

Maria Nila
E-commerce research and UX refresh
Client: Maria Nila
Role: UI Designer
Timeframe: September 2019
Maria Nila 100% vegan haircare brand produced in Sweden, providing high quality vegan beauty with the goal of making it easy for everyone to take a step towards a more sustainable and friendly world.
They wanted a UX refresh of their website’s front page to increase conversion rates and keep their loyal costumers coming back for more.

CHALLENGES
The current web only serves as a web shop whereas the new web should convey a strong sense of brand, be inspirational and educate the costumer.
The main question is: How do we create an inspiring web experience without distracting the user and lose sales in the web shop?
Research study
Inspirational Ecommerce
How can a small niched webshop like Maria Nila compete with large affiliate sites like Amazon?

The Brand = The Expert
Exploit your niche and showcase the brand’s expertise through product descriptions and content.

Clean UX
Amazon’s UX is outdated, messy, and overwhelming. Clean and simple design with Maria Nila brand consistency will get you far.

Quality content
By becoming a source of info and inspiration within your specific niche, the site will draw new visitors that’s in the ‘awareness stage’ of the sales funnel.

Value over price
Offer added value: limited- quantity products, bundles, customisations, early releases, etc.

Attracting loyal customers
Create a VIP experiences for loyal customers; Early access to new products, private events, live tutorial at hairdresser, etc.

Credability
Product and brand credibility is a priority for the costumer. Combine customer reviews and influencer statements to strengthen credability.
Personas
Customer needs
Depending on in what stage of the sales funnel the user is in, their needs and focus vary when visiting the website.

Direct buy
The user wants to quickly find and buy a specific product.

Research what to buy
The user wants to research what product they should buy, based on specific hair needs.

Learn how to use
The user wants to learn how to use a product they already bought in a store.

Browse
The user is a fan of the brand and want to browse what’s new, not knowing what they are looking for in particular.
UX concept
Editorial
The style direction we chose was 'Editorial'- magazine inspired layouts and bold typography.




Let one range shine
Instead of showcasing a large quantity of products, we create a story around one specific range.
Above the fold
The layout strongly remind the costumer of a well designed magazine; Minimalist layouts, creative use of fonts and grids.
By showing photos people we invoke interest and create a great opportunity to show diversity, reflecting the wide range of products, for all types of hair.



Inspirational
Providing inspirational and educational content, we can attract a wider range of visiters wanted tips on styling and beauty too. More importantly, we keep the visitors on the site longer with interesting and easily digestible articles.

VIP treatment of members
By giving visitors offers and deals on the site, that might become a reason for the consumer to buy from this webshop rather then a larger affiliate site.
SEO optimization
As a result of relevant written content on the front page (and SEO) Maria Nila will start to show up on top of the list on Google search.
Cross-selling
The menu provides a golden opportunity to cross-sell products to to consumer depending on what they are browsing.
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Inspirational
Our greatest source of inspiration is our costumers, so obviously we want to show off Maria Nilas beautiful Instagram, and encourage our users to post they own photos and tag #marianila.