Better Music

The
Project

Platform

Shopify Plus

Services

UX/UI & CRO

Data Driven UX & UI

Mobile / Desktop

Data

SEO

Competitor Landscape Analysis

Keyword & Audience Research

SEO Migration

Technical Audits

Technical Optimisation

Development

Better Music is one of Australia's most established independent music retailers, serving guitarists, pianists, drummers, producers, and audio professionals from their Canberra base for over two decades. The product catalogue spans thousands of SKUs across guitars, keyboards, drums, DJ equipment, brass and woodwind instruments, amplifiers, recording gear, and accessories — sourced from a network of approximately 20 suppliers, each with their own inventory systems, data formats, and fulfilment processes.

Better Music had been an OVERDOSE client since 2020, when the team delivered their original Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration. But as Adobe Commerce licensing costs climbed and the platform's complexity outpaced the needs of a specialist retailer, the conversation turned to Shopify. A first proposal in 2023 didn't progress, but when Better Music re-engaged in mid-2024, the timing was right. Their Algolia search contract was expiring, the Magento environment required constant maintenance, and the team was ready for a platform that would simplify operations without sacrificing the flexibility their business demanded.

OVERDOSE delivered a full migration from Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus using the Basecamp Horizon framework, tackling one of the most complex integration challenges in the portfolio: connecting approximately 20 supplier stock feeds in completely different formats to a single, unified Shopify inventory. The site launched in December 2025, just in time for the Christmas trading period.

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Integrations

Better Music's integration ecosystem reflects the reality of running an independent music retailer that sources from dozens of suppliers. At the centre of the architecture sits NetSuite, the ERP that manages pricing, order fulfilment, and financial reporting. OVERDOSE worked with NuageSync to implement Celigo as the middleware layer connecting NetSuite to Shopify Plus, handling real-time synchronisation of product data, pricing, inventory, and orders — with sync frequency increased to every 15 minutes to keep stock levels accurate across both platforms.

The most distinctive integration is DataJet, which solves a problem unique to Better Music's business model: approximately 20 suppliers provide stock feeds in completely different formats — different column headers, different stock status terminology, different file delivery methods (CSV via Dropbox, email, and FTP). DataJet standardises these disparate feeds into a unified format that Shopify can consume, giving Better Music a single source of truth for supplier availability. DataFeedWatch powers the Google Shopping product feed, while Shopify Flow automates product tagging and operational workflows that previously required manual intervention.

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Challenges  
+ Solutions

Challenge 01

Unifying 20 Supplier Stock Feeds with No Standard Format

Better Music sources from approximately 20 suppliers, and every single one provides inventory data differently. Some send CSVs via Dropbox, others via email. Column headers vary wildly — one supplier provides numeric stock counts, another uses letters (A, B, C), another uses phrases ("in stock", "low stock", "out of stock"). Some include pricing, others don't. There was no industry standard, no shared schema, and no way to manually reconcile 20 feeds at the speed an e-commerce operation requires.

SOLUTION

OVERDOSE's solutions architect designed a DataJet-powered integration that ingests all 20 supplier feeds regardless of format and normalises them into a unified Shopify-compatible inventory structure. Each feed was individually mapped — column headers translated, stock status values standardised, and delivery methods accommodated (Dropbox, email, FTP). The result is a single automated pipeline that keeps Better Music's online stock levels accurate without manual intervention, replacing what had been a significant operational burden on the Magento platform.

Challenge 02

Migrating Off Adobe Commerce Without Losing a Six-Year Platform Investment

Better Music's relationship with Adobe Commerce stretched back to 2020, when OVERDOSE built their Magento 2 environment. Over six years, the platform had accumulated custom functionality, integrations, product data structures, and SEO equity. Walking away from all of that carried real risk — particularly with the Christmas trading period approaching and no room for a prolonged parallel-run.

SOLUTION

OVERDOSE leveraged their intimate knowledge of Better Music's Magento environment — having built it themselves — to plan a migration that preserved what mattered and improved what didn't. The team used the Basecamp Horizon framework to accelerate the Shopify build, compressing the timeline to approximately 12 weeks from kickoff to launch. Product data, customer records, and order history were migrated systematically, with the design team using the opportunity to modernise the UX rather than simply replicating the Magento experience. The site launched in December 2025, with DNS switched directly from Magento to Shopify in a single cutover.

