After a stalled migration, Apricot Power finally launched the custom platform it had waited years for.

Built to fit

A custom business had outgrown the technology beneath it.

Apricot Power has sold apricot seeds, vitamins, and wellness products since 1999. Its ecommerce platform was nearly as established as the company itself.

The original site, built around 2003 or 2004, had accumulated two decades of specialized reporting, operational tools, customer notes, and order history. Off-the-shelf platforms could not easily match that depth without a growing stack of modules, monthly costs, and updates that risked breaking important workflows.

For years, the custom .NET platform remained the practical choice. It gave Apricot Power control over its site, hosting, and the precise way its team worked. But the codebase was showing its age. Unsupported technology, dormant features, and an outdated customer experience made a rebuild increasingly urgent.

Stuck in migration

Eight months into a replacement project, the finish line was moving farther away.

Apricot Power’s first migration partner offered an attractive price. What followed was months of delay, incomplete work, and a growing burden on the customer’s internal team.

The vendor repeatedly delivered work without meaningful quality assurance. Apricot Power had to spend hours reviewing the site, documenting formatting problems, and returning hundreds of bugs, changes, and corrections. More troubling, essential backend requirements—especially historical data—were described as handled but were not reliably available when the team tried to use them.

For a lean business where people wear multiple hats, managing the migration had become a job on top of everyone’s real job. Apricot Power did not merely need another development vendor. It needed a team that could take responsibility for getting the platform across the finish line.

A different partner

Before making a promise, Larastaff did the homework.

The difference was visible before the engagement began: Larastaff studied the existing platform, asked detailed questions, and spoke concretely about the work required.

That preparation mattered. Apricot Power had already heard promises that did not survive contact with the real system. Larastaff’s assessment felt less like a sales pitch and more like an informed judgment that the teams were a good fit.

“It didn’t feel like you were trying to make a sale. It felt like you genuinely thought we were a good fit and that you could handle it.”

The rescue

The least visible work carried the greatest risk.

Rather than treating the project as a front-end redesign, Larastaff started with the parts that could not fail: payments, data, and the custom workflows behind the business.

1. Move 01

   Account for every business-critical workflow

   The teams identified the data and workflows built up over two decades, including customer histories, order records, internal notes, reporting, payments, and operational tools.

2. Move 02

   Rebuild the custom experience in Laravel

   Larastaff recreated the business-critical workflows on a maintainable modern platform, including accurate shipping calculations and a first-party affiliate experience.

3. Move 03

   Launch with people, not a handoff document

   Multiple developers prepared for launch. After go-live, Apricot Power met with the team daily to review a precise issue list, decisions, questions, owners, and delivery dates.

Back in control

The new platform makes life easier for customers, affiliates, and staff.

The new site does more than modernize the storefront. It returns control to a small team that needs its technology partner to reduce workload, not create another one.

Affiliates no longer need a separate website or password to find their links, sales history, and marketing materials. Customer service has a faster, more functional backend. When a change is needed, Apricot Power can bring it to a team that responds with a clear answer and a realistic delivery date.

The outcome Caleb emphasized was not only technical. After years of discussion, a stalled vendor, and a launch that once felt as though it might never happen, the company had finally crossed the finish line.

“It’s been an incredible experience, and it’s great to finally get over that hump. If you’re starting a new website, make sure you pick the right team.”