68% Growth in Conversion Efficiency via UX Redesign
E-commerce • Beauty • Web • Mobile • Shopify • UX Redesign
Brief
This is a full-scale UX Redesign of the Kara Beauty e-commerce website on Shopify, specifically focused on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). To maximize purchase efficiency, I identified critical friction points and redesigned the core user journey. By improving Information Architecture and clarifying the browsing-to-decision flow across the Homepage and PDP, I drove a 68% lift in overall site conversion rate.
Impact
PROBLEM OVERVIEW
People come to Kara Beauty looking for products that truly resonate with them. They rely on the site to tell the brand’s story and help them weigh their options. However, many users were hitting a wall; without a clear view of the product categories, the shopping experience felt fragmented. Instead of a smooth journey, they found themselves bouncing between pages, trying to piece together where to go next.
In 2025, marketing budget increased, it became increasingly important for the website to support confident discovery and decision making for new users.
DESIGN PROCESS
Discovery
Conversion funnel & entry point analysis
With increased marketing spend driving record traffic, I first examined the conversion funnel and found that purchases failed to scale despite rising engagement. To understand where this breakdown was happening, I then analyzed where users were entering the site and how those entry points shaped their next steps.
User flow analysis
This user flow analysis was conducted to validate whether the product discovery flow aligns with first time users’ mental models and supports quick, confident purchasing decisions.
Insight
The 0.2% conversion rate wasn’t driven by poor traffic, but by navigational exhaustion. Across the journey, the interface failed to guide users, forcing them to guess where to start, how to compare, and when to decide, steadily weakening purchase intent across 37,000 visits.
User interview
To validate whether the lack of structure identified in analytics actually showed up in real user decision-making, I conducted moderated user interviews.
Insight
The interviews point to a clear confidence gap. Users left because the interface drains their decision-making energy. By failing to provide immediate orientation (Confusion) and hiding key benefits (Fatigue), we are effectively blocking the path to conversion for 37,000 visitors.
The core issue: from physical maze to cognitive fatigue
After analyzing data, entry behavior, interface patterns, and user interviews, a clearer picture emerged.
UX Audit: The dead zone
The following audit breaks down 'The Dead Zone', the structural friction and navigational blind spots that turn high-intent entry traffic into immediate exits.
Home page:
Product list page:
Product detail page:
Design principles
These principles translate the core insight into clear design decisions that guide the redesign.
Execution & refinement
IA analysis
To eliminate cognitive labor caused by unclear entry points, I restructured the information architecture to prioritize high-traffic categories and intuitive navigation.
Iteration
Why it did not become the final version
Home
The solution
Home page
Product list page
Product detail page
Before vs After
Validation
Moderated usability testing
3 Participants (3 Females)
Age: 20s - 30s
Task: Starting from the homepage, find a makeup product you would consider purchasing and decide whether to add it to cart
Key observations
Participants were able to identify where to start shopping on the homepage more quickly
Users moved from Home → PLP with fewer pauses and less backtracking
Key product information and the primary CTA were noticed earlier without guidance
Insight
Clarifying section roles and entry points removed early decision paralysis, allowing users to move from browsing into product exploration without hesitation.
Before / After comparison test
3 Participants (3 Females)
Age: 20s - 30s
Task: Compare the original and redesigned experience and explain which makes it easier to decide what to do next and why
Key observations
Participants were able to explain product differences more quickly in the redesigned PLP
Users relied less on scrolling and exploratory clicking to make decisions
The redesigned PDP felt more trustworthy due to earlier visibility of key benefits and reviews
Insight
By surfacing decision-critical information earlier, users relied less on trial-and-error exploration and reached purchase decisions with greater confidence.
Across tests, users moved through the shopping journey with less hesitation and greater clarity.
Rather than exploring through trial and error, participants were guided by clearer structure, stronger visual cues, and earlier decision signals.
This validated that the core issue was not missing content, but the lack of guidance and decision structure throughout the journey.
Visual deliverables
Scroll over the image to view the full image
Scroll over the image to view the full image
REFLECTION
What I learned
Analytics alone doesn’t tell the full story.
Conversion improved, but checkout drop-off revealed that Decision UX and Trust UX matter as much as layout and navigation.
Improving Information Architecture clarified browsing behavior, but purchase confidence is built through content clarity, social proof, and perceived reliability, not structure alone
Small UX details had an outsized impact on conversion, especially when they reduced uncertainty at the moment of decision such as mobile CTA visibility, review placement on PDP, and immediate access to product context like shades and benefits.
Next steps
Conduct focused usability testing on the checkout and payment stages to identify friction points causing drop-off despite improved browsing and add-to-cart behavior.
Expand this approach into a reusable e-commerce framework that balances branding, conversion, and operational constraints, based on patterns observed in this project.
Evaluate long-term impact beyond conversion
by tracking repeat purchase rate, product return rate, and review sentiment trends.
