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Glam-Aholic Lifestyle
Glam-Aholic Lifestyle is a wildly successful company, offering affordable luxury bags and travel accessories for the everyday girl, jetsetter, mom, or mogul on the go. Founder Mia Ray built the company into an eight-figure empire with a devoted customer base. When she first launched her “Travel Like a G” line of luggage in 2022, it sold out in less than 10 minutes.
Glam-Aholic’s website didn’t reflect the stature of this multi-million-dollar business, the quality of their gorgeous products, or the wow of Mia Ray’s beautifully curated social media presence. This incongruity was a concern according to Leslie Eugene, CEO of Pretty Haute Marketing and Glam-Aholic Lifestyle’s Director of Marketing and Creative Strategy.
“If someone would go to the Instagram account, click on the link to the website, I felt it just wasn't as appealing. From the homepage through clicking on a product, the branding wasn't there.”
The online store also lacked the easy navigation of a modern e-commerce site to help customers find what they are looking for. It had no top-level main menu nor did it have product filtering options. Collections were simply listed down the homepage with two examples from each.
Leslie says she had benefited from Kurt’s expertise in the past through the Unofficial Shopify Podcast and Unofficial Shopify Podcast Insiders Facebook group. While confident in our expertise in working with Shopify stores, she noted that we didn't have many case studies showcasing previous work with fashion or beauty brands and she didn't see other Black-owned businesses featured as past clients.
“The only concern was could they set the tone and message for Glam-Aholic's ideal customer and would they be able to visually execute that based off of how we envisioned the site?”
Throughout our work together, we consulted closely with Leslie so the design and development of the new site would be heavily informed by her very clear understanding of Glam-Aholic's needs, brand, and customers.
Crafting the shopping experience
We designed and developed a custom Shopify 2.0 theme for Glam-Aholic to create an online shopping experience that beautifully blends style with up-to-date e-commerce features.
Ethercycle’s Designer-Developer Tom Siodlak collaborated with Leslie to come up with an aesthetic that was stylish and sleek with a bit of spice that lets Glam-Aholic’s truly spectacular photography shine, making the products the star. We used color blocking and varied the number of images featured in each section on the homepage to add visual interest. We added in small touches of hot pink for elements such as call-to-action buttons, cart count, and review stars. We also used subtle zoom and fade-in animations on the homepage as the customer lands on the page, hovers over certain images, or scrolls down.
We made the site easier for customers to navigate and find the right products. We added product filtering using metafields, customizing the setup to align with Glam-Aholic customers' preferences. This includes allowing only one color selection at a time while permitting multiple filters for material, style, size, and features. We also created an intuitive mega menu and featured most collections throughout the homepage, providing various paths for customers to discover their ideal products.
To enhance their e-commerce merchandising strategy, we introduced curated collection categories that go beyond traditional types like “Travel Bags” or “Wallets.” New categories include “Just In” for new arrivals, “Trending” for popular items, and “Mia Ray’s Favorite Things,” which showcases personal picks from the brand owner-ambassador. These categories are designed to boost customer engagement and drive sales by leveraging current shopping trends and influencer endorsements.
“Maybe someone is just coming in wanting to preview the products that are planned to launch, or maybe someone is looking for a bestseller, or maybe there's someone that's looking to save or wanting to get a product before it sells out with a last chance item. These are things that we really didn't have on the site before. Just being able to have these small pockets of features on the site that speak to a specific customer was really cool.”
The product detail pages (PDPs) now feature significant improvements over the previous site:
- We made it more seamless for customers to switch to a different available color variant by listing them on the product page (even though each variant is its own product listing).
- We added custom-designed icons to call out key product features (e.g. “laptop friendly”, “hands-free”, “vegan leather”).
- For products that are sold out, we added the ability to sign up to be notified when it comes back in stock. We directly connected their Klaviyo account so that the customer is added to the email list and is automatically notified as soon as the product is available again.
- We added options to display content like what fits in the bag and care guide as well as cross-sell opportunities that enable Glam-Aholic to choose to assign related products to “Complete The Look” or “Similar Items” or “Compare All Sizes”.
- For social proof, Glam-Aholic already had an app set up for customer product reviews, but reviews that customers submitted weren’t showing up. We fixed it so that reviews displayed on the PDPs and added the ability to add user-generated content from social media influencers.
We built custom pages including a “Care Guide” for the materials used in the products, a page for bulk orders, a revamped FAQ page, making use of some of Glam-Aholic’s amazing photography and including touches such as clearer call-to-action buttons on the FAQ page to start a return.
With custom-built metafields, it’s easier for Glam-Aholic to add new products to the site using their main PDP template by simply filling in a few details and selecting a few options. To help them get set up more quickly before the launch of the new site, we went through Glam-Aholic's catalog of about 400 products and tagged each with the style, color, size, material and features. We also offered breakdowns on how to use the metafields to make it easier for the team to manage the site content going forward.
We made some customizations based on Glam-Aholic’s use of product drops. The company does previews of what they plan to either restock or newly launch and drops them on specific dates. Originally, they had an app installed which allowed them to mark products as “coming soon”, but it only did so on the product page itself. Customers were still able to add the product to their cart from collection pages and search results and purchase it. We jumped in and solved the issue by building a “Coming Soon” template that allowed Glam-Aholic to show upcoming drops without allowing people to add the products to the cart. We also made space in the mega menu to feature upcoming drops.
Leslie says that she appreciated how knowledgeable and responsive we were throughout our work together.
“I like to work with people that are true experts in their field and that just know exactly what we need. If we have any concerns or questions, they always have an answer and know exactly what is needed immediately. It’s not like, ‘Hey, let me get right back to you’ because they’re not sure. They’re always like, ‘We’re on it.’ And I love that. There were challenging times for our drops and restocks and as soon as they got word of it, just being prompt and responsive, that’s been really helpful.”
A digital storefront that matches the brand’s personality and stature
Glam-Aholic's site now presents a smooth and elevated shopping experience that reflects the brand identity.
“I would describe it as being vibrant and cohesive. The customers love it. When we launched it, our social media was flooded with raves about how beautiful the site looks.”
With a more functional website that's easy to navigate and beautifully showcases Glam-Aholic’s gorgeous products, Leslie says it helps give new customers an increased feeling that they are in the right place when they land on the site from social media, especially as the company looks to get into running Facebook ads to bring new customers in.
“People that have never heard of Glam-Aholic, we want to be able to exude that personality and make them feel like ‘this is where I need to be.’ I was feeling like I need people to feel very confident making this purchase when they get on the site, and I think that's exactly what Ethercycle was able to do.”
The new site is also much easier to manage on the back-end. Before, Leslie says that even uploading a new image wasn't simple with image sizing challenges. With how we've configured their new Shopify 2.0 theme, adding new content is now a seamless experience.
Leslie says she would recommend that other stores work with us and that she appreciates the opportunity for Glam-Aholic to continue to work with us to make ongoing improvements to their site through our Flex Fund service.
“There's just some things we just don't know and being able to have a team on our side that has the answers, it's going to just be so helpful as we continue to grow inventory, but also just making sure we're up-to-date on what's going on on Shopify’s end.”
OUR WORK TOGETHER
Ethercycle worked with Glam-Aholic Lifestyle to:
- Align their digital presence with the brand's identity and stature with a smart and stylish design.
- Elevate the shopping experience with improvements in site navigation and filtering (informed by how their customers shop).
- Harness the power of a custom-built Shopify 2.0 theme to make it easier to add new content and manage the site.