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I’ve addressed Beardbrand’s know-how stack over time. I’ve accomplished that to hopefully assist different retailers with their decision-making and to spotlight good and dangerous selections we’ve made alongside the way in which.
Beardbrand has been on Shopify since our launch in 2013. We began with a free Shopify theme. In 2014 we constructed a wholly customized model, and in 2020 we switched to a premium theme. Late final 12 months, we determined emigrate to Shopify’s 2.0 platform with a brand new paid theme to enhance it.
Jenny Durre managed that whole course of. She is Beardbrand’s in-house designer, marketer, and mission supervisor. I not too long ago requested her to recap her work of selecting the brand new theme, designing its format, migrating the content material, and finally taking the brand new website stay. That whole audio dialog is embedded beneath. The transcript is condensed and edited for readability.
Eric Bandholz: We simply launched the fourth model of Beardbrand.com.
Jenny Durre: It’s been an thrilling course of. We upgraded to Shopify 2.0 utilizing a premium template. We did plenty of analysis. Shopify has free 2.0 templates, however they didn’t meet what we wanted for personalisation.
It might seem to be minor modifications, however the new website is drastically completely different than the earlier model.
I dove into reviewing templates final November. I made a spreadsheet to assist us slender it down. I wished to tug in the important thing options in 2.0. Lots of the 2.0 themes had been not too long ago launched on the time. We couldn’t discover many evaluations. We went with a comparatively new theme, referred to as Cut up. The chance of recent themes is you don’t know precisely how they’ll work or what bugs you may encounter.
Our high standards for selecting a theme was website pace. We’re nonetheless engaged on getting quicker. Past pace, we sought a superior consumer expertise and a transparent and concise format.
Our earlier theme had many layers by way of our navigation and collections. We tried to simplify the steps for guests so as to add merchandise to the cart and discover the proper data with out having to click on by a number of pages.
The complete course of took about six months. We selected Cut up after which custom-made it. I work remotely, however all of us collaborated — you, me, and the Beardbrand workers. Launching a brand new website is way more than design. It’s reviewing, testing, and tweaking.
Bandholz: What do you imply by a “clear and concise format”?
Durre: The earlier theme, Status, had plenty of navigation choices. Cut up is extra streamlined, specializing in product varieties. I custom-made the product pages to make them extra visually pleasing.
Now we have a fantastic copywriter, a fantastic photographer, and good content material. We labored on breaking issues up into digestible items that inform the Beardbrand story. Now that we’re narrowing our choices, it’s a lot simpler to give attention to major merchandise and supply useful data and tutorials.
We examined imagery on the house web page, but it surely didn’t carry out higher than textual content. Now we’re implementing extra of a narrative. The above-the-fold house web page part tells who we’re. Under that we dive into constructing product bundles, the place prospects can purchase three merchandise and get one free, for instance. We’ve shifted to letting prospects construct their very own bundles versus having pre-built kits. It’s extra interactive and simpler to navigate.
Moreover, we constructed a “Store” touchdown web page with sections and classes. Clients can routinely add merchandise to the cart or create a bundle on that web page.
Bandholz: Discuss concerning the navigation and the customization course of.
Durre: The navigation is extra centered now. It’s simpler for patrons to make selections. Our product pages comprise all of the important information with out the muddle. Many manufacturers have in depth navigation choices on product pages. I favor having every little thing on a single format.
Venture administration was important. It took some time to kind out what we wanted and what to deliver over from the earlier model. I went app by app. Once I was not sure if an app would translate to a 2.0 theme, I’d discuss on to Shopify or search for third-party assets.
Integrating Recharge, the subscription administration app, was a problem. Recharge has not too long ago merged its checkout to be a part of Shopify’s cart. Earlier than it was separate. Now we have it on the principle checkout now. It’s extra distinguished. Clients can simply swap their merchandise within the cart to a subscription.
I hope to create a web page that talks about the advantages of subscriptions and the way to decide on the proper frequency.
Bandholz: The place can individuals comply with you?
Durre: My Instagram is @woodandshadow and I’m on LinkedIn.
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