Samuel Hubbard
Published 2023 in Repplikk nr 53: Digital
Visual Design Samuel Hubbard is a small shoe company based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. They specialize in men’s dress shoes and are available online and in stores across the United States. The shoes are made with high-quality leather and are marketed as the most comfortable dress shoe you can own. Sales from their online store comprise 80% of their annual revenues. While brick-and-mortar stores are an important part of their marketing, online presence remains a major focus.
My role was more specialized than my usual projects. Initially, Samuel Hubbard contacted me to create a B2B ecommerce website. Soon after, however, they also asked me to optimize the mobile and merchandising aspects of their B2C ecommerce website. The B2B website was a new concept. Its goal was to increase the sales of their products to more brick-and-mortar locations, as well as online stores. The sales representatives needed to automate and ease the ordering process so they could focus their attention on new acquisitions.
Shortly following this larger project was the mobile optimization for their B2C website. They had recently redesigned their ecommerce website, placing a larger focus on the desktop view. Although the website was fully responsive, the design was handled by developers who told Samuel Hubbard they would need to go back and refine the experience. As a result, some functionality was lacking, and some vital paths, such as checkout, were challenging to use. General mobile online retail was booming, while Samuel Hubbard’s was slumping.
The final piece of this project was introducing new digital merchandising features. We worked on implementing proven elements to increase conversion, such as “Suggested Products”, optimum product grids, reviews and ratings, and product FAQ.
The client used a product called OroCommerce for their B2B website, which included a bare-bones template that I needed to adapt to fit in the style of their new website. The art director who worked on the other website handed over his design, which seemed more like concepts at that stage than what was actually implemented.
The direction I was given was to follow the overall feel, but give a more direct and clear design that signified this was a business-oriented website. I also changed the idea of how to create a B2B order from what the template offered. I decided to strip down the content into quick, decipherable chunks of concise information that made it easy to order products. I used the colors and icon style from the B2C website along with a similar style for forms and tables. The challenge of the design was to keep the content information heavy, but still carry though a clean,organized, and responsive design.
Conversion rates went through the roof. Mobile revenue doubled and transactions also saw a massive increase. The ability to browse the B2C or B2B website, create an account, check order status, and complete orders are now simple and intuitive. The design flows seamlessly between both sites and provides customers with a well-rounded shopping experience.