Cork and Cloth
Increasing sales and brand loyalty
The Background
Cork and Cloth is a two year old fabric retailer owned by Lisa Perea, who sells quality, hard-to-find specialty fabrics like quality Cork and Vlisco. Before 2020, almost 100% of the shop’s sales were in person at craft shows and out of the owner’s home.
Since the pandemic, Cork and Cloth has been leaning into their web community of Facebook & the Shopify site for sales. The Shopify site sales tripled from 2019 to 2020.
Team
End-to-End Product Designer- me, Calley Prezzano
Stakeholders- Owner Lisa Perea & her teammate Stephanie Judge
Duration
4 weeks - 16 hours/week, includes Weekly Stakeholder meeting & reviews
Tools
Figma, Google Suite, Whimsical
The Solution
I’ve redesigned a responsive, accessible website that creates high level solutions that
Keep customers engaged and happy.
Follows accessibility guidelines and best practice convention standards
Can increase business sales with new features.
The Problem
Cork and Cloth needs to reflect their lively brand while optimizing the user purchase experience for 100+ products offered.
User base is changing: Cork and Cloth wants to catch the younger market that is shopping online and maintain their amazing customer service in a digital world.
Shopify site sales tripled from 2019-2020: The owner feels out of touch in this new digital arena and needs help to bring her ‘real world’ vision to the online platform.
Goals
All design decisions must reflect our main goals for the sewist, business and Shopify site constraints.
Discover with Empathy
Benchmarking Competition
Qualitative Research
Persona
What else is out there?
After speaking with Lisa about how her business works, I learned about other businesses in the field by reviewing their strengths and weaknesses in a Competitive Analysis. The small businesses pride themselves on expertise. Fabric is a small world, and Lisa knows most of the competition personally.
What do sewists see, say, think, & feel?
I conducted qualitative research interviews with 6 sewists who have bought fabric since March 2020.
Turns out, potential Cork and Cloth customers are no longer aged 65+ quilters and small business owners. There are hobby sewists, experts or those who dabble, as young as 40 that are also shopping on the site.
Online shopping brings sewists:
Comfort
Trust detailed reviews
Appreciate variety of visuals
Safety
Convenient and sanitary
Re-up fabrics they already have
Negative Experiences
Miscommunication
Disappointed when quality doesn’t meet expectations
Cork and Cloth sewists need:
Education from Experts
This inspires them about options and potential uses.
Trust in High Quality Product
They need “the feel” of the fabric and will show loyalty in return purchases.
Special Products
They are drawn to ambiance of locally owned businesses with unique merchandise
Keeping one sewist in mind
I synthesized my Empathy Map findings into a robust target User Persona. The stakeholders were glad to have this resource for future decisions in experience and marketing. Below is an overview of the persona priorities.
Francis Heller
“Seeing my finished product is the best feeling!”
Goals
Available expertise, attention
Support local business
Seamlessly buy what they need
Frustrations
Disappointment with quality
Inability to feel a fabric
Needs
Specialty product
Trust in high quality
Education from experts
Motivations
Learning and improvement
Inspired by sewing community
Creativity for projects
Define solutions with strategy
Hueristic Evaluation
Information Architecture
Solving Problem Statements with Information Architecture, Storyboard & Workflows
Hueristic Evaluation
I audited the site to see how it measured up to site needs. The site problems mirror the user frustrations. I aligned with Lisa on potential solutions to each issue as I moved forward.
Option Overwhelm
Engagement Limitations
Missing Branding & Voice
How might we solve for sewist needs?
By creating Problem Statements along with a storyboard of the ideal experience, I brainstormed solutions.
How might we make the unknown of “the feel” of fabric identified and known?
How might we rely on other sewists to help us cultivate community?
How might we be sure that clients are informed and clear on what options will be best for them?
Solution: Filtering 100+ Products
I ran a Card Sort determine patterns navigation of the site, and the generated Dendrogram confirmed my assumptions of categorization.
In order to achieve the project goals, I prioritized what should be in the MVP in this redesign with a Product Road Map. I focused on a path where user could easily start their purchase by feeling comfortable, gather the information they need with the filters created with my card sort synthesis, and then making sure there was an unavoidable way to add to cart.
Solution: Adding workflows can increase profits
The old flow has the right pages, but they are missing information to include desired user actions. I added in Filtering to the flow to create a space where users can easily buy with confidence that they have seen what they need. I created a user flow before working out to be sure that there were indirect paths to success and eliminated dead ends and potential overwhelm for users that exists with the current site.
Solution: Updating visual design of site
After busting out low fidelity wireframes of the flow, I reviewed the project goals and passion of business messages to focus on the small business atmosphere that Lisa has created in her offline shop.
I was sure to make sure that the High Fidelity Wireframes highlight Brand Attributes of: Inviting, Bright, and High Quality in the Style Tile and site UI.
Design, Test, & Iterate
High Fidelity
Usability Testing
Priority Revisions
Site Usability Testing Highlights
I conducted remote, moderated usability testing on the site updates with hypotheses that the improvements would make adding items to cart efficient and delightful.
“Straightforward, smooth, simple.”
- the product page
“Now, this is what you can do with fabric!”
- adding imagery & product details
“There’s a great focus on the product.”
- adding consumer reviews
“Bright, clean, friendly”
- overall site vibe
Priority Revisions after Usability Testing
I created my prototype in high fidelity so that I could get updated branding feedback. I then clustered patterns with an affinity map to highlight metrics and quick win adjustments for this iteration.
I made sure to iterate on two crucial adjustments to make after testing synthesis:
Minimize dead ends for out of stock product
Further detail in filtering product options
Results
Site redesign has been approved to be implemented.
Lisa, the owner, feels confident with the changes and is excited to move forward. After implementation, we will be able to review and determine metrics.
See the Prototype
The Figma prototype first paves the journey for a user to buy Navy Metallic Marble Cork Fabric. The secondary task is to add Natural Metallic Rainbow to cart (even though it is out of stock).
Click through prototype is linked here
Next Steps
From here, we can implement the changes onto Cork and Cloth’s Shopify account. From there, we can see the metrics of an increase in sales and review customer satisfaction.
While we wait for sales metrics, I can continue with additional phases of auditing secondary site pages with consistent messaging and user flows that lead comprehension and increased brand loyalty
Takeaways
The primary business takeaway was how valuable my work would be for targeting demographics. Lisa really appreciated the support as I advocated for her business goals with data from user research and best practices. Because I gave Lisa time and space to articulate her thoughts and concerns, the project continued to improve and she became more proud and excited and confident with the venture of the online site.
For password, please email me or fill out contact form.