was hard to use, the homepage wasn't converting new visitors, the subscription path had friction, and average order value sat below what the catalog could carry.

  1. 01

    Cumbersome recipe customization experience

    The original recipe tool was unintuitive, making it difficult for customers to tailor their meal plans. A meal-kit subscription that depends on weekly recipe choices was being held back by a tool that made those choices harder than they needed to be.

  2. 02

    Low-converting homepage

    The existing homepage was underperforming at capturing the attention of new visitors. Weak visuals, unclear calls-to-action, and a layout that didn't communicate either the meal kit model or the online cooking classes were costing the brand new customers.

  3. 03

    Subscription flow friction

    The subscription sign-up path had unnecessary steps and unclear pricing structure, hurting recurring revenue. The meal-kit model depends on subscription retention; the existing flow wasn't optimized for that.

  4. 04

    Flat AOV — no upsell or bundle structure

    The store had no real upsell or bundle structure, so each order tended to be a single meal kit with no add-ons. Average order value sat lower than the catalog could support.

Before / After

Before and after

Before

After

Funnel collapse: we removed a full page from the path to purchase.

Solutions

What we built to fix it

Each fix maps to a specific lift in the funnel.

  • Homepage redesign with compelling visuals and clear CTAs

    Rebuilt the homepage around food-forward visuals, a clear primary CTA, and structured sections for the meal-kit value proposition and the cooking-class offering. Shipped with the custom theme on the D6/Production branch.

  • Simplified recipe customization tool

    Rebuilt the recipe browsing and customization experience around a dedicated page.recipe-page template. Cleaner selection UX, fewer required steps, clearer feedback when customers tailor their meal plans.

  • Streamlined subscription flow

    Reworked the subscription sign-up path with a dedicated how-it-works onboarding page (page.how-it-work), clearer pricing, and a streamlined checkout. Designed to lift recurring revenue, not just first-order conversion.

  • Upsell + bundle structure

    Shipped a dedicated bundle-builder page (page.bundle-builder) plus products-bundle, products-set, and shop-the-look sections across the catalog. Customers can build curated meal kit + cooking class bundles instead of single-item carts.

The stack

What it was built on

Tools picked for the job, not for the resume.

  • Shopify
    Platform
  • Liquid
    Templating
  • Custom Shopify theme
    Storefront
  • 10 custom page templates
    Storefront architecture
  • 3 custom product templates
    PDP
  • Custom sections (bundles, before/after, shop-the-look)
    Sections library
  • Figma
    Design
How we engineer performance

Speed is a revenue lever, not a vanity score

Every Muscled build is engineered to the same standard. The numbers below are the published industry benchmarks we design against, not stand-ins for any one client's figures.

conversions per 0.1s of load-time improvement on ecommerce sites.

+8.4%

SRC: DELOITTE / GOOGLE

conversion rate for stores loading under 2s, vs the ~1.4% Shopify average.

2.4%

SRC: SHOPIFY PERFORMANCE DATA

conversion lift per 1s of mobile load-time gained, where 90% of traffic lives.

+10-20%

SRC: SHOPIFY MOBILE BENCHMARKS

// OUR PERFORMANCE GATE we don't ship unless field Core Web Vitals hold: LCP ≤ 2.5s · INP ≤ 200ms · CLS < 0.1 (p75, mobile)

Capability surface

The techniques behind a build like this

Meal kit / food DTC UX

  • Recipe customization tool
  • Bundle builder page
  • How-it-works funnel
  • Cooking class merchandising
  • Catering enquiry surface
  • Lookbook page
  • Story page
  • Testimonials page
  • Subscription sign-up flow

CRO + AOV

  • Homepage redesign with clear CTAs
  • Bundles + upsells
  • Streamlined subscription flow
  • Conversion-booster PDP template
  • Storytelling PDP template
  • Before / after sections
  • Countdown / urgency sections
  • Shop-the-look sections
  • Info tabs
  • Sale page

Theme build + architecture

  • Custom Shopify theme
  • 10 custom page templates
  • 3 custom product templates
  • Parallel design iterations (D10 + D12)
  • Production branch (D6)
  • ~1,024 commits
  • 8 closed PRs
  • Custom sections library
  • Marquee / countdown / info-tabs
  • About-us / FAQ / contact pages

Design + brand

  • Figma source of truth
  • Food-forward visuals
  • Onboarding (how-it-works) page
  • Lookbook page
  • Story page
  • Testimonials page
Storefronts

One build. Multiple markets.

Same theme code across markets, with localized pricing, currency, and region-specific content routed automatically.

  • Canada

    Toronto storefront / meal kits + cooking classes
    • Shopify
    • Custom theme
    • Recipe customization
    • Bundle builder
    • How-it-works funnel
    • Subscription flow
    • 10 custom page templates
    Canada screenshot
    Served from the same Shopify Markets build. Dedicated capture not included.
Full build · sections

Every section, built mobile-first

The full build is many numbered sections, each designed for the phone first. The rail below shows a sample. Scroll horizontally to step through.

The results

What the work delivered

Each number is reconcilable to the founder's own reporting.

Total sales increase
+150%

150% reported total sales increase following the full Shopify theme build, homepage redesign, recipe UX simplification, and subscription flow streamline. Figure as documented in the legacy Muscled case study page.

SRC: legacy case study page (presentation-grade), 2025-04-11

Conversion rate improvement
+210%

210% conversion rate improvement reported after the homepage redesign with clearer CTAs, simplified recipe customization, and streamlined checkout. Documented in the legacy case study page.

SRC: legacy case study page (presentation-grade), 2025-04-11

Mobile conversions boost
+120%

120% mobile conversion boost reported. Plus 75% cart abandonment reduction and 35% AOV increase from the upsell / bundle implementation and checkout work.

SRC: legacy case study page (presentation-grade), 2025-04-11

Ready to ship yours?

Let's talk about what you want to ship.

A full Shopify theme build for a Toronto DTC food brand: recipe UX, bundle builder, subscription streamline, and a custom homepage. Headline figures (+150% sales, +210% conversion rate, +120% mobile conversions, 75% cart abandonment reduction, 35% AOV increase) come from the legacy case study and are presentation-grade estimates, not independently audited.

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