We increased e-commerce conversions by 11% for Kaotica Eyeball, a niche audio brand preparing for European expansion with a broken Shopify store and no time to waste.
We increased e-commerce conversions by 11% for Kaotica Eyeball, a niche audio brand preparing for European expansion with a broken Shopify store and no time to waste.
Platform
Shopify
Platform
Shopify
Platform
Shopify
Team
Bartek Wiktorowicz
Vasyl Korol
Joanna Jabłońska
Team
Bartek Wiktorowicz
Vasyl Korol
Joanna Jabłońska
Team
Bartek Wiktorowicz
Vasyl Korol
Joanna Jabłońska
Timeline
October 2018 – January 2019
Timeline
October 2018 – January 2019
Timeline
October 2018 – January 2019
My role
I was responsible for communicating with the client, gathering needs and expectations, rapid prototyping, heuristic evaluation and complete website redesign.
My role
I was responsible for communicating with the client, gathering needs and expectations, rapid prototyping, heuristic evaluation and complete website redesign.
My role
I was responsible for communicating with the client, gathering needs and expectations, rapid prototyping, heuristic evaluation and complete website redesign.
Context
A broken experience was costing them customers. And they were about to go international.
The first time I opened the site, I gave it 30 seconds and already had a list of problems. Outdated visuals, chaotic navigation, no clear path to purchase. The conversion rate reflected all of it. With European expansion on the horizon, this wasn't a nice-to-have redesign. It needed to work.
A broken experience was costing them customers. And they were about to go international.
The first time I opened the site, I gave it 30 seconds and already had a list of problems. Outdated visuals, chaotic navigation, no clear path to purchase. The conversion rate reflected all of it. With European expansion on the horizon, this wasn't a nice-to-have redesign. It needed to work.
Goals
Goals
There were no formal goals set upfront. But the brief was clear enough: the site was losing customers and needed to convert better before the European launch.
So we aligned with the client on targets: improve conversion rate, reduce bounce, and make the purchase path obvious. Something measurable we could design toward and validate afterward.
There were no formal goals set upfront. But the brief was clear enough: the site was losing customers and needed to convert better before the European launch.
So we aligned with the client on targets: improve conversion rate, reduce bounce, and make the purchase path obvious. Something measurable we could design toward and validate afterward.
Research
Research
The first step was understanding the business, not just the website.
I started with a client interview, mapping their product, their customers, and their goals. A few things stood out immediately: the product had a patent and no direct competition, which meant trust and education mattered more than price comparison. The target audience was intermediate musicians, 25-40 years old. People who know what they need but still need convincing to buy from a brand they've never heard of.
Analytics told the rest of the story. The homepage took 19 seconds to load. Mobile users generated more revenue than desktop but converted at half the rate. And a big chunk of users were abandoning checkout because shipping costs appeared too late in the process.
The problems weren't hidden. They just hadn't been looked at.
The first step was understanding the business, not just the website.
I started with a client interview, mapping their product, their customers, and their goals. A few things stood out immediately: the product had a patent and no direct competition, which meant trust and education mattered more than price comparison. The target audience was intermediate musicians, 25-40 years old. People who know what they need but still need convincing to buy from a brand they've never heard of.
Analytics told the rest of the story. The homepage took 19 seconds to load. Mobile users generated more revenue than desktop but converted at half the rate. And a big chunk of users were abandoning checkout because shipping costs appeared too late in the process.
The problems weren't hidden. They just hadn't been looked at.
Solution
Solution
The redesign had one main job: remove every reason not to buy.
The biggest friction point wasn't visual, it was functional. A musician landing on the page couldn't easily tell if the Eyeball would fit their microphone. That's a dealbreaker. We built a compatibility section that answered that question immediately, before the user had to go looking for it.
The second issue was trust. Kaotica had celebrity endorsements and industry awards sitting unused, not on the site, not visible, not working for them. We added a dedicated section that made those credentials impossible to miss. A patented product endorsed by known names in the audio world is a completely different sell than an anonymous gadget on Shopify.
We also tackled the checkout: shipping costs shown earlier, a cleaner flow, and FAQ surfaced on the homepage to answer the questions users were already asking before they even got to the product page.
The redesign had one main job: remove every reason not to buy.
The biggest friction point wasn't visual, it was functional. A musician landing on the page couldn't easily tell if the Eyeball would fit their microphone. That's a dealbreaker. We built a compatibility section that answered that question immediately, before the user had to go looking for it.
The second issue was trust. Kaotica had celebrity endorsements and industry awards sitting unused, not on the site, not visible, not working for them. We added a dedicated section that made those credentials impossible to miss. A patented product endorsed by known names in the audio world is a completely different sell than an anonymous gadget on Shopify.
We also tackled the checkout: shipping costs shown earlier, a cleaner flow, and FAQ surfaced on the homepage to answer the questions users were already asking before they even got to the product page.
Impact
Impact
A month after launch, the numbers came in.
Bounce rate went down. Bounce rate went down. Conversion rate went up. Revenue went up. The improvements were significant enough that the client was happy and the site has stayed largely unchanged since.
But the number I'm most proud of isn't on that dashboard. It's that we solved the compatibility problem, the one thing that was silently killing purchases before users even reached the cart.
Bounce rate went down. Bounce rate went down. Conversion rate went up. Revenue went up. The improvements were significant enough that the client was happy and the site has stayed largely unchanged since.
But the number I'm most proud of isn't on that dashboard. It's that we solved the compatibility problem, the one thing that was silently killing purchases before users even reached the cart.
Learnings
This project taught me that understanding the client's business is as important as understanding their users. The compatibility problem only became obvious once I understood how musicians actually shop for gear. You can't find that in analytics alone.
Working within Shopify's constraints taught me something too. Some ideas were simply too expensive to build custom. That forced a different kind of thinking: not what's the ideal solution' but 'what's the best solution we can actually ship. The results showed that was the right call.