TL;DR
- The setup: Lifelines ran a Contentful marketing site at lifelines.com and a Shopify store at shop.lifelines.com. Shoppers had to cross between two sites to learn and to buy.
- The fix: Solo Media Group merged both into one custom Shopify storefront on lifelines.com, with the SEO migration, a bundle builder and a smart cart.
- The results, within 2 months of launch: +171% sessions, +78% total sales, +53% orders and a 2.8% conversion rate, with both domains unified without disrupting live traffic.
- The lesson: if your content and your store live on different domains, your brand story and your checkout are competing instead of working together.
What problem did Lifelines have?
Lifelines, a wellness brand that helps people disconnect and create through tactile art kits, had two separate websites. Its marketing site ran on Contentful at lifelines.com. Its store ran on Shopify at shop.lifelines.com. Neither gave shoppers a single place to browse and buy a growing catalog.
The brand already had shelf presence with US retailers. Its goal was to build a direct-to-consumer channel that reflected the brand, without compromising on design.
Four challenges stood in the way:
| Challenge | Why it mattered |
|---|---|
| Two domains, one experience | Shoppers moved between two sites with different navigation, design and content |
| Complex product catalog | The FlowArt collection was hard to browse across a split setup |
| Custom build on a tight deadline | A fully custom theme had to ship fast |
| Bundle logic outside native Shopify | Lifelines needed kit bundles that Shopify doesn't handle out of the box |
Why is a split “website plus shop subdomain” setup a problem?
A split setup divides your traffic, your content and your shoppers' attention across two sites. It's common: a brand builds its marketing site on WordPress, Webflow or a headless CMS like Contentful, then adds Shopify on shop.brand.com to sell.
It works at first. As the brand grows, the cracks show:
| Area | What goes wrong on two domains |
|---|---|
| Shopper journey | Story on one site, products on another. Every click to “Shop” feels like leaving |
| Content and products | Blog posts and guides can't easily show live products, prices or reviews |
| Links and authority | Press, backlinks and content build up on the main domain, while the store sits apart |
| Analytics | Sessions split across two properties, so cross-domain tracking breaks or double-counts |
| Team workload | Two platforms, two logins and two design systems to maintain |
| Cost | Paying for a CMS and Shopify, plus developers who know both |
Why not just run Shopify in a /shop subfolder? Shopify connects to a root domain or a subdomain, not a subfolder. Serving a store at brand.com/shop takes a reverse proxy, and Shopify treats that as unsupported for a standard Liquid storefront: its edge servers detect proxied requests and reject them. For most DTC brands, the simpler fix is to move the whole site onto Shopify.
How did Solo Media Group merge the two sites into one Shopify store?
Solo Media Group rebuilt Lifelines as a single Shopify storefront on the main domain, with a fully custom theme designed in Figma. Here's what the project included:
1. Domain migration and platform consolidation
The marketing content from Contentful and the products from shop.lifelines.com moved into one Shopify store at lifelines.com. Both domains were unified without disrupting live traffic.
2. SEO migration
Old URLs from both sites had to point to their new homes. Every Contentful page and every shop.lifelines.com product URL needed a mapped 301 redirect to its new URL on lifelines.com. That's what lets the merged site keep the search history both domains had earned.
3. A fully custom Shopify theme from Figma
The theme was built from scratch, not adapted from a template. Every section is configurable, and every page can be managed by the Lifelines team without a developer from day one.
4. Conversion-focused landing page
The landing page leads with brand trust: benefit callouts, social proof and a direct path to purchase without scrolling past the fold. Reviews come from Junip.
5. Catalog and collection strategy
The FlowArt collection lives in one filterable product grid with a clear taxonomy. It's easier for shoppers to browse and simpler for the team to manage as the catalog grows.
6. Custom FlowArt bundle builder
Lifelines' kits needed bundle logic that native Shopify doesn't support. Solo Media Group built a custom bundle builder for it.
7. Smart cart with upsells
The cart drawer includes conditional upsell logic, special pricing and a progress bar toward free shipping. All three are designed to raise order value.
What were the results?
