- Headless Marketing Site
- Integrated Shopify Store
A site that soars
- Client
- Skydio, Inc.
- Location
- Redwood City, California, USA
- Work
- UX/UI Design
- Web Development
- Systems Integration
- Growth & Ongoing Support
- Summary
Skydio is the leading U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight. Success in consumer, enterprise and public sectors in the U.S. led to international expansion and the tipping point for a move to an enterprise headless architecture.
- Our Approach
- Integrated platform with Shopify, Sanity, Netlify, Gatsby
- Custom content management solution built with Sanity.io
- Custom frontend built on the JAMSTACK (Gatsby)
- Pre-sale app-less reservation system custom built with Shopify Plus tools
- Custom media integrations built with Sanity + MuxVideo+
The approach
01Pre-flight product launch
When demand for Skydio’s drones exceeded production capabilities in 2019, the logical solution was pre-orders. It took 2 phases to build this custom reservation system. Phase 1 we built a pre-order landing page with deposit and notification functionality. Phase 2 we added discounts for reserved orders. With Shopify Flow, Scripts and customer tags, we built a system where customers could claim their pre-order in the right sequence as dictated by Skydio’s central ERP, Netsuite.
02A site built for major traffic
Site traffic skyrocketed when large-scale public entities and government agencies recognized the power/value of Skydio’s autonomous drones. With a headless content management system (CMS) Skydio needn't worry about confusion over which templates and sections needed to be duplicated to ensure the right content was displayed on the front end. We implemented as their headless CMS and used Gatsby to enable a shockingly fast site speed, even with big bursts in website traffic.
03Autonomous content control
Hockey stick growth meant Skydio’s marketing team had to keep up and get ahead. Operating at an accelerated pace to reach diverse audiences unconstrained by traditionally rigid content management was a priority. We set them up with incredibly flexible page building functionality with loads of custom content types like Flight School, educational video series and 3D Scan Gallery, and resource articles highlighting product features are easily created and managed directly by the Skydio team.
04Sit back, relax, and enjoy ALL of the video.
Video on the top U.S. drone manufacturer’s website was kind of a no brainer. Using Sanity and MuxVideo, we developed custom video experiences throughout the site. MuxVideo is an API that enables developers to build unique live and on-demand video experiences. This approach affords Skydio’s internal development team the ability to directly add, process, and optimize all kinds of video. They can post and stream and everything in between.
The impact
01A harmonized D2C and enterprise experience
Skydio’s site accommodates civilian, enterprise, government and military customers, globally. No small feat. From pre-sales lead nurturing and educational content to a streamlined shopping experience, we’ve empowered Skydio with an immersive site that seamlessly/directly aligns with their target audiences.
