36% Increase in Sales with the Aid of Enhanced Shopability Features

Founded in 2013, Eu Natural is an online D2C company that specializes in creating “powerful blends of herbs, vitamins, and minerals, each formulated to promote optimal health.” With products designed for beauty, respiratory function, mobility, prenatal care, fertility, and conception, Eu Natural offers a comprehensive range of offerings for both men and women.

In simplest terms, the current site was not intuitively shoppable, nor was the taxonomy governing the entire product pool accurate or comprehensive. The site lacked modern-day features and organizational patterns that consumers have come to expect, ultimately creating friction throughout the entire shopping experience.

From the outset, the Eu Natural team identified three main goals:

1. Incorporate the company's new branding into the site's visual design.

2. Boost average order value (AOV) and customer lifetime value (CLTV)

3. Increase overall sales and conversion rates

An eCommerce store cannot attain these goals if its shopping experience promotes confusion, a lack of brand trust, and poor understanding its product offerings — sentiments expressed by users during the research phase.

Considering the constraints of time and budget, conducting a user survey was the most suitable method for quickly collecting valuable feedback from users. The survey findings unveiled several prominent themes, which included:

1. Disjointed and inconsistent branding

Users expressed confusion arising from inconsistent visual elements and branding across the website. The lack of visual cohesion contributed to a fragmented experience, making it difficult for users to trust the overall integrity of the site, which is particularly crucial for a supplement company.


2. Uncertainty regarding available products and accessibility

Participants reported difficulties in understanding the full range of available products and effectively navigating to them. This indicated the need for improved product discovery and navigation features to ensure that users could easily explore and find their desired offerings.


3. Inadequate product information

Users expressed a desire for clearer and more comprehensive product information. They felt that crucial details about the products were lacking, which hindered their ability to make informed decisions.

To further empathize with users, a site audit and heuristic analysis was conducted revealing multiple critical issues:

1. Visibility of system status: Lack of product pricing

Users may face difficulties in making well-informed purchasing decisions due to the absence of prices on the home and collection page product cards. This could force them to take extra steps, such as navigating to the product page to gather necessary information.


2. Consistency and standards: Inconsistent navigation and menu items

Counter-intuitive navigation and menu information as well as inconsistent placement of the navigation elements across different pages can cause confusion and impede user decisions.


3. Match between system and the real world: Lack of product sorting

Users' expectations may not be met due to the absence of sorting functionality on the collection page. This limitation can make it more challenging for users to find and organize products according to their preferences.


4. User control and freedom: Lack of product filtering

The absence of filtering options restricts users' control and freedom in narrowing down their product search based on specific criteria. As a result, users may find it difficult to locate desired products.

Eu Natural's customer data identified six primary audience segments for both male and female customers seeking solutions for fertility, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, gout, and menopause. However, upon reviewing the collection pages, it became clear that Eu Natural's product range extends well beyond these segments, encompassing beauty, detox, sleep, mental cognition, mobility, vision, immune system, and respiratory function.

The original site navigation had this information accounted for, but it was disjunct and not obvious nor was it accurate. The 'Categories' dropdown included product families that were not present in the 'Shop All' dropdown. And the ‘Shop All” menu accounted for only a select amount of Eu Natural’s product offerings. Unsure of what was correct, I audited the collection pages, listing every product that Eu Natural had for sale. I then had Eu Natural’s DTC director assign a “segment” label to every product. From there we were able to develop a main product taxonomy as a baseline for our navigation menu and collection filtering.

Interestingly enough, it was through this process that I discovered that certain products served singular functions, while others technically belonged to multiple product families due to their multifunctionality. Moreover, many products were suitable for both men and women. Recognizing the dynamic nature of the product range, I collaborated further with the DTC Director to map products to a sub-taxonomy—one that would offer filtering on the collection page for a more granular shopping experience.

With both taxonomies, we could provide a simple entry point for users to begin shopping paired with a more detailed means of product discovery.

With a firm foundation on improving the shop-ability of the site, we could move forward. The Eu Natural brand book established the north star of our visual design direction, outlining a myriad of treatments to uphold, including colors, fonts, and various other visual design elements. It emphasized three unifying and defining truths essential to the Eu Natural brand: "Purposefully optimistic, lighthearted, on point."

From there, my colleague and I proceeded to interpret the visual design implementation, each offering distinct perspectives while strictly adhering to newly developed information architecture. Our goal was to embody the three pillars of Eu Natural's branding by juxtaposing minimalistic elements with bold statements of color.