Mr Pixel: Strategy and a Shopify Rebuild for a Retro Game Store
How a small Auckland store selling pre-owned games and consoles got a growth plan built from its own data, a rebuilt Shopify theme and a catalog written for search.
A retro gaming store selling pre-owned games and consoles, each one cleaned and tested.
A growth plan, a Shopify theme rebuild, catalog SEO and blog articles.
A customized Spotlight theme, built in Liquid, CSS and JavaScript.
Strategy first, then the theme, which went live on 2 September 2026.
Where We Started
Mr Pixel had the hard part sorted: good stock, fair prices and a promise that every item is cleaned and tested before it ships. The aim was a website that puts all of that front and center.
The catalog had grown quickly, to more than 1,100 products, and the homepage had grown with it. So before touching the design, I looked at what the store’s own data said about what customers wanted and how they shop.
1,130
products in the catalog when the work began
$50.01 vs $33.57
average price of sold-out items against items still in stock
886
product descriptions rewritten for search
What the Data Showed
A product export, Shopify sales and Search Console queries pointed to clear opportunities, most of them quick to act on.
- Sold-out items averaged $50.01 against $33.57 for items in stock: the higher-value pieces were selling first
- Consoles were in demand, with 11 of 22 listings sold out, and a console is often the purchase that games and accessories follow
- Free shipping works best just above a typical order, so the $199 threshold was worth revisiting
- Cross-sells were ready to add, pairing each console with the games and accessories that go with it
- Disc resurfacing, one of the store's own services, was ready to become something customers could buy online
What the Store Changed
- Free shipping now starts at $99
- Disc resurfacing is a product customers can buy
- Customer reviews sit on the homepage
- Consoles have their own homepage section
The Shopify Rebuild
The theme is a customized Spotlight build, rebuilt page by page and published on 2 September 2026. Each change was shaped by the store’s data and by how people browse on a phone. Tap the numbered points on the screens below to see why each part is there.
- Homepage: platform tabs with a row per console that links straight to its games, consoles and accessories
- Product pages: platform, availability, model options and pickup details near the top
- Collection and search pages restyled to match
- The Pixel Club sign-up and customer reviews
- Navigation organized by platform
Search sits at the top left of every page, so shoppers who know the title they want can skip the menus.
Buy and Services open into their own menus, and the Pixel Club gets a star of its own so it's easy to find.
Full-width slides, each pairing one offer with a cut-out product shot, with arrows to move between them.
Each slide has a tab with a bar that fills while it plays, and a pause button stops the motion for anyone who wants it still.
Tap a numbered point, on the image or here, to see why it's there.
A large, rounded photo frame on a soft grey backdrop, so buyers can judge a pre-owned item's condition.
Shows the platform and category the item belongs to, with a link back to each. Shoppers can step across to more PlayStation 2 stock, and search engines get a clear map of the catalog.
Price and stock status sit side by side at the top, so a shopper knows straight away whether the item is ready to buy.
Each model is its own option. Sold-out models stay listed and say so, so shoppers see the whole range and never land on a dead end.
Pickup from Pokeno, ready within 24 hours on weekdays, shown just above Add to cart so local buyers see it before they check out.
Free NZ shipping over $99, cleaned and tested stock and fast local support, in one line under Add to cart.
Tap a numbered point, on the image or here, to see why it's there.
Free shipping on orders over $99 runs across the top of every page. The growth plan brought the threshold down from $199.
Slides at the top, one of them leading with the console range, since a console is often the purchase that games and accessories follow.
Retro hire, $20 and under and Consoles sit as tabs under the slides, each with a bar that fills while its slide plays. One tap jumps to the one a shopper wants.
PlayStation, Nintendo, Sega and Xbox as tabs. One tap swaps the consoles below, so shoppers go straight to the systems they own.
Each console gets a row with straight links to its games, consoles and accessories, under a Shop all banner for the whole platform.
Tap a numbered point, on the image or here, to see why it's there.
Consoles get their own homepage section. They're often a customer's first purchase, and the games and accessories come after.
Each card shows its price and an Available chip, so shoppers click through to things they can buy today.
A panel beside the grid repeats the store's promises: cleaned and checked, free shipping over $99 and easy returns.
One button to the full console collection, for anyone who wants to browse the lot.
Tap a numbered point, on the image or here, to see why it's there.
Search and the Catalog
The theme looks after shoppers once they arrive. The catalog’s search data helps them arrive in the first place, so that work ran alongside the rebuild.
A meta description is the short summary under a page’s title in search results. When one is missing, the search engine improvises its own from the page. When several products share one, they look alike in the results. When one runs long, it gets cut off mid-sentence. 886 of the 1,130 product pages had room to improve on one of these counts, so each now has its own description, written to fit.
- Wrote 49 SEO titles and merged duplicate product types
- Rewrote 886 product meta descriptions so each one is unique and shows in full
- Built a bulk upload pipeline that detects platform and edition, including PS2 Platinum releases
- Set up monthly Search Console reports that show what people search for before they arrive
- Published five articles on the store's blog
What Mr Pixel Has Now
- A growth plan ranked by return on effort
- A rebuilt Shopify theme, live since 2 September 2026
- Search descriptions written for 886 products
- A faster way to list new stock
- Five articles on the store's blog
Currently taking new projects
Let's Work Together
Running an online store and want it working harder? Tell me about it. You’ll hear back within two working days.