Evvy Hairs was selling premium hair extensions through third-party marketplaces that took a cut of every sale, owned the customer relationship and gave the business no data about who was buying. The answer was e-commerce platform development: a customer storefront and a dedicated admin dashboard that the business owns outright. We built both applications in eight weeks.
The problem with selling on someone else’s marketplace
Marketplaces made the business easy to start but hard to grow. Every sale carried a marketplace cut, and the customer relationship belonged to the platform, not to Evvy Hairs. The business also had no inventory system and no order tracking, and no way to build loyalty with the people buying from it.
Day-to-day operations ran on WhatsApp messages and spreadsheets. That works for a small number of orders, but it leaves no reliable record of stock, customers or sales.
What Evvy Hairs needed from its e-commerce platform
The business did not want a Shopify store built on a template. It needed a complete e-commerce system with two parts: a storefront for customers and a dedicated admin dashboard. Together, these would give Evvy Hairs full control over its brand, its customers and its growth.
The customer storefront
The storefront is built to sell hair. Every product page shows the details buyers care about: hair type, texture, length, origin, color, and multiple images from different angles. The browsing experience is fast and smooth, designed to shorten the distance between “I am interested” and “I just bought it.”
Cart and wishlist sync across devices, so a customer who adds products on their phone can complete the purchase on their laptop. Checkout runs through Paystack, which handles payments anywhere in Nigeria.
After purchase, the system does the follow-up. Order confirmation emails go out immediately, shipping status updates are sent as the order progresses, and review request emails follow delivery. The team does not need to send any of these messages by hand. Businesses looking for a similar build can read more about our custom e-commerce and web development services.
The admin dashboard that runs the business
The admin dashboard is where the business actually runs, and it is the part of the build we are proudest of. It has 10 sections, each solving a specific operational problem:
- Overview: Live snapshot of revenue, orders, products, customers, active affiliates, and commissions owed
- Products: Full catalog management with variant support (different lengths, colors, textures) and up to 20 images per product
- Orders: Status tracking from pending to delivered, with automatic shipping notifications at each stage
- Customers: Full customer directory with order history, spending data, and contact information
- Affiliates: A complete affiliate marketing program with referral tracking, commission rates, and payout management
- Shipping: Rate configuration across Nigeria, the UK, and the US, with exchange rate management
- Categories: Product organization and taxonomy management
- Reviews: Customer review moderation and publishing
- Messages: Incoming customer inquiries with reply functionality
- Settings: Store configuration, payment settings, and email preferences
Every section is searchable, filterable and works on mobile. The team manages the entire business without contacting a developer.
The affiliate system for word-of-mouth referrals
Evvy Hairs wanted a way to reward word-of-mouth referrals, so we built an affiliate marketing system. Affiliates receive a unique referral link, earn commissions on every sale they drive, and can track their own performance.
The admin dashboard shows commission rates, pending payouts and affiliate performance. This gives the business full visibility into a revenue channel that was previously hard to measure.
Technical stack
Both applications are built on Next.js, with Supabase powering the backend. Paystack handles payments, Resend manages transactional emails, and Tailwind CSS provides the design system. The stack is modern, fast and maintainable.
Results
- Full e-commerce platform and admin dashboard launched in 8 weeks
- 10-section admin dashboard covering products, orders, payments, customers, affiliates, shipping, categories, reviews, and messages
- Affiliate marketing system with referral tracking, commission rates, and payout management, driving new sales
- Multi-country shipping with rate management across Nigeria, the UK, and the US
- Team manages the entire business without developer support
Evvy Hairs went from marketplace dependency to owning its brand, its data and its customer relationships. That is the difference between renting your business and owning it. You can see more of our shipped work in the Icoweb portfolio.
Frequently asked questions
What is e-commerce platform development?
E-commerce platform development is the process of building the software a business uses to sell online, usually a customer-facing storefront plus an admin system for products, orders, payments and customers. Unlike a marketplace listing, the business controls the design, the data and the customer relationship. Scope and features decide how long the build takes.
How long did the Evvy Hairs platform take to build?
Icoweb built both the customer storefront and the admin dashboard in eight weeks. The result was a full e-commerce platform with 10 admin sections, affiliate tracking and multi-country shipping rates.
Can the business run its store without a developer?
Yes. The admin dashboard covers products, orders, customers, affiliates, shipping, reviews, messages and settings, so the Evvy Hairs team manages the entire business without contacting a developer.
Does the platform support shipping to several countries?
It does. The shipping section allows rate configuration across Nigeria, the UK and the US, with exchange rate management built into the admin dashboard.
If you are considering moving your sales off marketplaces, tell us about your project and we will talk through what a platform you own would look like for your business.