Within 2 months of launching the merged store, Lifelines saw growth across every core metric:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Sessions | +171% |
| Total sales | +78% |
| Orders | +53% |
| Conversion rate | 2.8% on a large influx of new traffic |
| Migration | Two domains unified without disrupting live traffic |
Source: Solo Media Group, Lifelines case study.
The speed matters: these gains came within the first 2 months, when a migrated site is usually still settling. The 2.8% conversion rate matters too, because it held up while traffic nearly tripled. New traffic usually converts lower. For context, Littledata's benchmark of 421 Shopify stores (June to September 2026) put the median Shopify conversion rate at 1.4%, with the top 20% at 2.6% or higher.
What can other brands learn from Lifelines?
Put your story and your store in the same place
The content that convinces shoppers should sit one click from the product, on the same site, with the same cart. Lifelines' landing page goes from benefits to social proof to purchase without a domain change.
Treat the migration as a redesign, not a copy
Moving two messy sites onto one platform is the moment to fix structure. Lifelines got a new taxonomy, a filterable catalog and a cart built to raise order value, not just a new address.
Plan the SEO before you move anything
Merging domains means two sets of URLs changing at once. Map every old URL to its new match, redirect with 301s, update internal links and submit the new sitemap. Skipping this is how consolidations lose traffic instead of gaining it.
Make the theme editable by your team
A custom theme shouldn't mean calling a developer for every banner. Lifelines' sections are all configurable, so the team can launch campaigns and new pages on their own.
Build custom only where native Shopify falls short
Lifelines used Shopify's native strengths for most of the store and went custom only where it mattered: the bundle builder and the smart cart logic.
How do you merge a website and a Shopify subdomain into one store?
Follow the same order Lifelines did:
- Inventory both sites. Crawl every URL on the main site and the shop subdomain. Pull 12 months of Search Console data for each.
- Decide what moves. Pages that earn traffic or links come across. Thin or outdated pages get merged or retired.
- Design one site. Plan navigation, templates and a catalog structure that serve both content and products.
- Build on Shopify. Recreate content as Shopify pages, blog posts and sections. Add custom features only where native Shopify can't do the job.
- Map every redirect. Both domains' old URLs point to their closest new match with a 301.
- Switch the primary domain. Make the main domain the store's primary domain, and redirect the old subdomain to it.
- Monitor. Watch Search Console for 404s and traffic changes on both old properties for at least three months.
For the full SEO steps, read our Shopify migration checklist.
Should you merge your website and Shopify store?
Merge them if your store is your main business. One domain gives you one shopper journey, one place for links and content to build authority, and one platform to run.
Merge when:
- Most revenue comes from the online store.
- Your content exists to sell products.
- Your team spends time keeping two sites in sync.
- Analytics across the two sites don't add up.
Keep them separate when:
- The main site serves a different audience, such as investors, B2B buyers or a large editorial publication.
- The store is a small side channel to a non-commerce business.
- A complex content platform does things Shopify can't, and moving it would cost more than it returns.
Need to merge your site and store?
Solo Media Group is a Shopify Platinum Partner that has completed 75+ replatforms and 500+ merchant projects, rated 4.9 on Clutch from 48 reviews. We led the Lifelines consolidation, from the Figma design to the SEO migration.
Frequently asked questions
Is it bad to have your Shopify store on a subdomain?
Not always, but it splits your shopper journey, analytics and site authority across two sites. Brands whose main business is the store usually do better with one domain.
Can Shopify run in a subfolder like /shop?
Not natively. Shopify connects to a root domain or a subdomain. A subfolder needs a reverse proxy, which Shopify treats as unsupported for a standard Liquid storefront and can reject outright.
Will merging two domains hurt SEO?
Not if every old URL on both sites is 301 redirected to its closest new page. Lifelines unified two domains without disrupting live traffic and grew sessions 171% within 2 months.
Can you migrate from Contentful to Shopify?
Yes. Lifelines moved its Contentful marketing content into Shopify pages and sections, built on a custom theme the team can edit without a developer.
What did Lifelines' new store include?
A custom Figma-designed theme, a filterable catalog, a custom FlowArt bundle builder, a smart cart with upsells and free-shipping progress, and Junip reviews.
