The Cambridge Satchel Company is a heritage British brand known for its craftsmanship, quality leather goods, and timeless design. As part of a wider rebrand, Cambridge Satchel partnered with Charle, a Shopify Plus agency, to redesign and launch a bespoke Shopify Plus store that reflected its elevated luxury positioning.
As the sole UX/UI designer on the project, my role was to reimagine the end-to-end customer journey — ensuring the digital experience matched the brand’s premium aesthetic while delivering a seamless, intuitive, and conversion-focused shopping experience.
The challenge was to balance luxury brand storytelling with commercial performance. The new experience needed to feel refined and editorial, while remaining fast, intuitive, and scalable within Shopify Plus. Working closely with the Cambridge Satchel and Charle teams, I designed both desktop and mobile journeys, carefully considering every customer touchpoint.
My approach was grounded in three core pillars: improving key eCommerce KPIs (conversion, AOV, engagement), reinforcing Cambridge Satchel’s heritage and luxury appeal, and reducing friction across the buying journey. Research revealed a predominantly mobile audience (72%), a strong interest in lifestyle and accessories, and a clear expectation for rich product detail — including reviews, sizing guidance, and storytelling that sold a lifestyle rather than just a product.
To align stakeholders early, I presented moodboards, wireframes, and concept designs that blended heritage craftsmanship with a modern luxury aesthetic, setting a clear visual and experiential direction for the store.
I led the UX/UI design across the entire Shopify Plus experience, introducing a series of enhancements to improve usability and conversion. These included refined navigation and search for product discovery, improved collection filtering with SEO considerations, personalised product recommendations to increase AOV, and integrated reviews and incentives to build trust.
Product detail pages were reworked to clearly communicate value, address objections, and reduce purchase friction, while a product-finding quiz was introduced to help customers confidently choose the right bag. Given the mobile-heavy audience, the experience was designed mobile-first, ensuring performance and clarity across smaller screens.
All pages and components were built within a modular Figma design system, aligned to Shopify 2.0’s section-based framework. This gave the Cambridge Satchel team long-term flexibility to manage, rearrange, and evolve content without reliance on developers.
The redesigned Shopify Plus store launched successfully, receiving strong feedback from both the Cambridge Satchel and Charle teams. I delivered a structured Figma handover to support smooth development and implementation. Early post-launch indicators showed increased engagement and conversion, alongside positive customer feedback on the refined digital experience.
The project also influenced broader brand decisions, with elements of the digital art direction later informing in-store retail design. This work reinforced the importance of aligning business goals with customer experience, leveraging Shopify’s modular capabilities for scalability, and balancing data-driven UX decisions with strong brand storytelling.
Whether you have a clear brief, a loose idea, or just a sense that something isn’t quite clicking, it starts with a conversation.
A focused 30-minute call to understand your product, your goals, and your customers. From there, we shape the positioning, clarify the journey, and design an experience built to convert.
No pitch deck. No pressure. Just clear thinking, a defined outcome, and a path forward that makes sense for your business.
