01 / THE CHALLENGE
The challenge
OrbitCrates could not behave like a conventional online store. A customer’s relationship with a toy continued after checkout. Each physical item could be available, reserved for an upcoming crate, currently rented, scheduled for return, lost, damaged, or otherwise unavailable.
The original system did not model these relationships reliably. It also lacked a clear separation between the crate a customer currently had, changes they were still making, and a completed request waiting for staff to fulfill.
The product needed one consistent workflow connecting:
- The customer’s eight-item crate
- Catalog availability and reservations
- Subscription status
- Scheduled swaps
- Physical fulfillment
- Administrative review
- Customer and staff notifications
- Historical and operational records
02 / LIFECYCLE MODEL
Planning around the crate lifecycle
I organized the product around the complete lifecycle of a crate instead of treating the storefront, customer account, API, and administrative tools as separate systems.
The model separated crate activity into four stages:
- A live crate containing the toys currently rented by the customer
- A draft crate containing changes the customer was still making
- A submitted crate representing a swap awaiting staff review and fulfillment
- A crate history preserving completed changes
Each crate had eight slots. A slot could show its current toy alongside a toy leaving or arriving, allowing the system to represent both the crate in the customer’s home and the one being prepared next.
This shared lifecycle gave the customer experience, administrative tools, inventory system, and development work a common structure.
03 / CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Making swaps understandable and reliable
For customers, the main interface became a visual crate drawer connected to the product catalog.
Customers could see the toys they currently had, mark an item for return, reserve a replacement, reverse a pending change, review their updated crate, and submit it for fulfillment.
The interface adapted to the customer’s subscription and crate status. Someone preparing their first crate needed a different experience from someone editing a swap, waiting for a submitted delivery, or returning after their membership had become inactive.
Rather than exposing those internal rules, the product presented customers with clear actions such as:
- Browse available toys
- Schedule a first crate
- Prepare a swap
- Review pending changes
- Cancel a submitted delivery
- Renew an inactive membership
The experience also needed to account for the fact that every catalog entry represented a limited physical item. Selecting a toy temporarily reserved it, conflicting changes were detected, and each crate was verified before it could be submitted.
Customers received immediate feedback while the system continued to protect inventory availability behind the scenes.
04 / OPERATIONAL SYSTEM
Building the operational system
The customer workflow depended on staff being able to review and complete the same lifecycle.
I designed and developed administrative experiences for managing products, customers, live crates, submitted swaps, inventory status, and crate history. Staff could review incoming and outgoing toys, approve or cancel submissions, complete fulfillment, add operational notes, and inspect the timeline of a crate.
When a swap was completed, the system updated the customer’s live crate, released returned toys, assigned incoming toys, closed the submitted request, and recorded the completed change together.
The inventory model also supported exceptions such as lost, broken, purchased, and unavailable items. Customers could report lost or damaged toys through their accounts, while staff could see those statuses when reviewing customer and inventory records.
The goal was to give an employee enough context to understand what the customer had, what should come back, what had been reserved, and what needed to be packed next without piecing the process together across disconnected tools.
OrbitCrates used Shopify for commerce and product information, Recharge for subscriptions, and Firebase for customer identity and application data. I defined how those services connected to the customer and administrative workflows so subscription changes, crate activity, inventory, and fulfillment remained consistent.
05 / OUTCOME
Outcome
During my four months with OrbitCrates, I rebuilt the core customer and administrative experiences around a defined crate lifecycle.
Families had a clear way to manage their current toys and prepare their next crate. Staff could review submitted swaps, manage fulfillment, track physical inventory, handle exceptions, and preserve a reliable history of completed changes.
The work established a shared product and technical foundation connecting the storefront, subscriptions, customer experience, administrative tools, and physical operations. I also documented the system, migration process, testing requirements, and remaining work so development could continue after handoff.
OrbitCrates did not reach a broad commercial launch during my time there, so this is not a growth or conversion story. The result was a functioning, documented foundation for turning an unusual subscription model with complicated physical inventory into something customers, staff, and developers could understand and operate.