From Duda to Shopify: A website glow up that sold out camp in 30 days
For three years, Adult Wilderness Camp, an adult summer camp in Lexington, KY quietly built something special: a weekend where women could put down everything they carry, spend some time outside, and just be. But behind the scenes, the website was clunky and as AWC grew, it was clear that something had to change.
This year, we not only redesigned their site.. we rebuilt their whole system. The founder decided to change the came name from Adult Wilderness Camp to Adventurous Women's Camp in 2026 and realized it was the perfect time for a new site. New name, new site, who dis?
The old site was holding camp back
The previous site lived on Duda, and on the surface it did the job. But underneath, the checkout experience was a maze:
- A camper would fill out a registration form
- Get bounced to PayPal to actually pay
- Then get redirected back to the website for a "congrats, you're in!" message
It was a clunky system that worked when there weren't many sign ups happening.
Three platforms, three handoffs 🥴
If there is anything we have learned
creating dozens of eCommerce sites over the years, it's that if there is checkout friction, you're going to lose people.
And if someone did go through all those hoops and did register, there was no way to email them directly from Duda at all. Any follow-up, receipts, reminders, and updates had to happen through a separate tool like Mailchimp. Registration data lived in one place, payment lived in another, and communication lived in a third.
It worked, technically. But it wasn't built to grow.
The rebuild: one platform, one home
We moved Adventurous Women's Camp onto Shopify, and used the name change as the natural moment to rethink the entire site from the ground up. The new site is lean and purposeful, with five pages doing exactly what they need to do:
- Home — the invitation
- About — the why behind camp
- Registration — the ticket
- Prepare for Camp — what to expect before you arrive
- Contact — a direct line to the team
The real transformation, though, is what's happening underneath those pages.
- Now checkout actually feels like a checkout! No more bouncing to PayPal and back. Campers buy their ticket right on the site, and Shopify's automation immediately sends them a registration confirmation email so there's no manual follow up required.
- Email marketing is under one roof. Every subscriber now lands directly in Shopify's built-in email marketing, replacing the old juggle between the website, Mailchimp, and PayPal. Now updating campers or sending out updates to the list is done easily in one spot.
- A built in waitlist. When camp sells out (more on that in a second), interested campers can join a "notify me when this is back in stock" list right on the ticket page! This automatically enrolls them as a newsletter subscriber for the next round of tickets.
This is just many of the reasons we love Shopify! Whether you're selling digital goods, tickets, or physical goods, it's the best eCommerce platform available.
Before
After
ButtonThe results, one month in
Camp sold out in the first month the new site was live!
Beyond that:
- 200+ new subscribers since launch, all growing organically through the site itself
- Camp is now showing up in AI and ChatGPT search results
- A noticeably more polished, cohesive design across every page
- Fewer tools and fewer subscriptions = lower monthly overhead
- A checkout process that takes campers from "interested" to "confirmed" in one smooth motion
Your website should be your best employee.
This is the exact kind of project we love at Dope Magic Co.
A mission driven brand outgrowing tools that were never built for where it was headed. Adventurous Women's Camp didn't need more traffic or a louder marketing push. It needed a website that could have everything in place. Shopify allows for for registration, payment, and communication all in one, instead of three disconnected ones stitched together.
Sometimes the biggest growth unlock isn't a new campaign or showing up on social media more. It's fixing what's clunky underneath so there's less manual work for you to do.
We design and and build Shopify sites for women-owned and mission driven businesses who have outgrown their current setup. If your checkout, email, or booking process feels like it's held together with tape, let's talk.
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