EAST STUFF is a leading purveyor of the finest bespoke and procured guest amenities for global, luxury hospitality. They approached KIJO with a concrete brief. EAST STUFF needed a full rebrand and identity refresh to better reflect the luxury hotel market they supply. This included a complete revamp of their WordPress website, which hadn’t been updated since 2019.
EAST STUFF’s current website was not in line with the client base that they serve. The dated aesthetics weren’t aligning to what’s expected in the luxury market. It was also difficult to navigate and had little to no photography.
The website simply wasn’t engaging and thus, wasn’t driving conversions. EAST STUFF wanted to attract more clients and properly position their brand undoubtedly within the luxury hotel market. On a tight deadline, we set to work.
Improvement in Google Lighthouse Performance score
Increase in users being able to successfully navigate to a product on user test
Accessibility colour contrast score
It was important to start with the rebrand of EAST STUFF, as this would shape the entire visual identity for the project. The current logo and colour scheme was completely off kilter from what the team were looking to achieve. It adopted a futuristic font choice and this was paired with an accent colour of lime green. This looked garish and far from luxurious. The logomark also hosted a chinese symbol which caused considerable legibility issues for the text. In addition, the colours in the existing branding didn’t meet accessibility standards. When we tested it, it failed for both small and large text, so we need to improve this with haste.
We explored multiple concepts based on a number of things that aligned more with EAST STUFF’s business goals. As a purveyor of guest amenities to luxury hotels and properties, we looked at luxury hotel door hangers, the initials of the brand (ES), and geographical implications of ‘East’. We were drawn into the latter; it felt distinctive and unique from other competitors. We created a concept of a compass-inspired logo. When we offered this option to the client, this resonated well with them.
We then looked at marrying this with a bolder, maturer colour scheme and definitive typography. Once paired with a serif typeface and a classy, but bold colour palette of jaguar green and bronze, we struck gold with the client. This colour pairing oozed luxury – this was the new EAST STUFF.
The new colour scheme also scored enormously better on the accessibility scoring; AAA across both small and large text. The new, sophisticated brand logo is evidently positioned more towards the luxury market too. By having a strong, logical, beautiful logo and colour scheme, this allows EAST STUFF to establish themselves strongly in the sector. It helps them obtain larger brand recognition within the space competitively.
Once signed off, we created a set of brand guidelines for the client. These help enforce the consistent application of the brand across all platforms and touch points long into the future.
When it came to building the website, we placed a key focus on user experience in order to capture and boost conversions. We crafted a sitemap which focused on simplifying the user journeys to reach EAST STUFF’s products. This included introducing product categories to the homepage and reducing the amount of levels (or “clicks”) the user needed to make to reach individual products. Simplifying navigation like this dissolves frustration in the user, resulting in a higher likelihood of converting them into a buyer.
For photography, which was virtually non-existent on the previous website, we created an art direction of where we saw the brand going in terms of visual media. This consisted of shots of the products EAST STUFF offer within the luxury hotel rooms and environments. This would enforce the luxury aesthetic of the properties they serve. We guided the art direction of the images sourced. We also explained how to maintain the art direction moving forward and for future photography.
To further enforce the luxury feel on the website, we implemented subtle animations on the title text of each section. These come alive as the user scrolls. The animations are seamless and smooth and help bolster engagement. We also included an automatic carousel of logos from hotels that EAST STUFF have worked with and supplied. This indicates that the brand is trustworthy and legitimate, which builds confidence in a potential client.
In addition, we utilised a visual interactive carousel for the product section on the homepage. This operates with a click-and-drag technique indicated by the third image bleeding off of the page. Sophisticated interactions like this help keep a user intrigued and interacting with the website for longer. This tells Google that the page is worth visiting which in turn gets it to promote the page (and thus company) in its rankings. It also encourages the user to convert.
We also completely revamped the copy on the website. Our in-house copywriter worked with the client to find a use of language that spoke to the target user and helped bolster the luxury feel throughout the website. We remained inspired by the use of the letter ‘E’ and its relation to ‘East’ on the compass-inspired logo. Words like ‘extraordinary’, ‘elevated’ and ‘exceptional’ in titles helped promote a luxurious, assured flow throughout the website. This further contributes to fostering a strong brand awareness and recognition for the user.
EAST STUFF’s existing eCommerce website was powered by WooCommerce. This was great as this is our plugin of choice for driving the eCommerce functionality on the websites we work on. We made the strategic decision to continue working with WooCommerce. It was familiar to the client and the client’s product library was already in WooCommerce. This meant migrating to a new website would be smoother.
However, the client did want to add features to the product pages. So, cloning the product library exactly from the existing website didn’t make sense. We suggested doing a .csv file import. This is when data is stored within a spreadsheet so new data can be added with ease. It is then imported into WooCommerce. From our end, we could map the CSV fields to the website fields for a seamless update and transition of data.
This enabled EAST STUFF to make the changes they needed for the launch of their website’s eCommerce pages. However, it was done in the most efficient, seamless and stress-free way possible.
In a user test, we asked testers to navigate to the Audio Equipment Hire page from the homepage. 85% of users successfully found the page and rated the ease of the task at 4.2 out of 5.
In addition, we conducted a user test to evaluate how easily users could navigate to a specific product. We did this on both the old and new websites. On the old website, only 40% of users successfully found the correct product (a bathrobe), with an average ease-of-navigation rating of 3.45 out of 5 (where 5 is very easy and 1 is very difficult).
In contrast, the new website significantly improved performance. 70% of users located the correct product. This was a 75% increase. Additionally, users rated the ease of navigation on the new website at an average of 4.05. This reflects a 17% improvement.
In addition, we conducted a user test to evaluate how easily users could navigate to a specific product. We did this on both the old and new websites. On the old website, only 40% of users successfully found the correct product (a bathrobe), with an average ease-of-navigation rating of 3.45 out of 5 (where 5 is very easy and 1 is very difficult).
In contrast, the new website significantly improved performance. 70% of users located the correct product. This was a 75% increase. Additionally, users rated the ease of navigation on the new website at an average of 4.05. This reflects a 17% improvement.
Olympian Motors
