AETEA Sparkling Tea

The problem

AETEA is a sparkling-tea brand selling into the UAE. They did not need a brochure. They needed a store that could hold a catalog, take payment, and keep orders visible after launch — without renting a generic template that would fight the brand six months later.

Constraints

The brand had to feel premium on a phone. Payments had to be trustworthy in a Gulf market. The catalog and checkout had to be owned, not rented from a page builder. And the client needed a partner who could stay after go-live.

Decisions

I treated it as a product, not a theme.

• Laravel for catalog, cart, checkout, orders, and admin.
• React for the storefront — responsive, fast enough to browse, honest about state.
• REST APIs as the contract between the two, so the UI could change without rewriting the business rules.
• Payment gateway integration inside the checkout, not as an afterthought iframe.
• A database model that could grow SKUs, promotions, and order history without a rewrite.

What I built

• Product catalog with structured data instead of a pile of pages
• Shopping cart and a full checkout flow
• Secure payment integration and an order-management path
• REST APIs connecting storefront to backend
• Deployment, hosting, and environment configuration
• Ongoing updates after launch

Result

A live commerce system at aetea.ae. The client has a store they can operate, not a static site they have to replace the next time the catalog changes.