Coldsmoke

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a new food product start up called Seia & Co. We are interested in providing consumers with convenient ultimate wellness food to meet all their grab-and-go needs throughout their day.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Coldsmoke Creative?

Coldsmoke built our website for us - creating a completely customized Shopify space that suited the exact needs of our specific company and goals.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have a super user-friendly website that is packed with information and is easy to purchase a product through 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were working with a branding agency who found Coldsmoke

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Coldsmoke took the design for the website that our branding agency developed and created a custom Shopify site for us. They were fantastic at addressing our individual needs and completed everything in a very short timeframe

What was the team composition?

We had a point person who I worked with directly who was truly fantastic with his responsiveness, feedback and execution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

I can not recommend Coldsmoke enough. It is hard enough starting your own company, so having people who you hire actually deliver a great product, be there any time you reach out, and truly understand your needs, is invaluable.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our branding agency connected us with our point person at Coldsmoke (Mark) and he helped us each step of the way, navigating our requests and executing on deliverables.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I loved working with Mark; the quality of the work was extremely professional, he was reliable, fast in his responsiveness and very very easy to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really to be honest

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of sallgüd, a clothing company that features an athleisure line. We launched a year and a half ago with Coldsmoke Creative’s help.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coldsmoke Creative?

We needed help with our website and the designs of many of our clothing items.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They completely designed and developed the UI/UX of our Shopify platform and got us up and running. Their development included other software integrations, too. They were also a partner in designing our clothing. We get our clothing from a separate service, and Coldsmoke was able to do the designs for those clothing items. It was super helpful to not have to do two separate companies for the design of our website, as well as the clothing.  

I helped them on the design end, while one of our more technical software employees helped give guidelines for the actual website components. We had some things that weren’t quite possible for the Shopify platform, and they were able to provide alternatives. It was nice to have our expectations set upfront.

What is the team composition?

Mark (Founder & CEO, Coldsmoke Creative) made sure everything was on target, and was our go-to person that we would speak to. There was one project coordinator, who kept things on our timeline. There was one software engineer who walked us through the technical aspects, which were at times above my head, but my employees were able to get what we needed in that regard. All of our concerns were taken care of and we were constantly talked to throughout the process.

How did you come to work with Coldsmoke Creative?

We interviewed a couple of different agencies, and really liked the design mockups they gave us with their proposal. They were also Shopify experts,  which was exactly what we were looking for. On top of all that, they were able to do the web design and clothing design, which was great. They were really helpful in communication, and they got back to us super quick with the proposal, getting back to us in less than 24 hours. Overall, we felt very comfortable with them, which is what led us to our decision to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project was actually done in phases, but it cost approximately $12,000 for the initial website launch and the initial designs.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project spanned October – December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They have been really great to work with. They’re very well-versed with how to use Shopify and leverage the metrics available to track our business and keep us on target SEO wise. It’s great that we don’t have to use a separate software. It’s been awesome, and really easy. Aside from small delays, we basically hit everything according to our timeline.

How did Coldsmoke Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

In their proposal, they provided a detailed timeline of when things would occur. They kept us on top of deadlines, which was great. We mostly used email and phone calls for communication, and sometimes Slack if we were getting a big group together.

If I just had a quick question, they were happy to get on the phone to talk me through issues that were above my head. They really made themselves available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mark is very personable, and it was great to work with him directly. They’ve been really responsive to date with any questions we have, which has been really helpful. The designer was also really great gave us guidelines on how many iterations we could have, which we appreciated

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of Epic Gardening, an educational gardening content provider. We sell curated gardening products and seeds online, helping millions of gardeners learn and grow through videos, blogs, podcasts, and an extensive e-commerce store.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Coldsmoke?

We needed help executing a rebrand of our e-commerce store and building out custom filtration and category landing pages.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Coldsmoke provided multiple brand refreshes, custom filters, design and development work, and integration with Shopify apps. The team also worked on our Botanical Interests seed store.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five teammates from Coldsmoke.

How did you come to work with Coldsmoke?

Our head of e-commerce at the time recommended Coldsmoke.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February 2024–August 2025.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Coldsmoke successfully rebranded our store, resulting in better conversions on certain categories and a conversion lift across our entire store.

How did Coldsmoke perform from a project management standpoint?

Coldsmoke delivered on time and was very professional. We communicated via email and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by Coldsmoke's breadth of skill sets and execution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything for Coldsmoke to improve.