Aesop is an Australian company that makes luxury hand soaps, moisturizers, and facial products. What makes them unique is their positioning at the intersection of nature and science. They use natural ingredients while believing deeply in proper chemistry and formulation. Their brand philosophy centers on premium, luxurious products made of natural ingredients and formulated with scientific rigor. They maintain a curated, focused product line of approximately 100 items, cultivating a quirky yet sophisticated brand personality supported by highly knowledgeable staff who take a thoughtful, needs-based approach to customer service.
To design the e-commerce experience, we first needed to deeply understand what made Aesop's retail stores special. Their retail environment features small, beautifully designed stores with knowledgeable store associates who function almost like consultants. There's an intimate, personal atmosphere where products are displayed thoughtfully rather than overwhelmingly, with every detail considered, from lighting to sink design.
The needs-based sales process begins with consultation. An associate asks: "What problem are you trying to solve?" They explore concerns like chapped lips, dry skin, sun damage, or anti-aging. They inquire about skin type, lifestyle, and preferences. Based on this consultation, they recommend specific products, explaining why a particular product would suit the particular customer’s needs. They might recommend a full regimen, including cleanser, toner, and moisturizer, drawing on deep and detailed product knowledge.
What is great about eCommerce? It's fast… There is no travel involved. Customers can go at their own pace. These insights led us to use product photography, video, and graphic design that feels luxurious, intentional while retaining that hard-sought element of quirkiness. But let's also make the entire navigation use an easy to follow system that is more shoppable while making checkout as frictionless as possible. Our design system took advantage of the benefits ecommerce offered with a small product set that would never grow much beyond what they currently offer.
We chose a technical architecture that divided responsibilities clearly across teams and continents. On the front end, Work & Co handled all React development including custom UI components, product visualization features, the shoppable navigation system, and built in responsive design across devices. For the back end, another vendor based in India handled the Hybris e-commerce engine, managing inventory, checkout, payments, the product management system, order fulfillment integration, and international shipping logic.
The collaboration challenge was significant. The client was based in Australia, the back-end vendor was in India, and front-end development was at Work & Co in the US. Work & Co owned the customer-facing experience while our partner owned the commerce infrastructure. We reduced complexity through well-defined interfaces, and frequent collaboration. We wound up being very early Zoom customers, through trial and error, as it was the only one that worked with such a distributed team. Our collaboration paid dividends.
The initial launch and optimization period was a success. Aside from a double digit improvement in conversion, the site now properly reflected and improved upon Aesop’s brand.