Aesop

Scaling ecommerce experiences

Aesop is one of Australia's iconic skincare brands with over 200 stores across the world. In response to the global pandemic I was task with crafting an immersive digital storefront for regions affected by store closures. The result was a natural extension of the brand ecosystem.

I was responsible for the the end-to-end e-commerce redesign, supported the rollout to 3 countries with localisation support and created a CX toolkit and training for distribution partners.

Scope
User Experience
User research
UI design
Web development

3

Weeks from kickoff to delivery

3.5%

Conversion within 60 days of launching

Girl holding the AR app on a tablet device
Aesop.ae

The challenge

With many parts of the world in lockdown due to the global pandemic, Aesop distributor partners needed to rapidly activate a digital storefront. Our challenge was to deliver an out of the box and scalable e-commerce experience that featured decentralised content management and a full toolkit that retained Aesop's brand essence and design language.

Brilliant basics

Given the urgency, the strategy was to focus on the key components of the digital experience. I prioritised key pages that were essential to an end-to-end e-commerce experience and created flexible and modular layouts that could be put together in various ways to serve the content.

An evergreen approach

To allow the platform to scale across many markets we took an evergreen approach to the content design, components and pages. This reduced the need for content production and governance, ensuring that the experience would stay continually relevant agnostic of seasons and audiences.

Product shot of Aesop bottles arranged against stone.

Product confidence

Shopping at an Aesop involves a conversation. Each consultant is trained to discover individual needs and offer tailored product recommendations. As such, the content strategy was built to mirror Aesop's in store conversational product guidance and high-touch customer service. How-to videos explain products just like an Aesop skincare expert would, with detailed information about usage.

Aesop.ae product description page
Girl holding the AR app on a tablet device

Digital product content guidelines

To streamline governance, provide best-practice and ensure brand alignment, I developed a toolkit that featured set-up guides, and extensive product content guidelines to ensure our system for photography, video, and writing can be maintained by distributer partners moving forward.

Digital content guidelines introduction pageDigital content guidelines design system pageProject digital content guidelinesProject digital content guidelinesProject digital content guidelinesProject digital content guidelines

Since launching the out of the box e-commerce experience has been rolled out to three international regions and has enabled over $500k of online trade.

Outcomes

Work