Case study · 2025

Lantern Indie / Lantern Audiobooks

Moving an audiobook catalog is not a CSV import when every product also carries hours of media.

lantern-indie.myshopify.com

01Context

Map BigCommerce audiobook catalog data into Shopify.
Migrate large audio libraries into scalable cloud storage.
Build product metadata and delivery foundations that can scale beyond the initial catalog.

Lantern's audiobook business combined ecommerce product data with large audio libraries, chapters, ISBNs, authors, narrators, and media storage.

The migration from BigCommerce toward Shopify therefore required more than moving product titles and prices.

HeapByte designed a structured product and media architecture that connected Shopify catalog data with AWS-hosted audiobook assets.

02What was in the way

01
Media-heavy migration
Every commercial product has associated audio assets that must remain correctly tied to ISBN/product identity.
02
Metadata complexity
Authors, narrators, chapters, ISBNs, and other audiobook-specific fields require a richer schema than ordinary Shopify products.
03
Large file operations
Moving thousands of files demands automation, restartability, and deterministic naming.

03Architecture

What we built, and what we deliberately left alone.

01
Shopify metadata model
Audiobook-specific information is represented through structured Shopify data rather than embedded unsearchable descriptions.
02
S3 media layer
Audio assets are stored outside Shopify in infrastructure designed for large digital files.
03
Deterministic asset mapping
ISBN and chapter-based naming strategies link ecommerce products to cloud media predictably.

Delivery

04Outcome

05Engineering notes

S3 migration: Automated jobs move source audio assets into cloud storage rather than requiring manual upload.
Naming convention: ISBN and chapter identifiers create predictable relationships between Shopify data and audio assets.
Product metadata: Audiobook fields are modeled explicitly for future storefront and search functionality.
Delivery separation: Heavy audio media remains outside Shopify's ordinary product-media model.

What we took from it

01Digital-product migration requires asset architecture, not just ecommerce imports.
02Stable identifiers are essential when products and media move independently.
03File migrations should be resumable and observable.
04Shopify can serve as the commerce layer while specialized infrastructure handles heavy media.

Disciplines applied

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Every store is different. Send us yours and we will say what we would actually do — including when the answer is less work, not more.