Beauty Appliance Brand — Ecommerce Storefront & Product Page Redesign
Redesigned the storefront, information architecture, and navigation of a beauty appliance brand operating on a major Japanese ecommerce marketplace. As part of the same initiative, I reworked individual pages for several underperforming products, covering product communication strategy, page structure, copywriting, visual design, and implementation.
Period: 2015–2016
Where this experience applies
An ecommerce improvement project covering brand presentation, shopping navigation, information structure, and individual product pages across a marketplace storefront.
- Balance brand presentation with a clear shopping experience
- Improve storefront information architecture and navigation
- Explain product differences, benefits, and handling requirements more clearly
Overview
I redesigned the storefront structure, navigation, and visual presentation of a beauty appliance brand operating on a major Japanese ecommerce marketplace. As part of the same initiative, I reworked individual pages for several products with underperforming sales. The work covered product communication strategy, page structure, copywriting, visual design, and implementation.
Background
Unlike the brand’s corporate website, its marketplace storefront needed to support direct product comparison and give customers enough information and confidence to make a purchase. Brand awareness was still developing, so the work needed to combine consistent brand presentation with clearer navigation and more specific product information.
Challenge
At storefront level, the challenge was to preserve the brand’s visual direction while making information easier to navigate within the marketplace environment. At product level, differences between the products and competing alternatives were not clearly understood. Handling requirements were presented mainly as warnings, without sufficiently explaining why those characteristics were connected to the products’ intended benefits.
- Organise the storefront around shopping and product-discovery needs while maintaining brand consistency
- Improve global navigation, side navigation, and footer structure
- Communicate product differences and handling requirements alongside customer benefits
- Adjust the presentation of each product to reflect its price, appearance, and functional positioning
Approach & Contribution
Restructuring Storefront Information and Navigation
- Maintained visual and tonal consistency with the brand’s corporate website
- Organised storefront content around the information customers needed before purchasing
- Redesigned global navigation, side navigation, and footer pathways
- Designed and implemented the storefront template within the constraints of the marketplace environment
Defining a Product-Communication Hypothesis
- Identified a possible gap between customers’ expectations and the products’ actual characteristics
- Reviewed customer feedback on competing products to understand common problems and expectations
- Moved away from presenting the products in the same way as competing alternatives and clarified their distinctive characteristics
Reframing a High-Temperature Product Feature
- Explained the high operating temperature in relation to the result it was intended to achieve
- Connected handling guidance with the functional value of the product
- Structured the page around common problems with competing products and how the featured product addressed them
Adapting Copy and Visual Direction by Product
- Adjusted product messaging according to price, appearance, material quality, and functionality
- Used a brighter and more approachable direction for one product presentation
- Used a more restrained visual direction to communicate higher perceived quality and functionality for another
- Implemented the approved structure, copy, and visual design as marketplace product pages
Project Outputs
- Marketplace storefront template
- Global navigation, side navigation, and footer structure
- Individual pages for multiple products
- Product-page narratives and copy
- Visual directions adapted to different product positions
Outcome
Average monthly sales for product A
Approximately 39×
Comparison between the month before the change and the average monthly volume over the following four months
Average monthly sales for products B and C
Approximately 2.4×
Comparison between the month before the change and the average monthly volume over the following four months
- Established one direction for brand presentation, information structure, and navigation across the storefront
- Reworked product pages so customers could understand product characteristics, handling requirements, and intended benefits within one narrative
- Adapted copy and visual direction to the price, appearance, and functional positioning of each product