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Before / After · Case Study

Big Moose Hemp — rebuilt to survive the day 86% of its catalog becomes illegal

  • Hemp / CBD

A federal ban lands November 12 and outlaws most of what this hemp brand sells, and their old page-builder store had no way to tell which products were on which side of the line. The store was rebuilt so every product carries its own legal status — the cutoff happens with one switch flip instead of a midnight scramble, and orders, customers, and marketing consent all came along for the ride.

“When the legal catalog shrinks 86% on a fixed date, the platform has to know which SKU is on which side of the line — and Wix never could.”
new.bigmoosehemp.com (rebuild, live)↗admin.bigmoosehemp.com (commerce admin)↗bigmoosehemp.com (legacy Wix)↗Repo → og-gitclaw/bigmoose_headless↗
🔒https://new.bigmoosehemp.com
jackiej.events — modern site

At a glance

What this rebuild covers.

  • Selling & payments

    Payments moved off the old builder's single locked-in card rail onto a hemp-friendly processor the brand controls directly, with a backup rail already wired.

  • Security

    All 23,924 legacy contacts were sorted into legal tiers before import, so anyone who never opted in is walled off from marketing permanently — consent is a fact in the database, not a promise.

  • App builds

    Orders, customers, and per-order timelines run in a live admin that installs on a phone, so the owner can run the store from anywhere.

  • Agents

    Staff queue content and design ideas around the clock, an AI crew drafts and sorts them into review lanes, and nothing ships until the owner taps approve.

  • Email

    Order confirmation, shipping, and delivery emails were each sent and verified landing in a real inbox before launch — the notification chain is proven, not assumed.

  • Customer notifications

    Text-message updates go only to customers who opted in; consent is re-checked on every single send so the store never texts a stranger.

  • Search visibility

    Every old store address forwards permanently to its new home, and the sitemap hides banned products automatically once the deadline passes — rankings carry over, illegal listings don't.

Receipts — measured

Numbers that moved.

0%
Catalog removed by P.L. 119-37 on Nov 12 2026
was 0%
0orders
Historical Wix orders materialized into Medusa
was 0orders
0products
SKUs migrated off Wix V1
was 0products
0
Legacy Wix contacts audited + stratified
was 0
0
Bulk-import contacts quarantined CRM-only (TCPA/CAN-SPAM safe)
was 0
43
Manual SKU sweeps required on Nov 12
was 43
  • 86% of catalog auto-flagged before the ban
  • 43 midnight delistings → 1 switch
  • 142 past orders carried over
  • 23,924 contacts audited for consent

The pixel diff

Overview, then the walkthrough.

Left: everything the legacy site shipped — frozen in place. Right: an auto-scrolling tour of the rebuild, from hero to booking. No slider to fight with.

Before — the overview
🔒https://bigmoosehemp.com
Before — the overview

This is everything the legacy site had to offer above the fold. No pricing, no calendar, no booking — the funnel ended at a mailto.

After — scroll through what shipped
🔒https://new.bigmoosehemp.com
After — scroll through what shipped

Auto-scrolls through the modern site so you can see the booking surface, the package grid, the pricing table, and the calendar inline — without leaving this page.

The four beats

Problem · Insight · Build · Outcome.

Scroll past the legacy frame. The four beats land in order. At the end, the modern site fades into the same window.

🔒https://bigmoosehemp.com
Legacy
01 · Problem

A platform about to lose 86% of its legal catalog on a fixed date

Wix's V1 catalog, deprecated blog API, and locked-in schema couldn't support the structural work needed to survive the November 12, 2026 federal hemp ban (P.L. 119-37). THCa + THCP + Δ9 gummies become Schedule I substances under the new total-THC rule, and Wix exposed neither the compliance controls nor the payment-policy controls the pivot required. The runway to ship a new stack and rebuild the product line was 207 days.

02 · Insight

Make the cutoff a data fact, not a content edit

Farm Bill hemp (≤0.3% Δ9) is shippable via card networks; post-ban legality turns on total-THC per SKU. Compute that bright line once at migration, store it on the product, and query it at runtime. The Phase 2 cutoff becomes a flag flip, not a 43-SKU hand sweep at midnight on Nov 11 — and a headless rebuild can separate the compliant and non-compliant paths at the database and checkout layer.

