Redesigning the Experience for Pilgrim Jewellery Shoppers in North America
This project underscored the essentiality of tailoring user experience (UX) to unique regional behaviors, accentuating that shopping cultures vary vastly across the globe. In the case of Pilgrim Jewellery, we transformed the website's UX to better suit North American consumers, mirroring strategies employed by big-name competitors such as Zara.
Introduction
Historically, the Pilgrim Jewellery website maintained a straightforward design, echoing its European counterpart's structure. The task at hand was to overhaul the website, enhancing the shopping experience by aligning it with the strategies of industry giants. Our successful redesign resulted in a UX which now effectively monitors user interactions and integrates seamlessly with digital marketing tools, such as Klaviyo, an alternative to Mailchimp.
Understanding our Users
As any UX designer knows, understanding your user base is the starting point for any design project. North American shoppers exhibit behaviors significantly distinct from those in Europe. To gain insight into these regional distinctions, we collaborated with an external market research agency specializing in consumer behavior.
We soon discovered North American shoppers lean towards visually striking presentations and place immense value on social validation. According to the research by Nisbett (2003), Western cultures like North America often prefer more analytical and object-focused approaches. This preference makes social validation crucial in decision-making processes, as they trust reviews and experiences of their peers. Aligning our strategy with these insights, we realized the incorporation of an Instagram plugin for our Shopify store was necessary. This tool would capitalize on these behaviors, displaying customer photos and reviews that inherently provide social validation.
Previous Website Layout
The former website design prioritized the presentation of products:
However, a study by Djamasbi, Siegel, and Tullis (2010) concluded that users often prefer web pages that use larger images, indicating a potential flaw in our previous design. Comparatively, Zara effectively utilizes high-quality images and a clean, minimalistic layout to draw user attention to the products.
New Website Layout
The refreshed layout emphasizes official Pilgrim models and leverages the power of Instagram:
This design decision reflects a more comprehensive approach to user engagement. Large images with models showcasing the jewelry in a lifestyle context appeal to the visual preferences of North American shoppers. Further, our integration of Instagram images offers another layer of social proof, mirroring strategies of companies like Gymshark, which have effectively used similar methods to build their brands.
Summary of the Project
Our collaboration with a market research agency provided us with valuable insights into the differences between our European and North American users. Informed by these insights, we reimagined Pilgrim North America's online presence. The redesigned website has proven to be a substantial success, with conversions now outperforming the previous website by a factor of 2.7.
Our efforts demonstrate the importance of understanding cultural differences in online consumer behavior. Research studies and insights from UX psychology play a pivotal role in providing targeted and successful user experiences.
Final Note
Owing to the success of our North American redesign, Pilgrim Europe is currently A/B testing the same layout. You can explore the current layout here. Furthermore, you can browse through the successful Pilgrim North America website here.