Overview

James Said is one of Australia's most prestigious luxury furniture and interior design destinations, with flagship showrooms in Melbourne's Armadale and Sydney's Paddington, and a curated online catalogue of over 3,000 premium designer products. From bespoke furniture to exclusive collaborations with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, James Said represents the pinnacle of refined living.

Serving both discerning residential customers and the commercial hospitality sector, James Said needed a digital platform as refined as its product offering. The existing Magento instance had fallen behind — limiting performance, security, and the ability to scale. Playtime Group partnered with James Said to deliver a full-scope platform transformation — upgrading from Magento 2.4.0 to 2.4.8, building a custom Cin7 inventory integration for real-time multi-channel stock management, redesigning the entire header and homepage experience, and implementing enterprise-grade performance and security enhancements across the site.

Highlights

  • Complete Platform Upgrade: Migrated Magento from version 2.4.0 to 2.4.8, ensuring access to the latest security patches, performance improvements, and platform capabilities — all delivered seamlessly without disrupting the live store or day-to-day trading.
  • Custom Cin7 Inventory Integration: Developed a bespoke REST API integration with Cin7, enabling real-time inventory synchronisation across James Said's retail and trade store views. The solution eliminates manual stock management, reduces overselling risk, and ensures accurate availability across all channels.
  • Header & Homepage Redesign: Designed and built a completely new header system with responsive navigation, custom SVG iconography, and a sophisticated blur-effect mobile menu — alongside a refreshed homepage featuring dynamic product sliders and an updated visual hierarchy that reflects the brand's luxury positioning.
  • Performance Optimisation: Implemented Varnish full-page caching via JetRails and configured CDN with proper CORS headers, dramatically improving page load speeds across the entire 3,000+ product catalogue — delivering the fast, fluid browsing experience luxury customers expect.
  • Security Hardening: Introduced Google reCAPTCHA across all public-facing forms — including customer registration, trade account applications, newsletter subscriptions, and booking forms — along with POST form restrictions, email header patches, and enhanced security configurations.
  • Search & Discovery Improvements: Refined Elasticsearch search filters for more accurate product results and optimised the product grid layout from 5 to 6 columns, improving visual density and product discoverability across category pages.

Results

  • Faster, Premium Experience: Varnish caching and CDN optimisation delivered significantly faster page loads across all 3,000+ products — creating the seamless, luxury browsing experience the brand demands.
  • Automated Inventory Operations: Real-time Cin7 synchronisation eliminated manual stock updates across retail and trade channels, reducing overselling risk and freeing the team to focus on growth.
  • Modernised Brand Experience: The redesigned header, homepage, and responsive navigation now reflect the premium positioning customers expect from Australia's leading luxury furniture destination.
  • Future-Ready Platform: Magento 2.4.8 with enterprise-grade security hardening provides a stable, scalable foundation — positioning James Said for continued digital expansion across residential and hospitality markets.