Lexy Smart

CASCADIA SKINCARE

How I improved Cascadia's Cart Conversion by 14%

Overview

As the sole designer and marketing executive at Cascadia, I redesigned the add-to-cart flow to increase conversion and make the site more intuitive and easy to use. Cascadia’s loyal customer base was masking a problem: the cart, which every user passes through, was a default, untouched Shopify template that was eroding user trust and ease of experience.

Role

I performed user research to

help guide my redesign of our

cart and ATC flow.

Timeline

10 weeks

Tools

Claude, Contentsquare,

Figma, Shopify

Impact

Measured across matched 4-week windows, before and after launch, excluding initial implementation phase.

Checkout Completion Rate

+19.6%

Conversion Rate

+14%

The Problem.

When completing a funnel analysis, I realized users were dropping off when they reached the cart, which was hurting the conversion rate for our e-commerce business.

The default cart was struggling under the weight of scale and looked almost dysfunctional next to the rest of the site. That was creating a high barrier for new customers.

Evaluating Cascadia’s ATC flow.

I wanted to assess the current user flow, to gain a deeper understanding of what the add-to-cart / checkout process was like. Turns out there were a lot of moments where i was looking for a function, like a delete button - and there was none.

before

Browse

product page

Add To Cart

no confirmation shown

Cart Opens

plain, default template

Edit Cart

decrement to zero to delete

Proceed To Checkout

dicsount reads like an error

proposed

Browse

product page

Add To Cart

confirmation + microcopy

Cart Opens

branded, rewards & samples

Edit Cart

delete + edit buttons

Proceed To Checkout

trust badges, live totals

I created 3 measurable design goals.

Increase user trust

Through intuitive, positively reinforced design systems.

Through intuitive, positively reinforced

design systems.

Keep familiar indicators

Applying Jakob’s Law, as confusing redesign would create tension for loyal customers.

Applying Jakob’s Law, as confusing

redesign would create tension for

loyal customers.

Add interactive conversion features

Add interactive conversion

features

To increase cart size, leveraging the Zeigarnik Effect.

To increase cart size, leveraging the

Zeigarnik Effect.

Key Decisions

Borrowed from sites customers already trust.

I studied skincare and beauty Shopify sites I admire and adapted what was working. Why: New customers are comparing us to these brands anyway, so meeting the patterns they already expect lowers friction.

A sample studio.

In the store, we give samples with every purchase, and I wanted to replicate that online. Why: Samples let new customers try new products with low risk, which serves both trust and cart size.

Custom-coded rather than app-heavy.

I built the cart in Shopify with Claude’s help. Why: to personalize the site without overloading it. Stacking third-party apps would have slowed the cart and diluted the brand.

Foundation first

Foundation

first

In wireframes, I split the build into two tiers. The foundation was delete/edit, confirmation, and live totals. The top layer was rewards and the sample studio. Why: The trust fixes had to work before conversion features could earn anything. Upsells on a cart people don’t trust just add noise.

Sketching out a new cart

I really love to sketch out my designs first. Its low stakes and helps me focus on how the flow and structure feels. I looked at many other shopify skincare / beauty sites of companies of whom I admire their websites, and I tried to take what was working from their designs (and avoid what wasn't) and apply it to our own cart.

Lo-fi -> Mid-fi Wireframes -> Claude Code

In figma, I created a few wireframes to start seeing the vision come to life and also start assessing what I would systematically need to build - I would need to start with the foundational elements, like the cart itself and its structure. Then I could start to build the contents, using Claude code to help execute my vision.

Post-ship issues and solutions

Some states and contexts just didn’t cross my mind until real users arrived:

The site got slow

Too many overlapping functions were reading the cart, which hurts conversion.

I simplified the coded pathways.

Too many overlapping functions were

reading the cart, which hurts conversion.

I simplified the coded pathways.

Sample scents were unclear

Sample scents were

unclear

I added clearer visuals.

Samples had a +/- selector

so people could add more than we wanted. I gated quantity to regular products only.

People could add more than we wanted.

I gated quantity to regular products only.

Final Designs

I’m very proud of the final product! The entire process took me around one month. I've taken a good step in establishing a scalable and adaptable system to handle different types of users and products on the site.

Impact

I measured across matched four-week windows before and after launch: excluding the initial bug-fix period, so these numbers are a reflection isolated to the redesign itself, not an unstable rollout.

Checkout completion: 46.6% → 55.7% = a 19.6% lift.

Overall conversion rate: 1.63% → 1.85% = a 14% lift.

Cart additions: +10%. Sessions: +4%.

I measured across matched four-week windows before and after launch: excluding the initial bug-fix period, so these numbers are a reflection isolated to the redesign itself, not an unstable rollout.

Checkout completion: 46.6% → 55.7% = a 19.6% lift.

Overall conversion rate: 1.63% → 1.85% = a 14% lift.

Cart additions: +10%. Sessions: +4%.

Takeaways

Gaining experience in analyzing user behaviour, diagnosing the key issues, and then leveraging that to design efficiently is what I am most proud of. As the sole designer, maganing the scope of this project was also crucial - I was constantly thinking about what-ifs that I needed to make sure were focused to the three goals I had decided on.

It was extremely interesting to dive deeper into the purchase funnel and see more about what was making people hesitate. Now that I can take an outcome and work backwards to see where that moment is, means I can start to evaluate other areas of the funnel that are experiencing drop-offs and design a better experience.

I used to think of design as something you build around the business. Now I understand that design is the business. The UX of the site is the store. With my background in media theory and HCI, I see the interface people are given as how they come to think of the brand.

made with 🫶 & gratitude in Vancouver, BC