Project Context
- Client
- Aspen Fasteners
- Industry
- Fasteners
- Platform
- BigCommerce
- Initial engagement
- September 2018
Fasteners · BigCommerce Catalog Implementation
Aspen Fasteners: Making a complex fastener catalog work on BigCommerce
Arizon Digital built Aspen Fasteners’ BigCommerce storefront and delivered custom solutions for technical product filtering, large SKU families, order management, and search visibility.
Fastener catalogs contain closely related products differentiated by size, material, finish, and other technical specifications. Arizon Digital designed and launched Aspen’s online store, then added targeted customizations so customers could navigate those differences and Aspen’s team could manage orders with more flexibility. The initial engagement began in September 2018; later catalog, order, and visibility work continued on the same BigCommerce foundation.
BigCommerceTechnical CatalogFaceted FilteringOrder ManagementSearch Visibility
BigCommerceCommerce platform
FastenersIndustry
September 2018Initial engagement
Technical catalogCore implementation focus
Executive Summary
Arizon Digital built Aspen Fasteners’ BigCommerce storefront and delivered custom solutions for technical product filtering, large SKU families, order management, and search visibility.
The work demonstrates how targeted customization can address fastener-specific requirements within an existing commerce platform. Aspen remains on BigCommerce.
Business Challenge
A technical catalog that needed more than a standard storefront
Fastener catalogs contain closely related products differentiated by size, material, finish, and other technical specifications. Aspen needed a storefront that helped customers navigate those differences, supported large volumes of product data, and gave its team flexibility when handling orders. The work also addressed the 600-SKU-per-product limit encountered during implementation and search visibility challenges across similarly named products.
Closely related products, many specifications
Size, material, finish, and other technical attributes distinguish products that otherwise look similar, making default catalog navigation hard for buyers.
Large volumes of product data
The storefront needed to support a technical catalog at volume without losing the attributes customers use to choose the right fastener.
Limited flexibility in order handling
Aspen’s team needed a practical way to clone orders, change line items, select a different customer, and specify a separate shipping address.
SKU-family constraint encountered in implementation
The project encountered a 600-SKU-per-product limit during implementation. The solution treated that as a project constraint and added a custom handling path while BigCommerce remained the commerce platform.
Search visibility across similarly named products
Closely related SKU pages created duplicate-content and indexing challenges. Aspen needed a structured way to present product families without removing individual SKUs from the catalog.
What Arizon Digital Delivered
Targeted BigCommerce customization for a technical fastener catalog
Arizon Digital worked with Aspen through Envision, Construct, and Realize to design and launch the store, then implemented catalog, SKU-family, order, and visibility customizations around how fastener buyers and operations actually work.
A complete BigCommerce storefront
Delivery included storefront navigation and UI design, Stencil theme customization, base and advanced store settings, supporting application setup, and product data migration and configuration.
- Stakeholder reviews and user acceptance testing
- Testing across devices and browsers
- Project coordination and weekly status reporting
- Launch support on BigCommerce
Technical catalog navigation and filtering
We customized category-page descriptions to support product filtering and implemented faceted product discovery for Aspen’s technical catalog.
- Category-page descriptions structured to support filtering
- Faceted discovery across technical product attributes
- Navigation designed around how fastener buyers distinguish products
Custom handling for larger SKU families
We implemented a workaround for the 600-SKU-per-product limit encountered during the project. A hidden option field passed SKU data, supported by an additional Arizon database of SKUs, while BigCommerce remained the commerce platform.
- Hidden option field used to pass SKU data
- Additional Arizon database of SKUs to support larger families
- BigCommerce retained as the commerce platform
Flexible order management
Integer Order Docket enabled Aspen’s team to work with existing orders instead of rebuilding them from scratch.
- Clone an existing order
- Modify its line items
- Select a different customer
- Specify a separate shipping address
A visibility solution for closely related products
Arizon Digital implemented a visibility solution using a master-product architecture, beginning with the Hex Nuts category. Related SKU pages used canonical tags pointing to a representative product-family page, while individual SKUs remained available on BigCommerce.
- Master-product architecture piloted in the Hex Nuts category
- Canonical tags from related SKU pages to a representative product-family page
- Individual SKUs remained available on BigCommerce
- Updated crawler directives
- Segmented sitemaps for core pages, technical documents, and product categories
- A dedicated Hex Nuts pilot sitemap for focused indexing checks
Key Capabilities
Capabilities applied to the transformation
BigCommerce Storefront ImplementationStencil Theme CustomizationFaceted Product DiscoveryTechnical Catalog ConfigurationSKU-Family HandlingOrder ManagementProduct Data MigrationSearch Visibility Architecture
Business Outcomes
A completed storefront with fastener-specific customization
Aspen received a completed BigCommerce storefront with technical filtering, custom SKU handling, flexible order management, and a structured approach to catalog search visibility. The work demonstrates how targeted customization can address fastener-specific requirements within an existing commerce platform. Aspen remains on BigCommerce.
A live BigCommerce storefront
Aspen launched a complete online store with navigation, theme customization, store settings, supporting applications, and migrated product data.
Technical product filtering
Faceted discovery and category-page configuration help buyers narrow products by the specifications that distinguish fasteners.
SKU-family handling beyond the implementation constraint
Custom SKU handling addressed the 600-SKU-per-product limit encountered during the project without moving Aspen off BigCommerce.
More flexible order operations
Aspen’s team can clone orders, change line items, assign a different customer, and specify a separate shipping address.
A structured catalog visibility approach
The Hex Nuts pilot used a master-product architecture, canonical tags, crawler directives, and segmented sitemaps so closely related SKUs could remain in the catalog with a clearer family page for indexing checks.
Technology Stack
Integrated technology foundation
BigCommerce
Commerce platform for the storefront and catalog
Stencil Theme
Storefront UI customization and category-page configuration
Integer Order Docket
Order cloning, line-item edits, customer and shipping changes
Arizon SKU database
Supporting data store for larger SKU families
Canonical tags and sitemaps
Product-family visibility and focused indexing checks
Catalog & Search Visibility
Clearer product-family structure for ongoing catalog operations
The master-product architecture, faceted filtering, and segmented sitemaps organized Aspen’s closely related SKUs into a more consistent catalog structure. That structure supports storefront operations and later discovery work.
- Representative product-family pages for closely related SKUs
- Faceted filtering on technical attributes buyers use to choose fasteners
- Segmented sitemaps and crawler directives for more controlled indexing checks
- Catalog data remaining on BigCommerce for ongoing operations
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