03 · Build

Medusa 2.x backend + Next 15 storefront + total-THC pipeline

Why Medusa: MIT-licensed, owns the data model, plugin ecosystem for payments + shipping. Why Next.js 15: RSC + ISR for SEO, Vercel-native, every file AI-editable. The migration script computes total-THC for every Wix SKU before it lands in Medusa; AlpineIQ + Klaviyo + Bland keep the messaging surfaces running off the customer table. 551 TypeScript files across 229 commits, 8 test suites, with a global side-effect kill-switch flag to prevent double-notifies during migration.

04 · Outcome

new.bigmoosehemp.com live; the cutoff is one query, not 43 delistings

Storefront deployed to Vercel (the production hosting project); Medusa backend on Railway (reliable-prosperity). Compliance automation — total-THC calculator, state ship-blocks, container-cap audits, dynamic sitemap filtering — is live. Clover Ecommerce (sandbox) is wired; production MID awaits GPS ISO approval and real orders remain gated while the kill-switch stays on for Wix-archive orders. DNS cutover to apex bigmoosehemp.com is pending Brendon's approval; the legacy Wix site is still live at the apex.

05 · Compounding

The same backend now runs marketing, sales, CS, and a 24/7 approval crew

Once the catalog lived in Medusa, every adjacent surface got to share it. Retention reads the customer table; transactional comms fire off order events; a live JWT-bridged mobile admin shows orders and timelines; and a Slack-fed AI approval queue lets staff and agents propose content and design changes around the clock while the owner keeps the only key that ships anything live. Each agent runs a narrow, named job on real data and hands edge cases to a human queue — so the system gets more capable without the agents losing the plot.

🔒https://new.bigmoosehemp.com
Modern
For the technically curiousHow it was done
  1. 01

    Where it started

    The store ran on Wix Studio: a V1 catalog schema, a deprecated blog API, a subscriber list locked inside the platform, and Square payments routed through a Wix payments add-on — a single rail the brand didn't control. There was no API access, no mobile ops surface, and no way to attach compliance data to a product.

  2. 02

    The deadline that forced it

    The November 12, 2026 federal hemp ban (P.L. 119-37) outlaws roughly 86% of the catalog under a new total-THC rule. Wix exposed neither the compliance controls nor the payment-policy controls the pivot required, and the runway to ship a replacement was 207 days. Staying meant hand-sweeping 43 products at midnight and hoping nothing was missed.

  3. 03

    The rebuild

    Everything was exported off Wix and rebuilt on our commerce engine and a managed database: 142 historical orders materialized with their exact payment and fulfillment history, and all 23,924 legacy contacts pulled through the Wix contacts API and classified into five consent tiers — only fully-cleared contacts are marketable, and bulk-import leads were quarantined as records-only. Each product's total-THC fraction was computed once at migration time and stored on the product, so legality became a data fact. 551 source files landed across 229 commits with 8 test suites.

  4. 04

    What runs now

    A three-phase compliance flag drives product visibility, the active payment rail, and on-site copy in lockstep — the ban-day cutover is a single query against stored total-THC, not a content edit. Ship-blocks for six restricted states run at every add-to-cart and checkout. Orders fan out a verified email chain plus consent-gated text messages, bounced or complaining addresses are suppressed automatically and fail closed, and a live admin reads real store data over a secure bridge from a phone.

  5. 05

    What the owner does now

    Team chat feeds an approval queue: an AI classifier triages staff submissions into review lanes every few minutes, drafts wait on the brand owner, and design changes assemble a preview that only the account owner can promote — the owner keeps the only key that ships anything live. Old Wix URLs redirect permanently to their new pages so search equity survived the platform change, and the same backend that started as a survival migration now runs marketing, sales, and customer service for the whole brand.

