Founded in Charleston, South Carolina by designer Hart Hagerty, HART is a sister-run brand known for its high-quality, personalized jewelry at an attainable price. Hart and her sister Curry Hagerty lead the company together, bringing their seventh-generation Charleston roots into a modern era of design and ecommerce.
What began as a small studio in 2016 has evolved into a thriving direct-to-consumer business with three retail locations in Charleston, Nashville, and New York City opening this holiday season.
Every charm begins as a sketch from founder Hart herself, making each piece a one-of-a-kind expression of personality and heritage. Rooted in craftsmanship, the brand has cultivated a nationwide following thanks to its strong online presence and growing community of loyal customers.
Behind that digital growth is Emily Deal, HART’s Digital Marketing Manager. She oversees every digital touchpoint, from SEO and paid campaigns to email, SMS, and web operations, managing a lean marketing team of four that juggles strategy, content, and execution.
“We’re a small but mighty team,” Emily says. “Everyone wears many hats, and collaboration is our strong suit. One day we’re mapping out a full campaign strategy; the next, we’re rebuilding a webpage from scratch to elevate the user experience.”
As part of a fast-scaling company with big ambitions, Emily’s role demands constant adaptability. She’s responsible for ensuring that every update, product launch, and campaign runs smoothly - even when resources are limited.
Running a growing ecommerce brand with a small team brings constant trade-offs, especially when technical updates depend on an outside developer. HART partners with a contract developer for large projects, but even small adjustments to the website could have long lead times. “Our developer is amazing, but she’s in a different time zone,” Emily explains.
“She works with other clients too, so sometimes it could take a full business day for us to connect.”
Those delays sometimes slow down creative momentum. When the team would have an idea to update merchandising on collection pages, even simple requests could take several rounds of feedback.
“It’s not efficient to go back and forth for small things,” she adds. “We needed a way to make updates ourselves and keep momentum without waiting.”
For lean teams like HART’s, time is everything. Each delay meant lost opportunities to test new ideas, refresh creative assets, or react quickly to customer feedback. Emily began searching for ways to bring more control and flexibility in-house, without compromising on design quality.
When Emily saw an invite to join Shogun’s AI Section Builder beta, she immediately recognized its potential. The tool’s AI-driven workflow lets marketers describe what they want in plain language and instantly create new Shopify sections - all without touching code.
“I’m not a developer,” she says. “I know a bit of HTML, but this tool made it possible to do things myself.”
Her first test project was rebuilding HART’s navigation. The brand’s founder had seen a visual filter layout on another website and wanted something similar for HART’s collection pages. Instead of sending the request to a developer, Emily built it herself with AI Section Builder.
“Our founder loved how visual filters looked on other sites,” Emily recalls. “I prompted the AI Section Builder, customized it with our branding, and within minutes we had the navigation we wanted.”
After launch, Emily pulled the team’s Q3 data and saw encouraging results. “Our conversion rate was up and our page views were down,” she says. “That tells me customers are finding what they need faster and checking out more efficiently.”
The benefits extended beyond analytics. When she shared the new design with her team in a test environment, the excitement was immediate.
“Our founder was thrilled,” Emily says. “She asked, ‘How did you do this?’ and I said, ‘AI built it.’ It was such a proud moment - not having to outsource it or wait for results.”
That independence changed how the team worked. Instead of scheduling developer hours or worrying about time zones, Emily could implement quick design updates whenever needed, giving her more freedom to focus on high-impact marketing initiatives.
“It’s been such a low-lift change with a huge impact. We’re working smarter, not harder.”
Encouraged by the success of the navigation update, Emily began exploring other ways to use AI Section Builder.
“We’ve been talking about improving our editorial pages for months,” she says. “Our theme has some limitations, but I think the builder can help us create layouts that feel more dynamic and shoppable.”
Her next focus is the brand’s Shop the Look experience. While Shopify’s native feature offers a basic setup, Emily wanted something more visually engaging - a layout that reflects HART’s storytelling style and makes discovery feel effortless.
“The ability to add images and describe what you want in natural language is incredible,” she explains. “You don’t have to be technical to create something beautiful.”
With AI Section Builder, she’s now experimenting with section templates that merge content and commerce, allowing customers to shop curated looks directly from blog posts and campaign stories.
“It’s such a creative tool,” Emily says. “It’s letting us bring ideas to life without limitations.”
For Emily, it’s not just about speed, it’s about empowerment. Her team can move quickly, test ideas, and bring the brand’s aesthetic to life without waiting for developer availability.
That agility is essential in ecommerce, where trends shift fast and every touchpoint contributes to conversion.
Looking ahead, Emily plans to continue integrating Shogun’s AI Section Builder into HART’s long-term workflow. Her goal is to reduce developer dependency and create a scalable system where anyone on her team can confidently make updates.
“Tools like this make such a difference for small teams,” she says. “We can move at our own pace without sacrificing design quality or efficiency.”
The AI Section Builder is now part of Emily’s daily toolkit, helping her launch campaigns faster, make quick design adjustments, and maintain a consistent on-brand experience across every page.
“We’re a creative brand,” she adds. “Having a tool that lets us build fast and stay on-brand is a game-changer.”
As HART prepares to open its New York City store and scale its ecommerce operations, Emily sees Shogun as a partner in that journey, a platform that allows her to move quickly, stay flexible, and continue improving how customers experience the brand online.
HART’s story shows what’s possible when small ecommerce teams embrace the right tools.
By adopting Shogun’s AI Section Builder, Emily eliminated developer bottlenecks, streamlined web operations, and gave her team creative autonomy. She can manage less technical updates in minutes instead of days, helping the brand keep pace with campaigns, seasons, and customer expectations.
“The quicker I can get through my to-do list, the better,” she says. “This tool saves hours and helps us focus on creativity and growth.”
For lean marketing teams like HART’s, Shogun’s AI Section Builder isn’t just a shortcut.
It’s a strategy, one that empowers teams to move faster, build smarter, and focus their time where it matters most.
