The Pant Project x Iterator
E-COMMERCE · Shopify Plus · 2020 to Present
Snapshot
In 2020, Dhruv came to us with a bold question:
“How can we become India's #1 pant brand by 2030?”
Back then, The Pant Project was starting from scratch, but with a clear determination to redefine how people buy pants in India. Together, we built the digital foundations, scaled customer experiences, and turned that vision into a thriving D2C brand with strong repeat rates and a sustainable omnichannel growth engine.
Through our continuous engagement in the team-as-a-service model, The Pant Project has not hired a single in-house engineer, in their history.
Next stop: Series B.
The Challenge
While the idea was bold, execution wasn't simple. It came with certain challenges:
- •Platform: Shopify's 100-variant limit (at the time) was incompatible with The Pant Project's business model → custom made-on-order pants with unlimited combinations across each single SKU. Combine that with 15 different types of pants, then, men and women! Considering this complexity, Dhruv had initially disqualified Shopify as a platform of choice.
- •Customer facing communications: Shopify only allowed a standard set of order statuses, limiting the flexibility needed for custom-made products.
- •CX bottlenecks: Complete customization created hesitation in customers with respect to sizing, alterations, longer delivery times and lack of familiarity.
- •High repeat rates necessity: With acquisition costs rising, one-time purchases didn't justify spend- repeat rates were critical to sustainability.
- •Operational blind spots: Alterations, COD thresholds, and measurement data had no structured system.
The Results
- •₹ 100cr + revenue generated through online store over 5 years and growing YoY.
- •Over 3 Lakh customers served across ready-made and custom-made flows.
- •A complex business model simplified, with Shopify Plus and private applications.
- •~40% Customer Repeat rate.
- •Cart abandonment reduced through simplified login and checkout flows.
- •Hyper focused operational tech excellence with strategic interventions and tactical deployments across products, inventory, order fulfilment, customer support and omnichannel growth.
Build, Measure, Iterate.
1. Custom Theme on Shopify Plus & Private Applications
Knowing that friction was deadly for conversion, we introduced:
- •Unique Measurements: Each type of pant required unique sets of data that a customer needed to enter to correctly capture the order. The store admin could manage the required data set for each type of pant - without the need to code anything.
- •Instead of relying solely on Shopify's native variant system, we built a custom integration with our private OMS that dynamically pulled in variant data. This unlocked unlimited permutations and combinations. The store team and the customer were in complete control.
- •ReactJS Powered Dynamic Product Types: Allowing their team to create as many types of pants (templates) as they'd like, on-demand, in the admin panel. As the business was entering new categories, this reduced developer dependence and saved the businesses massive amounts of time, accelerating their speed-to-market. Blending Liquid with ReactJS was a superpower that unlocked a premium buying experience.
- •The captured data had to be passed to the factory floor securely. The downside was lost customer trust, operational overhead and sunk team time. Operational efficiency and reliable systems ensured a smooth and stress-free scale-up.
- •Multipass login: Safely migrated existing Shopify logins to new OTP based login including order histories. Customers could log in with OTP on their phone or fallback to email, reducing drop-offs.
- •Enhanced Customer Accounts: The brand offered customers a dashboard to track their orders, past alterations, saved measurements and additional
- •Cross Sells & Quick-Add: Convert a single pant to a bundle easily, recommendations that build your style and wardrobe and auto apply discounts engine helped us ~3x our conversion.
Why it mattered: Customers felt in control, had fewer steps to complete, and enjoyed a personalized experience. They could design their own style and fit seamlessly, while the backend stayed stable and scalable.
2. Bespoke OMS for Customized Fashion
Because returns and exchanges weren't viable for custom-made pants, we built a bespoke Order Management System:
- •Managed alterations end-to-end, turning a potential pain point into a loyalty driver.
- •Stored last-used measurements template wise, build recommendations logic and suggested them automatically for repeat purchases.
- •Thank You page questionnaires, a temporary makeshift CRM, the private app wore many hats!
- •Dynamic and automated transactional messaging across WhatsApp and email.
Why it mattered: The OMS became the brand's brain- powering both operations and personalized customer experiences.
3. Driving Repeat Rates in a High-CAC Market
We directly tackled the CAC challenge:
- •Customer Measurements Module: Leveraging our OMS, we saved the customers measurements against of each type of pant, order and alteration allowing repeat buyers to shop quick, and with confidence.
- •Consistent communication kept customers engaged post-purchase.
- •Recommendation engine suggested products using past measurements and preferences.
- •Stored alterations meant customers trusted re-orders would fit perfectly.
Why it mattered: Repeat purchases increased, CAC payback improved, and retention turned into a growth lever.
4. Prioritizing Performance
Performance is growth. Faster pages reduced drop-offs, improved ROAS, and creates a frictionless buying journey that turned intent into purchases.
We focused on speed and performance as non-negotiable levers for conversion. In just four months, we optimized for our consumers using Real User Monitoring Data, and not just Lighthouse scores.
p75 mobile perspective
- •Page Load Times: From ~7-8s, reduced PDP average load times to 1.8s and collection page to 1.6s.
- •Core Web Vitals: Improved passing rate from 40% to 92%, achieving 0 CLS across key pages.
- •Exterminated redundant third-party scripts, removed legacy integrations.
Why it mattered: The impact across the full funnel was directly measurable - all the way from page view → Add-to-Cart → Revenue.
In Summary
We didn't just build a website. We engineered a commerce engine that challenged Shopify's limits, prioritized business model over what's perceived as possible, built trust and simplified CX, and turned retention into profitability in a high-CAC market.
The Pant Project's journey from zero revenue to a thriving D2C brand proves how technology + continuous iteration can power sustainable growth.
The Work Goes On
Today, as we continue our partnership, the focus has shifted to the next chapter — building business-level CRM, treating inventory as a moat, and driving data-led growth with a ₹500 Cr lens.
“It's been fantastic to work with Iterator team for the past few years. They have helped us from Day 1 on our brand, and have a forward thinking solutions oriented approach to solving business problems through technology.”— Dhruv Toshniwal