Architecture

Old stack
  • Black-box page builder
  • Wix V1 catalog + deprecated blog API
  • Wix subscriber list (locked in)
  • Wix dashboard (no API, no mobile ops)
  • Square via WIX-PAY-PRO (single rail)
  • No automation, no approval workflow
↓
New stack
  • modern web framework
  • managed Postgres
  • self-hosted mail server
  • Live JWT-bridged admin (orders, timeline, mobile PWA)
  • Clover high-risk rail (Aeropay backup; Phase-2 Stripe planned)
  • Slack-ingested AI approval queue, owner-gated promotion
  • Custom compliance automation + SEO via ISR + RSC

What changed, with evidence

Design

Compliance automation by law — the cutoff is a query, not a sweep

Each SKU's total-THC fraction (total = THCa × 0.877 + Δ9 + synthetics) is computed once at Wix → Medusa migration time and stored on the product. The Phase 2 Sunset cutoff is a database query — WHERE total_thc <= 0.003 — not a hand-curated list, so there is no room for a missed delisting on Nov 12. State ship-blocks (HI/ID/IA/MS/NH/SD) and container-cap audits run at every add-to-cart and checkout.

Before
Wix had no cannabis-specific compliance tooling; Brendon manually tracked SKU legality
After
Medusa workflows reject non-compliant SKUs at the API level, surfacing inline errors to the customer UI
Retention

142 historical orders + a consent-stratified customer archive

Exported the Wix order transaction API and materialized 142 orders (#10001–10142) into Medusa Postgres with exact payment/fulfillment history. 16,881 email / 11,354 phone / 7,043 phone-only SMS customers were migrated to Medusa + Neon ops DB with import-source=wix_archive tags and full consent preservation. Separately, all 23,924 legacy Wix contacts were audited and classified into five legal tiers; only 116 cleared as marketable, while 16,712 bulk-import leads were written CRM-only (crm_only=true) so no Klaviyo/AIQ sync ever touches them. CAN-SPAM/TCPA compliance is a column, not a promise.

Before
Wix warehouse; orders + subscribers live only on Wix (not portable)
After
Orders + customers live in Medusa/Neon, queryable, archivable, consent-tiered
  • 142 orders (#10001–10142) live in Medusa Postgres, queryable and not dependent on Wix
  • 23,924 contacts audited via the Wix Contacts v4 API; 116 green-tier marketable; 0 red-tier ever written
  • Stratifier: scripts/wix-customer-import-stratified.ts (5-tier classifier)
Retention

Three-phase strategy baked into the schema

Phase 1 (Liquidation, Apr 19 → Oct 31): full catalog on current rails. Phase 2 (Sunset, Nov 1–11): only compliant SKUs visible, fallback payment rail. Phase 3 (Post-ban, Nov 12 →): adaptogen coffee + CBD/CBG wellness + compliant smokable hemp. The phase is a runtime flag; product visibility, payment rail, and compliance copy all consult it — so the pivot is a flag flip, not a content emergency.

Before
Wix had no concept of a future-dated catalog cutover
After
A runtime phase flag drives visibility, payment rail, and compliance copy in lockstep
Agent backbone

A Slack-driven, human-gated approval pipeline — agents draft, the owner ships

Staff and superusers queue content and design work into Slack; a 5-minute cron ingests it, an AI classifier routes it into one of eight action kinds across two review lanes, and nothing reaches a customer or production without a human tap. Content drafts (SMS/email/blog) wait on the brand owner; site-design changes assemble a Vercel preview and wait on the account owner to promote. The agents operate on real store data and hand edge cases to a review queue instead of guessing.

Before
Wix inbox locked; no AI assistance; no custom order-approval workflows
After
In-house chat + email threading; AI-classified approval queue; ops queue visible in admin
  • Neon bmh-storefront-ops: triage_queue, superuser_uploads, design_requests, approval_audit
  • canPromoteToProd() = owner-only hard gate, re-checked server-side on every ship action
  • Every state transition written to an append-only approval_audit table
  • Wix inbox port (PR #70): live-visitor presence + multi-threaded email (Wix-parity)
Real-time push

Order → confirmed → shipped → delivered, verified end-to-end to a real inbox

The transactional spine isn't a stub. An order fires confirmation, shipping (with carrier tracking), and delivery emails — each rendered, sent, and confirmed landing in a real IMAP inbox. The send path is Resend → AWS SES → a self-hosted Stalwart mail server on verified domains. Customer SMS rides AlpineIQ's v2 transactional endpoint, consent-gated against AIQ's own opt-out suppression so it never texts a stranger.

