Context
My Role
Cross-Collaborators
Priscilla Valles is a hair extension Queen. She's the go-to stylist for the biggest celebrities, from the Kardashians to Hailey Beiber.
As a featured artist with her own line with Glam Seamless, P was ready to branch out on her own.
She needed to create a brand + website and asked me to help.
Armed with a strong social media following, we set out to bring over our Glam Seamless loyals, as well as convert casual followers.
Problem
In addition to tariffs throwing a wrench in manufacturing and business projections, as well as limitations from her expiring partnership, P experienced a personal tragedy that threw the entire project for a loop.
I had an incomplete SKU list.
Due to logistical issues, we didn't know what products were going to be available, or even offered by the brand.
I had off-brand visuals and no copy.
We didn't have a brand direction to shape our visual direction, so we were left with imagery and copy from an entirely different brand.
I had a tight timeline
After 3 months there would be a profit loss if this website wasn't live. Left with minimal direction, I set out to complete this work within the short timeline.
Epiphany
I may have had limited direction regarding business goals, BUT...
I relied on my self-direction to get me through a pre-launch logistical nightmare.
My experience allowed me to clearly see what foundations needed to be laid in order to deliver an effective D2C website.
So I set out to work on the digital structure.
- Research Competition and Industry Patterns
- I compiled suggestions of which motifs to follow, which to potentially abandon
- Establish Information Architecture
- We all had an ambiguous SKU list, I helped nail down the essentials and the "we-hope-we-have's"
- Design Wireframes
- I navigated multiple user flows through uncertainty of personas or capture methods.
- Consider (Future) Business Constraints
- Unsure of Brand Direction, but knowing what MAY be needed.
I was in a drought of information, and I sought to create "buckets" to collect the "rain water" when the expected logistical rains finally fell.
Action
Who are we up against? (Competitive Research)
In my research of high level site organization, we validated that our desire to have a Professional Consumer Flow alongside an Average Consumer Flow was an industry standard.
How some industry leaders approached this was via an entirely separate pro site.
This would lead to:
- Doubling up on website efforts we had no man power for
- Diluting our organic social user base.
- From our initial calls regarding Marketing/Ad Spend I knew our user base was going to be organic social, where both Pros and Non-Pros follow Priscilla Valles.
I decided to approach the Pro+Consumer flows together in the same website and only diverge if our conversion rates were sub-par.
Creating a Fence (Information Architecture)
I had no real SKU list, as the products coming from the brand partnership were not clearly defined as Intellectual Property. But that didn't stop me from helping set direction for our hopes and allowing for trimming back if necessary.
A spark of light. (Branding)
While I was working on establishing the foundation for the website Priscilla processed her grief and came back from her bereavement with -what felt like- a renewed hope and a way to show appreciation for her experiences.
PERLINO was inspired by what carried her through the darkest nights of her grief.
I sought to find create contrast by placing beauty against a backdrop of a world that would treat things like luxury as frivolous.
We designed her brand around a rustic, yet polished appeal to a cowboy culture. I wanted to communicate that beauty can, and should, shine in an environment that is ruthless.
Videography by Rozzy Rael
Shopify Set-Up
My primary focus, in addition to designing Meta Fields was on the following pages, the rest, like checkout flows, I left to iterate upon post-launch:
- Homepage
- About
- Collection Type
- PDP
Result
0.98% → 3.79%
Increased Conversion rate in 90 days.
+14% AOV
Increased the average order value to $692.
49.5% Return Customer Rate
Increase of 78% in 90 days.
Learning
Our 3.8% Conversion Rate is great, especially at our Average Order Value compared to the 2.3% average a website in our specific category, Luxury Beauty/Hair.
My NDA does not allow me to share what the Cost of Acquisition vs. Profit are on this, but let me just say, it's HEALTHY.
Still, I was interested in improving our site. The GA4 data signaled 2 drop off points.
- PDP Page
- About Us
Was our PDP color selection grid something that needed iteration?
Was our About Page not valuable enough for users?