KELLIE'S BEAD BOUTIQUE

Mobile Optimization & Custom Homepage Design Help A Local Bead Shop Increase Revenue and Thrive During Shut-Down

Grow With Studio helped a successful jewelry designer improve conversions and drive sales in the face of a nationwide shut-down.

+129%

Increase in Revenue

+123%

Increase in Transactions

+17%

Increase in Conversion Rate

Business:

Kellie's Bead Boutique

Project Link:

kelliesbeadboutique.com

Brief:

Kellie Sutton is the creative mastermind behind Kellie Sutton Jewelry. In 2009, Kellie decided to parlay her love of jewelry-making into Kellie’s Bead Boutique, an online bead supply store with a local outpost in British Columbia. Kellie also maintains a lively YouTube channel, providing video classes and tutorials to her 50,000 craft-loving subscribers.

Services Provided:

Conversion Best Practices & Optimization
Implemented an Updated & Responsive Template
Branding Strategy
Logo Restyling for Cohesive Branding
Custom Homepage Design
Custom Pop Up Design
Styled, Cohesive Contact Us Page
Technical Optimization
Professional Theme & Design Installation

“I worked with Grow With Studio on a redesign of my website “Kellie’s Bead Boutique”. They were easy to work with and understood what I wanted and worked with me every step of the way. I had a huge challenge conveying the feel I wanted on my new site. When I wasn’t happy with the directions the new look was taking, they immediately had a new designer step in who not only NAILED IT but did it on the first draft. I am so happy with my new look and can’t say enough great things about Grow With Studio.”

Kellie Sutton

Store Owner

Introduction

Kellie’s Bead Boutique has been a local favorite since its inception in 2009. Because Kellie’s local merchandising and in-person classes have been such a central focus point, her website has gradually taken a back burner over the past few years. In January 2020, Kellie decided her website was no longer in step with the competition and came to Grow With Studio for a design refresh. Her wish list included a responsive website, a more seamless mobile browsing experience, and a better way to showcase her YouTube videos.

Challenge

Because Kellie naturally wanted to show off her beads “in action” as part of wearable, finished pieces, the website’s original messaging and visual language led to some confusion about what the store actually sold. Jewelry? Beads? As designers, our main challenge was in finding a crystal-clear way to communicate that Kellie’s Bead Boutique sold beading supplies, not jewelry. The two shopping categories have very different audiences, and we wanted to make sure all the bead buyers knew they’d found their new favorite place.

One challenge none of us saw coming was COVID-19 and its ensuing quarantine, which hit full-throttle in the middle of our site redesign. Kellie had to shut her busy British Columbia storefront down to keep her customers safe, so having a functional and customer-friendly website became an urgent necessity. We tightened up deadlines and rearranged our priorities so we could push the work out ASAP. It was important to us that Kellie and her customers have access to their creative haven during this unprecedented time.

Our Approach

Right away, we updated Kellie’s website template to a responsive one so she’d have the freedom to make future updates without losing mobile functionality. That part, at least, was a no-brainer! But depending on the content and styling decisions, a responsive template doesn’t always lead to a perfectly mobile-optimized site. So once the switch was made, we went through the customer journey with a fine-toothed comb to make sure the mobile experience was optimal at every touchpoint. A more intuitive site navigation and a smoother checkout system came out of that process.

We also wanted the website and logo to feel more cohesive, while clearly communicating what the shop sells. We revamped Kellie’s existing logo and added fresh colors that matched the site’s buttons and accents. Using a bold, contrasting color, we placed an eye-pleasing “Beading Supplies” message front and center (well, technically to the right). By pairing that message with the main CTA, we were able to turn its location into the field where the user’s eye is most likely to travel first.

Finally, we wanted to highlight Kellie’s YouTube channel. Thanks to Kellie’s helpful classes and tutorials, she has over 48,000 loyal subscribers. Not only does a lot of her business come through this channel, but her videos have become an even more critical touchpoint post-quarantine. We created a featured section on the home page introducing the channel, sharing one of Kellie’s latest videos and encouraging new viewers to subscribe. We made sure the section was easy to edit and that swapping out videos was a breeze, so Kellie could always share her most timely or relevant videos with her visitors.

Conclusion

Kellie’s new design went live in April 2020. Compared to the previous four-month period, April through August saw a whopping 17% improvement in conversions — that’s a 57% increase in revenue! Year over year, the site has seen a 129% increase in revenue since the redesign. And month over month, the site has had consistent increases in revenue, transactions and conversion rate across the board. Not only was Kellie able to maintain her website’s revenue during quarantine, but she actually improved it by turning her site into a happy haven for bead-lovers everywhere.