About The Brand

Artisans & Agency, a beloved Santa Cruz storefront, curates handcrafted gifts from local and global artisans. When in-person foot traffic dropped during the pandemic, they needed a digital transformation to showcase their extensive inventory and preserve their brand’s art-driven story.  

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My Role

As UX Designer & Project Lead, I managed the full e-commerce overhaul from discovery to delivery:

• Discovery & inventory research
• Shopify site redesign & UX architecture
• Product taxonomy planning and filtering
• UI/UX design in Figma, synced to Shopify
• SEO optimization and analytics setup
• Collaboration with Artisans & Agency and graphic designer Amanda Altice

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The Challenge

The original site showcased only ~35% of the boutique’s inventory and did not reflect the brand story. The task was to:

• Upload and organize over 5,000 SKUs with clear product categorization
• Craft an art-inspired, merchant-friendly visual design
• Enable intuitive sidebar filtering and navigation
• Improve SEO visibility with structured content and metadata

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The Solution

• Catalog Strategy & Taxonomy: Tagged and categorized all products to provide clean browsing, filtering, and on-site search capabilities
• Navigation & Faceted Filtering: Designed sidebar filters and user flows for seamless product exploration
• Visual Design & Branding: Developed a gallery-forward aesthetic using rich imagery and clean layouts to elevate artisan storytelling
• SEO & Technical Optimization: Implemented structured metadata, Shopify-optimized site structure, and analytics for tracking performance  

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The Result

• 900% increase in online revenue during the first year
• 55.3% funnel conversion rate, well above industry average
• 97–100% site health score consistently maintained
• Strengthened community engagement and sustained retail sales during pandemic-related shutdowns

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Key Takeaway

This project showcases how deep catalog structuring, thoughtful ecommerce UX, and SEO cohesion can transform a local storefront into a thriving online boutique. By optimizing product presentation and site architecture, Artisans & Agency now delivers a curated, navigable experience—even with thousands of SKUs.

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