Creating an outdoor’s lifestyle e-commerce site: lessons and pain-points
Outdoor Freestyle
Year: 2022
Navigation
- Introduction
- Objective
- Problem
- Wireframes
- Results
- Social media
- Lessons learned
Adventure awaits for this product based entrepreneur.
I worked with an outdoor and nature-inspired E-commerce brand. Tasked with creating the branding, website, and social media graphics, this project spanned three months of strategy, UX, and visual design.
Objective
My aim was to create an e-commerce site and make the brand more recognizable. To do this, we needed to establish brand parameters such as fonts, colors and images. Inspired by REI, Outside Magazine and other outdoor brands, I aimed to create a clear navigation and graphics that could adapt to websites, social media and videos.
Problem
Outdoor recreation is not very popular in the city of Guayaquil (my client’s focal point) due to it being considered a costly event. Most outdoor gears are imports purchased outside the city. Outdoor Freestyle is an Amazon distributor who wanted to provide his products in the country at an affordable prize but realized he’s not recognized. Although a site already existed, he had no traction and needed to find a solution for this. Upon reviewing the site and knowing our target audience, we simplified his current site to take a product first approach.
Wireframes / UX Focus Area
My intent was to create an e-commerce store. I created a WooCommerce storefront adding additional plugins per the country’s needs. The UX focused on providing an easy way to navigate the site. We stripped back non-essential pages, consolidating content to improve client behaviors and getting people straight to the products they want. Since WooCommerce already had an established flow for purchase, it wasn’t necessary at this stage to change its appearance other than to adhere to the brand system.
Results
The site maintained many of the original wireframe elements with slight modifications in color, as the brand continued to grow. The client wanted a corporate feel instead of some of the more adventurous aspects proposed thru conversations. To bring some fun into the project, I created the image frames with an extended border to reference polaroid photography. I wanted to make sure we maintained the aspect of adventure and feel like this was a journey.
During this process, I created a social media strategy. This strategy allowed us to understand our target audience and what they liked. It also allowed room for developing brand trust and engagement.
Social media samples
My social strategy was based on three parts:
- Create posts for social engagements, such as tips and recommendations.
- Brand awareness
- Product selling
As it currently stands, social media is the main channel for selling content in Ecuador. In order to increase brand positioning, I also connected the e-commerce site with Facebook pixels, uploaded our catalog and created promotional materials that interested our target audience.
These are a sample of the designs I created during that time..
Lessons Learned
Since the start of the covid pandemic, E-commerce is taking form in developing countries. This has created a host of opportunities and challenges. With this client, I learned:
- In Ecuador, there is a general distrust on utilizing your credit/debit card for online transaction
- Shipping options are few, mainly Servientrega. This creates high shipping cost within the region.
- Social media selling is not going away. It’s a powerful asset for developing brands. Connecting social to websites will only increase brand trust and confidence in your brand.
- The future is bright for e-commerce, especially when you are creating something not seen before in your area.
- Product sites require constant updates and maintenance to improve functionality and general ease of use, however, they must do these gradually based on client behavior.