Before
Square-via-WIX-PAY-PRO with email-only, platform-controlled comms
After
Direct Clover REST + 3 IMAP-verified transactional emails + consent-gated SMS
  • 3/3 lifecycle emails delivered + IMAP-confirmed (Resend → SES → Stalwart)
  • AIQ migrated off dead v1.1 → POST /api/v2/sms + GET /api/v2/loyalty/lookup
  • Order-placed webhook fans out: email + consent-gated SMS + AIQ retention tag
  • SES bounce/complaint → identity suppression, fail-closed
Real-time push

Payment processor escape from Square via Wix

Clover high-risk processor (hemp-friendly ISO reseller) is wired as primary with Aeropay (ACH) as backup; Square is abandoned. Medusa payment modules handle tokenization, capture, void, and webhook reconciliation; a Phase-2 Stripe rail is planned through the same abstraction. Sandbox creds are wired; production MID awaits GPS ISO approval.

Before
Square-via-WIX-PAY-PRO (subject to platform bans during reputational cycles)
After
Direct Clover REST integration; full SLA and risk control owned by Brendon
Design

An operating surface, not just a storefront — live Medusa-backed admin on mobile

The old store had a Wix dashboard. The rebuild has an admin that reads live from Medusa over a Bearer-JWT bridge: orders with payment + fulfillment status pills, a per-order activity timeline (placed/paid/shipped/delivered), search and filters, and an iOS-style bottom nav so it runs as an installable PWA from a phone. A customer preferences page round-trips consent to the cross-brand OG.Life identity layer so a shopper never opts in four times. Every component, page, and workflow is TypeScript in git — 76 storefront pages + 38 backend modules, AI-editable from day one.

Before
Wix drag-and-drop; custom code required Wix HTML-widget knowledge
After
Next.js App Router + RSC; shadcn/ui; Tailwind; Medusa workflows in TypeScript
  • /admin/orders renders 'Live from Medusa' over admin.bigmoosehemp.com (JWT-authed)
  • Per-order timeline + status pills + search/filter; mobile bottom-nav PWA
  • /preferences/[token] ↔ OG.Life biz-preferences webhook (HMAC-signed)
  • 76 storefront pages + 38 backend modules; no page-builder black box
Retention

SEO parity maintained via 301s + ISR

Wix URLs redirect to Medusa equivalents (generated by scripts/generate-301-redirects.ts). ISR (revalidate: 3600) + RSC drive SEO, and a dynamic sitemap filters by compliance phase after Nov 12. A middleware-owned redirect map prevents losing organic equity through the platform change.

Before
Wix-hosted URLs with Wix domain authority; risk of lost traffic on platform change
After
Owned domain; ISR caching; 301-protected old URLs; dynamic compliance filtering in sitemap

While the owner sleeps.

Autonomous surfaces

The agent backbone keeps the brand earning after hours. The owner approves; the system runs.

  • Tags SKUs by phase eligibility at migration time

    once per SKU at migration; queried on every page render

    Per-SKU total-THC is computed during the Wix → Medusa migration and stored on the product. Phase visibility is a single query (WHERE total_thc <= 0.003) at runtime.

  • Keeps the messaging surfaces decoupled from the catalog

    continuous

    AlpineIQ (SMS), Klaviyo (email), and Bland (outbound voice) all read from the Medusa customer table. The audience survives the catalog pivot.

  • Ingests Slack into a triaged approval queue

    every 5 minutes

    Staff and superusers post content/design work into Slack; a cron pulls new messages, an AI classifier sorts them into eight action kinds and two review lanes, and items wait for human approval — content for the brand owner, design for the account owner.

  • Fires the transactional + retention chain on every order

    per order; instant

    An order event fans out: confirmation/shipping/delivery email (Resend → SES → Stalwart), consent-gated AIQ SMS, and a retention tag write (bmh_customer, order_placed_YYYY_MM) so segmentation builds itself.

  • Suppresses bounced + complained identities automatically

    continuous, event-driven

    SES bounce/complaint events route to an identity-suppression handler that fails closed — a hard-bounced or complaining address can never be re-marketed, no human in the loop required.

← All rebuilds

Big Moose Hemp — rebuilt to survive the day 86% of its catalog becomes illegal — zsty.us