Specialty Retail · Firearms Accessories
DeSantis Holsters Case Study
Solving product discovery for a specification-driven catalog where fit is everything.
DeSantis Holsters manufactures and sells holsters, magazine pouches, and accessories — each designed for specific firearm makes, models, and carry configurations. With thousands of SKUs and buyers who know exactly what they need, the challenge wasn't the product. It was making the right product findable. Arizon Digital restructured their catalog taxonomy and search experience to match how buyers actually shop.
The Challenge
A catalog built for the warehouse, not for the buyer
DeSantis makes a product that buyers select based on very specific parameters: firearm make and model, carry position, hand orientation, and intended use. But the catalog and search experience wasn't organized around those parameters — creating a discovery problem that looked like low conversion but was really a findability gap.
Buyers couldn't find by firearm model
The most natural search path — "holster for my Glock 19" — returned inconsistent results because catalog attributes weren't structured to support make/model filtering.
Taxonomy wasn't built for specifications
Product attributes were organized around internal naming conventions rather than the language and criteria buyers use when shopping for a fit-specific accessory.
Search returned too-broad results
Keyword searches surfaced large result sets with no way to narrow by the variables that actually determine fit: firearm brand, model, carry position, and draw orientation.
High abandonment on compatibility uncertainty
Buyers unsure whether a product fit their specific configuration were leaving the PDP without purchasing — creating lost revenue that looked like a merchandising problem but was actually a discovery problem.
New SKU entry was error-prone at scale
Adding products to a catalog defined by firearm compatibility required repeating complex attribute sets across hundreds of variants — a manual process prone to inconsistency.
The Solution
Specification-first catalog architecture and guided search
Arizon Digital reorganized DeSantis's catalog around the attributes buyers use to select a holster — then rebuilt search and filtering to surface the right products based on those specifications.
Discovery Experience
Guided Filtering by Firearm Specification
Arizon Digital implemented guided make/model/configuration filtering as the primary discovery path — letting buyers find holsters by specifying their firearm rather than browsing a flat product list.
- ✓Guided make/model/caliber filtering surfaced on search and category pages
- ✓Structured attribute taxonomy aligned to buyer intent, not internal SKU naming
- ✓Carry position and draw orientation as first-class filterable attributes
- ✓Compatibility-first PDP layout with clear fit confirmation before add-to-cart
Catalog & Search
Search Index Rebuilt Around Fit Attributes
The underlying search index and catalog data model were restructured so that specification attributes — not just product names and descriptions — drive relevance, faceting, and result ranking.
- ✓Search index rebuilt around specification attributes for relevance
- ✓Attribute-driven faceted filtering replacing keyword-only search
- ✓Catalog data model standardized to reduce new-SKU entry errors
- ✓Navigation and category architecture reorganized around buyer use cases
Key Outcomes
What changed for buyers and the business
The core outcome was a discovery experience buyers can use to find exactly what they need — without calling customer service to confirm fit.
Business Impact
Discovery that matches how buyers think about fit
When buyers can filter by what matters to them — make, model, carry position — they find the right product faster, with higher confidence. That clarity reduces abandonment and reduces support overhead for compatibility questions that should never reach a human.
- ✓Buyers can self-identify the right product for their specific firearm without contacting support
- ✓Reduced abandoned PDPs caused by unresolved compatibility uncertainty
- ✓Consistent catalog taxonomy makes new SKU addition faster and less error-prone
- ✓Foundation in place for expanded make/model catalog coverage over time
Technology Stack
Technology Stack
A specification-first commerce architecture built to match the way buyers select fit-critical products.
BigCommerce
Commerce platform
Search & Filtering Layer
Attribute-driven faceted search
Catalog Architecture
Specification-first taxonomy design
PDP Redesign
Compatibility-first product page layout
Complex catalog? Buyers who know what they want but can't find it?
Arizon Digital helps specialty retailers restructure catalog architecture and search to match how buyers actually navigate — turning product knowledge into discovery intelligence.