The Social Manila Shopify Website
A custom Shopify website designed and developed for The Social Manila Lifestyle, creating a polished multi-brand shopping experience for its growing portfolio of lifestyle brands, including Les Néréides Paris. We developed a custom Shopify theme that brings together brand storytelling, product discovery, collections, and e-commerce into one cohesive digital experience.
From Online Store to Digital Brand Experience
The Social Manila Lifestyle needed a digital experience that could bring its growing portfolio of lifestyle brands together while creating a polished and cohesive online shopping experience.
As the official distributor of Les Néréides Paris in the Philippines, The Social Manila also needed a platform that could properly showcase an international luxury lifestyle brand alongside its other curated brands.
The goal was simple: create a Shopify experience that feels like The Social Manila while making it easier for customers to discover, explore, and shop.
You can explore the redesigned website at thesocialmanila.com.
The Approach
We redesigned the website around brand discovery and product exploration, creating a visual experience that gives The Social Manila and its brands room to tell their stories.
Rather than treating the website as a standard online store, we focused on creating a digital environment where customers can discover different brands, collections, and products while maintaining a consistent overall experience.
The design was developed specifically for The Social Manila and implemented as a custom Shopify theme, allowing us to work within Shopify's existing e-commerce ecosystem while creating a more tailored front-end experience.
More Than a Template
The project wasn't about simply installing and customizing an off-the-shelf Shopify theme.
We developed a custom Shopify theme based on the design direction created for The Social Manila.
The website brings together several important parts of the customer experience:
- —Brand Discovery
Customers can explore the different brands available through The Social Manila. - —Collection & Product Browsing
Products and collections are organized to make discovery and shopping straightforward. - —Brand Storytelling
The design gives individual brands and collections space to communicate their identity. - —E-commerce Experience
Customers can browse products, add items to their cart, and complete purchases through Shopify's established e-commerce infrastructure.
This allowed us to focus our development efforts on the design, experience, and functionality of the storefront, while leveraging Shopify for the underlying e-commerce platform.
Designing for a Multi-Brand Experience
One of the main challenges was creating a website that could represent multiple brands without making the experience feel disconnected.
The Social Manila serves as the platform that brings these brands together, while each brand still needs to retain its own identity.
The design therefore balances two things:
The Social Manila's overall visual identity
and
the individual character of the brands it represents.
This is particularly important for Les Néréides Paris, an international French jewelry brand that The Social Manila officially distributes in the Philippines.
The website gives customers a dedicated space to discover Les Néréides collections while keeping the experience connected to The Social Manila's broader lifestyle offering.
Building the Shopify Experience
Our role was focused on transforming the approved design into a functional Shopify storefront.
We developed the custom theme to create a more intentional experience across the website, including the storefront layout, navigation, product presentation, collections, and other key customer touchpoints.
The result is a Shopify website that feels purpose-built for The Social Manila rather than like a generic e-commerce template.
The Result
The new website is designed to do three things:
Discover. Explore. Shop.
It gives customers a clearer way to discover The Social Manila's portfolio of lifestyle brands, explore their products and collections, and complete their purchases through Shopify.
More importantly, it gives The Social Manila a stronger digital home for its growing brand portfolio and its role as the official Philippine distributor of Les Néréides Paris.
Our Role
ITMonsters handled the website design implementation and custom Shopify theme development, translating The Social Manila's visual direction into a functional and responsive e-commerce experience.
We worked within Shopify's existing platform and capabilities rather than building a custom e-commerce system from scratch.
Special recognition goes to Luis, our Lead Developer, for leading the development and bringing the custom Shopify theme to life.
The Takeaway
A Shopify website doesn't have to look like a Shopify template.
For The Social Manila, we took the flexibility of Shopify and built a storefront around the brand's identity, its customers, and its growing portfolio of lifestyle brands.
The result is a digital experience that brings brand storytelling and e-commerce together, while giving customers a simple way to discover and shop.
We didn't just customize a Shopify theme. We designed a digital experience around the brand.
Let’s Design Your Story with a Website & System.
