Shaping experiences for luxury brands

The Brief Shaping luxury e-commerce experiences

I collaborated with a variety of luxury e-commerce brands to refine their digital presence. My primary responsibilities included supporting feature development and optimising conversion rates while maintaining the exclusivity associated with luxury shopping.

My role

As a Senior Experience Designer within a multidisciplinary team, I played a pivotal role in shaping new customer journeys. My responsibilities included:

• Liaising with key client stakeholders to align on project goals and vision.
• Conducting user research and competitor analysis to identify opportunities.
• Pitching innovative ideas to enhance user experience and brand positioning.
• Designing and visualising customer journeys, including wireframing and visual design.

The Challenge Understanding Luxury Shoppers

Researching luxury shoppers presented unique challenges. Unlike mass-market e-commerce, luxury brands cater to a niche audience with distinct behaviours and expectations. Key hurdles included:

• Small User Pool: A limited number of users fit the profile of luxury shoppers, making recruitment for user research more complex.
• Availability: Coordinating with busy participants for interviews and usability testing meant having to primarily focus on desk research.

Luxury brands often emphasise exclusivity, which reflects in their e-commerce design. Unlike conventional e-commerce platforms, luxury websites may intentionally introduce friction in the purchase journey to enhance the perception of rarity and exclusivity. For instance, customers might need to:

• Call a boutique to inquire about product availability.
• Speak with a representative for detailed product information.
• Navigate curated experiences that underscore the brand's premium nature.

The high-level goals were to:

• Understanding Shopper Behaviour: Conducting in-depth research to define customer personas and their expectations.
• Competitor Analysis: Benchmarking against other luxury brands to identify best practices.
• Balancing Exclusivity with Usability: Ensuring that key interactions were intuitive while maintaining the aura of exclusivity.
• Journey Mapping and Wireframing: Visualising the end-to-end customer journey and iterating on wireframes to align with brand values.

The Results Iterative Conversion Improvements

Our efforts led to measurable improvements in customer experience across various touchpoints, solidifying long-term partnerships with these brands. Key outcomes included:

• Continuous optimisation of the user journey, resulting in increased engagement and conversions.
• Enhanced collaboration with client design teams, delivering end-to-end design support such as:
  • User research and analysis.
  • Competitor benchmarking.
  • Conceptualisation and prototyping.
  • Journey mapping and wireframing.
  • Design systems and visual design implementation.

By aligning user-centric design with the exclusivity of luxury brands, we successfully elevated their e-commerce experiences while preserving their unique identities.