Sahara London

Case Studies > Mission: Sahara London

Mission: Sahara

A beautiful, user focused redesign and bespoke build that perfectly aligns with the brand mission, values and heritage.

Services

UX Research • UX Design • Development • Retained Services

Technology

Shopify Plus • Algolia • Klaviyo • Okendo • Gorgias

The Challenge

Captain’s Log. Earthdate 2022. Brave the Skies intercepted a distress signal from the acclaimed boutique Sahara. Sahara needed an expert crew to guide them through a re-platform.

Sahara is a family-run, globally-inspired fashion brand with adventurous designs. Founded in 1992 with a passion for creating individual designs for each woman, it has become an industry leader, boasting 15 stores nationwide. Sahara supports local craftsmanship, too: more than 50% of their products are manufactured here in the UK.

But Sahara had a problem. They required a versatile platform that offered the control and functionality they needed for future growth — requirements that their existing platform sadly couldn’t meet. Sahara needed a crew that could elevate the UX and provide a seamless experience that Sahara’s customers had come to expect.

After

Before

The Solution

Brave the Skies crew offered a plan to propel Sahara into the future. They are committed to delivering a best-in-class immersive experience representative of Sahara’s brand philosophy.

Crews from Sahara and Brave the Skies worked closely to understand Sahara as a brand, its challenges, and its user journey. We utilised research that showed DTC shoppers wanted an emotional connection with a brand. We recommended re-platforming to the Shopify platform, as Shopify has a manageable but functional platform that allows for a personalised UX.

Our design crew leaned into Sahara’s spirit of adventure when designing the site. It was important to Sahara to have a personalised UX, so our design crew implemented a design that offered an experience personalised to Sahara’s user journey, navigation around the site, and improved conversion and product visibility.

Our development crew created a fully integrated business model connecting all their stock locations and customer data. This gave Sahara's internal teams a smoother user experience that allowed them to manage their site content far more easily. We also added a customisable CMS that empowered the Sahara team to update and manage content regularly, allowing customers to engage more and improving conversion opportunities.

The Results

Mission log status: complete. Thrusters are on, and autopilot is engaged. Sahara has successfully launched. We have transported Sahara into the future of eCommerce excellence with a functional site that is easy to manage and has UX tailored to Sahara customers.

Sahara’s team reaped the rewards of the new site in the first few months after launch. Users accessing the site surged by 11.4%, as our design crew carefully weaved a UX similar to the in-store and fitting with the brand. The average engagement time rose by 14.4%, and the average order value and the average revenue per paying user increased by 3% and 3.9%.

Sahara’s digital evolution has been a complete success. Now they’re no longer simply surviving but thriving, embodying Sahara’s core of uniqueness, adventure, and creativity.