A-dam Underwear
A-dam Underwear is a Dutch men’s underwear company. Colourful, full of cheeky imagery and playful copy, Chris describes the A-dam Underwear website as "delightfully different".
The site ignores convention, disregards many best-practice guidelines, and isn’t optimised for conversions – but it’s a clear decision that the business has made, and that’s why it works. “They are pushing what’s right for their brand. What’s their brand strategy? To appeal to a certain type of person,” Chris says.
A-dam Underwear’s site stands out because it strays from the norm. “They obviously want to be different and disruptive, so I really like it for that purpose.”
sass & bide
The website of Australian premium fashion brand sass & bide was a Salmat project, and received Magento’s Excellence Award for Best Web Design earlier this year.
“The reason I liked this project is because we did a lot of research before we started. This involved a mixture of quantitative research whereby we surveyed thousands of sass & bide website users, and qualitative research where we spoke one-on-one with a number of users spanning the spectrum of sass & bide customers to dig deeper into the “what?” and “why?” of how they interact with the brand.
“The sass & bide team was really engaged in speaking to their users and finding out what they wanted,” Chris explains. “So we tailored the eCommerce experience to the user needs.”
The research helped Chris and his team identify what users were interested in, and what was behind the product. This led them to create content, such as photo shoots and videos, around the story behind each collection, as well as an ‘inspiration block’ on the home page. He cites additional elements such as responsive features and a detailed sizing guide as other elements of what makes the sass & bide site appealing.
Yuliya Magdych
Yulia Magdych is the founder of this high-end Ukrainian fashion label. Chris says he appreciates this site for the same reason he does A-dam’s Underwear – its point of difference. “They haven’t compromised,” he says.
With its minimal interface, striking photography, and concise productdetail, the site largely focuses on showcasing Yuliya Magdych’s unique collections. And with pieces priced from US$1,000 to upwards of US$4,000, Chris predicts the site largely serves as a funnel for enquiries and highlights the premium nature of the brand.
The site’s stripped-back style stands out from the busy design adopted by many mainstream eCommerce fashion sites. “It does a really good job, and they have made a bold move,”.
Johnny Bigg
Johnny Bigg is an Australian menswear retailer that caters for big and tall men. As a Salmat project, Chris believes the site “represents the brand perfectly”. But it’s the various elements and small touches it brings together that make it a great eCommerce site. For instance, when on a product page, the user is followed by a product image and summary when they scroll down the screen. “This reminds the user of the product that attracted them initially and includes a link to add it to your basket without having to scroll.”
Fast-performing and responsive, a good filtering system, a wide range of products, and helpful customer service support like free pickup and returns,detailed sizing charts, and the store locator tool, are among the features Chris highlighted as beneficial.
Meeting multiple needs
eCommerce sites should: