Ellis Brigham
Ellis Brigham has been a cornerstone of the UK’s outdoor retail scene for over 90 years, with 25 stores nationwide offering premium brands like Patagonia, Arc’teryx, Norrona, and Atomic.
Partners
- Centra
- Storyblok
- Vercel
- Adyen
- Ingrid
- Voyado
The Challenge
Customers often referred to Ellis Brigham as the “mountain sports store,” highlighting a lack of distinctive brand identity. Online, the experience was largely indistinguishable from other multi-brand retailers, making it difficult to stand out in a competitive market. Known for expert advice and top-tier service in-store, the challenge lay in translating this experience into a compelling online presence.
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Our Approach
What began as a brand positioning project evolved into a full-scale digital transformation across the Ellis Brigham group. Our approach combined deep customer insights with business objectives, ensuring both operational efficiencies and commercial opportunities were realised. To inform our strategy, we conducted an extensive research phase, bringing together data, customer behaviour, and store insights to shape the design and technology decisions.
The Results
The tech overhaul included a migration to Centra not only stabilisedEllis Brigham's tech foundation but also significantly enhanced their operational capabilities. Faster site performance dramatically reduced friction, providing customers with a smoother browsing experience. Additionally, the introduction of real-time stock allocation on order placement allows Ellis Brigham to turn their physical stores into a distribution network and unlock stock outside of the warehouse.
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Our customer research revealed significant friction in product discovery. The navigation was overloaded, often leading to sparse collections and dead ends. We streamlined the experience by reducing the number of top-level navigation options instead prioritising high-value collections. From there, customers can refine their search using filters, creating a clearer, more efficient path to product.
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Given the technical nature of the product, we designed a clean, functional product card that showcases the imagery while surfacing key technical details at a glance. Customers can quickly browse colour options and specs directly from the PLP, without needing to click through to the PDP.
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The PDP gallery gives space for the re-defined art direction to shine. We collaborated closely with the Ellis Brigham team to define a refreshed photography style, now fully executed in-house giving them creative control and consistency across every shoot.
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The design team took cues from native mobile apps to deliver a seamless, intuitive shopping experience. Built on Centra & Storyblok using our headless accelerator, the site runs without page reloads creating a fast, fluid, app-like feel throughout.
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Ellis Brigham’s reputation is built on exceptional in-store service, so bringing that level of experience online was key. Omni-channel features like ski boot fittings and ship-from-store were core to the brief. We designed and built a bespoke store finder that highlights the specialist services available at each location.
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