Case study
Paul Smith
Britain’s leading independent design company
Paul Smith champions positivity, curiosity and creativity. These qualities underpin every design, whether it’s a shirt, a shop or a special collaboration. His designs are eclectic, with references drawn from art, music, and everyday life.
Problem
The Challenge
Celebrating 50 years of Paul Smith, Limesharp were commissioned to transform their digital presence to match the global flagship in-store experience. Our key objective was to showcase the breadth of Paul's designs, highlight the detail and tell the story behind each piece.
Thinking
Strategy & Approach
Through our extensive discovery process Limesharp carried out a Brand 360 analysis to understand who the Paul Smith customer is and what makes the designs unique. We unearthed a treasure chest of personality, character and lifelong brand fanatics that inspired us to push the boundaries of eCommerce. Visiting the flagship London store, speaking to customers and interviewing staff highlighted the uniqueness and rich heritage of the brand, it was critical that this was carried through online.
Result
Final Experience
The newly launched digital store is striking, distinctive and customer centric. Paul Smith have a platform that allows for brand expression and story telling but also one that communicates the quality of the designs to their customers. Subtle details across the site enable exploration, excitement and surprise which aims to emulate shopping in-store. Limesharp will continue our long-term partnership with Paul Smith to delivery an exciting roadmap of features.
Limesharp Work
- Brand360
- UX Design
- UI Design
- Development
- Headless
- VueJS
- Adobe Commerce
- Storyblok
- Technology Consultancy
Composable Commerce
Taking a Headless approach allowed us to create a component library combining editorial, content and commerce for complete brand flexibility. Landing pages can be created by the content team quickly and easily to facilitate the demands of a fast moving, global brand.
Customer Objectives
Paul Smith's customers visit the site to shop. When analysing site data we found that customers were browsing through traditional navigation methods. Paired with a lengthy site visit duration this pointed to customers not knowing exactly what product they wanted to buy and emphasis needed to be given to the browsing experience.
"What I adore is mixing the unexpected, things you don't imagine should go together"
Conversational Commerce
One of the stand out pieces of information we had when visiting the Floral Street store in Covent Garden was that a customer will never leave the store with a suit that isn't perfect for them. This inspired us to lead the customer through the site and product selection using conversational sign posts to emulate the in-store experience offering style, size and fit advice at all interactions.
Collaborations
Paul Smith is infamous for his collaborations and each one is very unique. Through the use of colour and layout we gave the content team the ability to completely change the look and feel across the site for each collaboration. Using story components on each product page customers can discover the everything about the collaboration which is both educational and inspiring.
Worldwide Stores
Paul Smith have stores around the globe, each as unique and bespoke as the other. They aim to inspire the customer and show the product in the best possible light but they also deliver first-class services such as bespoke tailoring, monogramming and personal shopping. Flagship stores such as Albemarle Street, Floral Street and Melrose Avenue are steeped in history and fascinating stories. We wanted to create an area on the site that delivered for customer's functional needs but also allowed them to discover what makes these stores so special.
“You can find inspiration in everything. If you can’t, then you’re not looking properly.”
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