Client: Busy Bee Tools | Year: 2024 | Project: UX Team Lead on entire Website Re-design, Migration to Shopify
The images on this page that have a grey background are what the website used to look like. The images with a colour background are the new and improved design.
The Problem:
Busy Bee Tools recognized the need to overhaul their outdated website and revamp both the user experience and back-end systems. Previously using BigCommerce, the company transitioned to Shopify Plus as part of a year-long transformation. To facilitate this change, 21 internal teams were assigned to the project, and I was appointed as the leader of the UX team.
In this role, I collaborated closely with Teifi, an external company hired to handle the heavy lifting, ensuring they adhered to our branding guidelines and aligned with the customer experience we envisioned. Busy Bee Tools aimed to position itself as a high-quality brand offering competitive prices, which required a shift in approach. I led the effort to incorporate more lifestyle imagery throughout the new website, moving away from static product collage banners that had previously been used, and creating a more engaging and visually appealing shopping experience for customers.
The Process:
Before collaborating with Teifi, my first step was to conduct a thorough analysis of the top 100 most successful Shopify stores, taking note of standout features and best practices that could be applied to Busy Bee Tools’ website. I also identified elements I didn’t think would work for our brand or customer experience. Our primary focus was to improve key pages, including the Home Page, Category Page, Product Page, and Checkout Page.
After completing the analysis of the top Shopify sites, I extended my research to our competitors’ websites, documenting similar insights and highlights.
Once I had compiled my findings, I presented them to Teifi along with our updated Brand Guidelines and a list of product photos that needed to be retaken to enhance visual quality.
To further refine our approach, I also distributed a customer survey to gather feedback on what our customers liked about the current website, what they felt could be improved, and other key insights into their online shopping experience.
All of the items you see on our new website banners were photographed & edited by me using our in-house studio and lighting, as well as our Canon Rebel DSLR.
Once Teifi had all of the information, they began designing wire frames, and once completed, presented this to me and my team. We took a few days to go over what we liked, and what we didn’t like, and reported our suggestions back. After a few back and forth, we then moved onto to mock-ups. These mock-ups included images, banner configurations, new font styles, colourings, product images, typographic treatments, menu designs, and widget / icon design. The mockup stage was when we really started to see the new website come together, based on our needs and wants from the analysis stage. This was when we could present feedback on the visual and branding aspect of the website, rather than the simple grey squares that existed in the wire-frames layout stage. After a few round of editing, the mockups were approved by me and my team.
The research and analysis that I conducted before the project helped Teifi not only understand what our customers needed, but also who we were and what we wanted to be as a brand and company. The website that they designed accurately reflected our vision, our market, and where we wanted to be positioned amongst our competitors. The website is more clean, to the point, and has less friction and steps between shopping and checking out for the customer. With the new responsive design, my banners that have lifestyle imagery will exemplify the new style of quality that we want to portray by showing customers what the end result is when buying our machines, rather than focussing on the products themselves.
The Outcome:
Busy Bee Tools’ new Shopify Plus website launched in the summer of 2024, and since then, we have seen great results. The website has led to an increase in sales, higher click-through rates, improved Google rankings, and optimized SEO performance. The user-friendly experience also enables subscriptions, easy sharing, and a streamlined review interface, overcoming previous challenges. Integrated with the new Shopify systems is our all-new email marketing platform, which I was also involved in. The new UX design I oversaw complements the email platform seamlessly, enhancing customer flows, content delivery, and SMS marketing, all contributing to a significant revenue boost.
