Digital Ecosystem

Frontgate

UX / Brand Strategy / Digital Transformation

CHALLENGE

Create a holistic digital ecosystem to position Frontgate as a trusted retailer ready to help customers create homes they’ll love to live in.

Role

Head of Design / Art Director (this initiative spanned time in both positions): Led team in UX and digital brand strategy.

Strategy

A brand experience built around the customer

Challenged with a fragmented digital experience, the team began with in-depth customer research to hone in on what target shoppers where looking for in a home lifestyle brand. From these learnings the goal became rebranding Frontgate as an inspirational and informative guide poised to help customers create treasured moments in their homes. This research also informed the aspirational, yet attainable positioning. User studies across prototypes and live products provided insight into specific challenges of digital furniture shopping. Integrating content into the journey proved key in solving customer pain points and established Frontgate’s authority in the home space. Additionally, analytics on legacy products and A/B testing of UX hypotheses provided a third layer of data to craft the experience around.

Execution

A design system to evolve and extend the Frontgate brand

To maximize the project's impact core components of the ecommerce store such as the global navigation were rebuilt from the ground up. To increase speed to market the system was designed for easy adoption across legacy products. The ecosystem was built for scalability across multiple touch points and devices enabling the design team to achieve ~50% increase in efficiency. The project activated the new brand vision, streamlined UI consistency, and provided much more intuitive interactions, resulting in an elevated and unified store experience as customers shopped across devices.

Focus

Distractions are minimized

Shoppers are presented with a small number of primary elements most relevant to where they are in their journey to provide a clear and focused experience. Friction is reduced by only displaying options and information within each feature that are key to the particular task customers are performing.

Inspiration

Customers are transported into the Frontgate lifestyle

Photography is seamlessly interwoven throughout the modern/traditional aesthetic of the online store to immerse customers in inspirational environments and convey Frontgate's unique style point of view.

Data

Extensive analytics defined hierarchy

User studies, click rate and conversion metrics, and A/B testing were all utilized to define each individual element’s importance to shoppers. This data driven approach transformed the site’s navigation into a hyper-useful ‘shopping bar’ giving customers persistent access to the features and information most important to them. Usability study participants found the redesigned icon system intuitive and recognizable.

Results

Rated #3 Online Shop nationally by Newsweek and Statista

In addition to bolstering record breaking increases in revenue and a 123% growth of the mobile shopping platform, Newsweek and Statista rated Frontage #3 in their 2021 ranking of the Best Online Shops in the furniture category. The new brand vision also resonated with customers as study participants described the reimagined experience as "classy", "elegant", and “inviting”.