How we increased conversions by 157% for Carolindica

Carolindica prides itself on crafting and testing every product they own to give its customers the most premium experience. However, the old website needed an upgrade from a usability, design, and user experience perspective. We worked closely with the team to revamp the site from top to bottom.

Helping Carolindica build a conversion-focused site

Carolindica is one of the finest CBD producers and retailers in Raleigh, North Carolina. With two physical retail locations and the goal of driving more revenue through its website, we partnered with them to build a more user-friendly and high-performing interface backed by data-driven insights.

Platforms

Web (Responsive)

WooCommerce

Roles

UX/UI Design

Conversion Rate Optimization

Digital Strategy

Icon/Illustration

WooCommerce Development

Deliverables

Responsive Web Design

Web Development

Our website underwent a high level redesign, adding new assets, features, and functionality. The overall purpose of this process was to improve conversions, but also to improve our internet footprint of the company. There were quite a few changes made, but the entire aesthetic, funtionality, and feel of the website is now significantly improved.

Chris Karazin

CEO at Carolindica

The Results

157%

Increase in conversions (store orders)

26%

Increase in Average order Value (AOV)

31%

Decrease in bounce rate

Before

After

Global Design System

Carolindica is known for providing premium-quality products at affordable prices. The core value that they wanted communicated through their branding was that they were an innovative and unique company that was thinking outside the box in the ever-growing cannabis industry. We created a beautiful and clean brand identity that featured darkish tones for that “cool” or “wow” factor, balanced with pops of orange to elevate the look and feel. We also hand-crafted beautiful custom illustrations in alignment with Carolindica’s mission of “handcrafted” products.

Research and Discovery

Carolindica had two distinct user segments, which consisted of those who wanted recreational cannabis for a good time with friends or family. On the other hand, they had several customers who were older and needed cannabis for pain management with issues they were dealing with. The revamped website had to uniquely combine and cater to both of these audiences while still effectively communicating the core value proposition of Carolindica.

Deep-dive into the old and new website

Before even touching a single pixel of code or design, our team dove deep into the current analytics of Carolindica. We discovered that the majority of users were on mobile and that they had a decent bounce rate and session duration. The main area of opportunity was sending people further down the funnel from the hompeage to the PDP’s. After we launched the revamped site, we also analyzed the improved heatmap data to see the impact of our changes.

User recordings and tests for qualitative feedback

Our team analyzed hundreds of user recordings on the old website to identify usability issues as well as areas of opportunity. Some of the patterns observed included people navigating multiple pages, implying a more intricate user journey to take into account, users skipping through extremely large blocks of content (although valuable), and a lack of motivation to take action to purchase a product at various stages of the journey.

Heuristic and UX/UI Design Audit

Looking at the original website and without any data analysis, we were able to identify multiple UX/UI design and conversion issues right off the bat. Most notably, there were major areas of opportunity from a messaging, design, and navigation perspective. Below is a mini-snapshot of a more detailed audit we conducted.

Homepage

As soon as you enter the website, you’re presented with a crystal clear and compelling value proposition motivating you to take action. This is supplemented by the 150+ Google reviews that Carolindica has in addition to past customer testimonials.

As you scroll down the page, you’re presented with beautiful illustrations and sections that are strategically organized to articulate the core value proposition of Carolindica while also engaging users effectively.

The messaging of the site plays into one thing Carolindica mentioned heavily in our discovery calls, which is the “lifestyle” they want associated with their brand. Just like someone purchases Starbucks as part of their morning routine, they want Carolindica to be synonymous with one’s daily rituals. Language like “products for every lifestyle” plays into this.

Shop Page

With Carolindica constantly launching new products and categories, they needed an overall shop page that was scalable, which allowed for additional items while still prioritizing the user experience. We focused on ensuring that the navigation of the shop page had a great user experience and that users could easily filter by benefits, cannabinoids, and category.

Optimized Navigation

Navigation has never been more intuitive than on the new Carolindica website. We added a whole new benefits category to the top navigation so that users could efficiently find the products they were looking for based on the desired effect. This allowed both the recreational and medicinal customer bases easy access to the products they wanted. The Cannabinoids and Product Types categories were also filtered down to avoid an extra click.

Individual Product Page

Carolindica’s old product page was bare bones and lacked many conversion-focused elements to motivate users to buy. We designed a hyper-optimized PDP, including a reduction of FUDs (fear, uncertainty, doubts) under the add-to-cart button, highlighting several core value props scattered throughout the page to emphasize the main product differentiation, and integrating reviews as well as subscriptions for an enhanced shopping experience.

Mobile Design

Ensuring the mobile experience was as good as the desktop for the Carolindica website was essential. As an e-commerce brand, the expectation is high when it comes to the user experience on any device. With an abundance of graphic elements, we had to make certain everything aligned properly and the flow was uninterrupted on screens of all sizes.

About Page

Carolindica’s brand values of innovation and handcrafted products needed to be reflected on the About page. Especially for B2B customers who specifically look for this information when searching for a company to purchase from.

Helping Carolindica build its marketing foundation

Since the redesign, Carolindica has seen its sales increase and broke a record for its biggest month ever. They are now more confident in scaling their digital marketing efforts thanks to a conversion-focused website.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What was the scope of the Carolindica project?

A top-to-bottom WooCommerce redesign and rebrand for the Raleigh CBD producer and retailer, backed by data-driven insights and aimed at driving more revenue through the website.

Did the redesign increase orders?

Yes. It produced a 157% increase in conversions (store orders), a 26% increase in average order value, and a 31% decrease in bounce rate.

How did the design serve different types of customers?

It balanced two audiences, recreational users and older customers using CBD for pain management, with a clean brand identity and custom handcrafted illustrations.

Which platform is the store built on?

WordPress with WooCommerce, responsive across devices.