What Nick walked into
Killer Groom was already trading when Nick picked it up. Another agency did the original build. The store was live on Shopify, stocked, and taking orders. So this was not a blank page job. It was a working shop that needed better bones, a sharper brand and someone to actually run it.
That changes the whole approach. You cannot rip a live store back to the studs while customers are mid checkout. Every change had to land on a trading site without dropping an order or confusing a repeat buyer who already knew where things were.
To be clear about whose work this is: Nick did this in his role as Head of Brand and Digital Operations at Jaeco Industries, the company that owns Killer Groom. It is not client work, and it appears here with Jaeco's permission.
The rebuild
The rebuild covered the store front to back. Brand, photography, product pages, navigation, and the whole path from first visit to order confirmation. Six products carry the range: Matte Clay, Clay Royale, Original Pomade, Sea Salt spray, Volume Powder and Hair Butter. Each one got its own photography and a page that tells you what it does, what hold and finish to expect, and who it suits.
Grooming is bought on look and rebought on trust, so the photography did the heavy lifting. Every product was shot to read clearly on a phone screen, because that is where most customers look first. Consistent lighting and framing across the range, so the shelf reads as one brand instead of six random jars.
The store experience got the same treatment. Fewer clicks to product. A range that makes sense, so a Matte Clay buyer can find the Sea Salt spray without needing the search bar. Plain copy that answers the questions a barbershop customer actually asks.
The decisions that mattered
Repeat purchase is the whole game in grooming. Clay runs out. So the store runs Stack n Save mechanics: buy more units of the same product, pay less per unit. It rewards the customer who already trusts the product and lifts the order size without discounting the brand into the bargain bin.
Checkout got Afterpay and PayPal alongside cards. No clever theory behind that. A bloke buying pomade at 10pm should not have to get up and find his wallet. Every missing payment option is an excuse to close the tab.
Because the store was trading the whole time, the rebuild shipped in stages. Change, check, move on. Nothing went live untested, and the shop kept selling while the work happened around it.
What shipped, and why it's here
A rebuilt Shopify store, live at killergroom.com. Full six-product range, reshot photography, Stack n Save pricing, and Afterpay and PayPal at checkout. Nick has operated it since the rebuild: merchandising, promotions, content and the day-to-day running of a real store with real stock.
It sits in the Tea Break Studio portfolio because it shows the standard. If Tea Break Studio rebuilds your store, this is the thinking you get: respect for what already works, hard calls on what does not, and a shop that keeps selling while the work gets done. Tea Break Studio is Nick's studio in east Auckland. The Killer Groom brand and store belong to Jaeco Industries and are shown with their permission.
Where it landed
The rebuilt store is live and trading at killergroom.com, and Nick has run it day to day since the rebuild.