Challenge 03

Running Promotional Pricing Without Disrupting ERP Data

Better Music regularly runs category-wide promotions — "10% off all guitars" or seasonal sale events like Boxing Day. On Magento, these promotions could be managed through platform-native pricing rules. On Shopify, there's no native equivalent that allows percentage-based discounts across a category without modifying the actual product price — which would flow back into NetSuite and corrupt the ERP pricing data. For a retailer that relies on NetSuite as the single source of truth for pricing, this was a potential dealbreaker.

SOLUTION

The team implemented Discount Kit, a Shopify app that enables automatic discount rules at the collection level without modifying the underlying product price in Shopify or NetSuite. This means Better Music can run "10% off all guitars" promotions that display the discounted price to customers while preserving the original price in both Shopify admin and NetSuite. The solution was tested extensively through the first Boxing Day sale on the new platform, processing promotional pricing across thousands of SKUs without a single ERP sync issue.

Challenge 04

Getting Google Shopping Live Without Product Disapprovals

Better Music depends on Google Shopping for a significant portion of their online traffic. The migration changed product URLs, and the DataFeedWatch integration that powers the Google Merchant Centre feed needed to be reconfigured for the new Shopify data structure. Post-launch, the team discovered a 403 error blocking the feed entirely, and separately, Google was disapproving products due to a mismatch between "Pre Order" messaging on the site and the availability values in the feed.

SOLUTION

The DataFeedWatch 403 error was escalated and resolved within days of launch through coordination with Shopify's partner support team. The product disapproval issue was traced to a semantic mismatch: Google's policies require specific availability values, and "Pre Order" didn't map cleanly to their accepted terms. The team updated the site messaging from "Pre Order" to "Backorder" to align with Google Merchant Centre requirements, then worked with the marketing team to re-submit affected products. The feed was restored to full health before the Christmas trading period hit peak volume.

Challenge 05

Resolving Tax and Shipping Sync Conflicts Between NetSuite and Shopify

The NetSuite-to-Shopify integration surfaced several edge cases that only became apparent with live transaction data. Tax calculations were syncing inconsistently between the two platforms, shipping methods were defaulting to "Free Shipping" regardless of the actual method selected by the customer, and special pricing rules that existed in NetSuite for certain customer segments weren't translating cleanly to Shopify's discount architecture.

SOLUTION

OVERDOSE's integration team ran a dedicated tax issue review session within 48 hours of launch, mapping every discrepancy between NetSuite and Shopify's tax logic. Shipping method mapping was corrected in the Celigo configuration to pass the actual selected method rather than a default value. Special pricing for specific customer segments was addressed through a mass adjustment workflow across 20,000 SKUs, ensuring pricing parity between NetSuite and Shopify. Inventory sync frequency was increased from hourly to every 15 minutes to reduce the window for stock discrepancies during high-traffic periods.

Challenge 06

Eliminating Duplicate Conversion Tracking Across Multiple Google Touchpoints

Better Music had Google Ads conversion tracking configured in both GTM and the Shopify Google & YouTube Sales Channel — a common post-migration issue that results in double-counted conversions and inflated ROAS reporting. The add-to-cart event was also missing from the tracking implementation, creating a gap in the conversion funnel data that the marketing team relied on for campaign optimisation.

SOLUTION

The team audited the full tracking stack and identified that the Google & YouTube Sales Channel was firing its own conversion tags independently of GTM. The fix was to disconnect Google Ads from the Sales Channel and consolidate all conversion tracking through a single GTM container managed by Elevar. The add-to-cart event was added to the dataLayer, restoring full funnel visibility. The cleanup was completed within weeks of launch, giving the marketing team clean data heading into the January sales period.

From Music Store to Digital Showroom

Better Music's customers span a wide spectrum — from the beginner shopping for their first acoustic guitar to the professional audio engineer specifying studio monitors. The UX needed to serve both, providing intuitive category navigation for browsers while supporting the deep specification searches that musicians rely on when comparing instruments and gear.

The design team built on the Basecamp Horizon framework, creating a visual identity that balances Better Music's established brand with a modern, performance-focused shopping experience. The homepage was designed to showcase key product categories and brand partnerships prominently, with a mega menu that organises the catalogue by instrument type, brand, and use case — reflecting how musicians actually shop rather than how inventory is structured internally.

Product detail pages were designed with the depth that musical instrument retail demands. Metafields power structured specification displays for technical attributes — string count, pickup configuration, wattage, frequency response — allowing customers to compare instruments at the level of detail they expect from a specialist retailer. The design maintains full responsiveness across devices, ensuring that the specification-rich experience translates cleanly to mobile without compromising readability or interaction quality.