Palmetto Classics

Palmetto Classics grew out of a restoration business in Taylors, South Carolina, built on a passion for classic vehicles, craftsmanship and mechanical detail. Over time the founders came to see that a truly exceptional classic car is defined by more than what lies beneath the hood: the interior a driver meets every time they get behind the wheel is a large part of what makes a classic feel timeless and yet completely renewed. Palmetto Classics makes handcrafted interiors and accessories for classic vehicles, with a particular focus on the first-generation Ford Bronco. After building a steady customer base through Facebook, the founder came to Align for an e-commerce website. The goal was not simply to sell products online, but to cut down the manual quoting, streamline customer communication through the ordering process, and make the full range easier to explore and buy.

Building a configurator for a fully custom interior. Classic vehicle interiors are highly specific, with products, materials and configurations that all have to work together. Palmetto Classics needed more than a product catalog: customers had to be able to build an entire interior a la carte, choosing each component by style, material and configuration. A complete interior can include seats, flooring, door panels, rear panels, center consoles and accessories, and the complexity comes from the relationships between them. Some options only fit certain collections, others cannot be chosen together. The challenge was turning that structure into a guided experience that gives customers the freedom to customise without making the process feel overwhelming.

A product catalog that changes with the customer. Products come in multiple leather colors, materials and finishes, and the imagery has to reflect each selection. Align developed an AI-assisted image workflow to create product variations more efficiently. The catalog also had to separate Made-to-Order from Ready-to-Ship clearly, since each carries different purchasing and fulfillment requirements.

A payment flow for custom orders. Palmetto Classics does not follow a typical e-commerce payment model. Made-to-order products require a 50% deposit, while ready-to-ship products are paid in full at checkout. Shipping often cannot be calculated upfront, because the final cost depends on the completed order, package dimensions, weight, delivery address and carrier rate. Checkout had to say clearly what the customer pays today, what falls due later, and when shipping and the remaining balance are handled.

Connecting the storefront to internal operations. The website also had to support Palmetto Classics behind the scenes. The team needed to review complete configurations, track inventory, manage custom requests and follow orders through production and payment stages. The challenge was connecting the customer-facing experience to those internal workflows, giving Palmetto Classics a system that can support a highly customised business as it grows.

We designed the website around how a customer actually builds an interior. Instead of treating the Interior Kit Builder as one long product form, Align turned it into a guided sequence: vehicle, then collection and style, then leather, flooring, components, add-ons and review. Each step narrows the options and makes the next decision easier. Conditional logic brings relevant options forward only when they apply, product images update as the customer builds, and incompatible combinations are prevented automatically. The builder also takes project notes, photos and custom requests for the cases a standard configuration cannot cover.

A highly customised, traditionally hands-on purchasing process, turned into a scalable digital experience.

The work continued past launch. Once the website went live, Align kept optimising it across performance, accessibility and SEO, so the new experience was not only visually polished but technically strong.

The new Palmetto Classics website gives customers a clearer way to discover, configure and purchase their interiors, and gives the team a more structured system for managing products, orders, payments and production. More importantly it was built to grow with the business, so new products, collections, configurations and new ways for customers to build an interior can be added without rebuilding the whole experience from scratch.