Wicked Cushions
Full Shopify Plus revamp with custom theme, smart navigation, advanced search, and UI/UX improvements to boost performance and conversions
Redefining UX for a leading audio accessories brand on Shopify Plus
Location:
Burbank, CA, USA
Cooperation model:
Industry:
Partnership period:
October 2024 – now
Improvements plan:
Team size:
2 Shopify Plus developers, 2 Team leads, 2 QAs, Project manager, Web designer
Technologies:
About the client
Our client is a US-based ecommerce brand specializing in premium headphone accessories, with a strong focus on replacement ear pads. Born from a personal need for comfort and style, the brand has grown into a go-to destination for audio enthusiasts looking to upgrade or extend the life of their headphones.
Wicked Cushions delivers comfort and quality through top-grade materials, rigorous testing, and outstanding support, including a 365-day guarantee and direct communication with the founder. The company is also committed to making a positive impact outside of business, donating regularly to organizations that are working towards health, hunger relief, and children's protection.
About the product
Wicked Cushions provides top-quality ear pads to improve the overall listening experience of using headphones with superior comfort, style, and durability. They fit virtually all major headphone brands and undergo rigorous testing to ensure an effortless match.
Crafted from first-class materials and thoughtfully designed for effortless installation, every cushion is meant to upgrade your headphones rather than just replace the stock components. Wicked Cushions allows users to customize their headphones while maximizing comfort during usage through offered designs, ranging from classic to eye-catching styles.
Challenges in the Shopify store redesign
When Wicked Cushions approached DigitalSuits for a complete Shopify Plus redesign, they faced several critical issues that were hampering their growth:
- Slow and inconsistent site performance: The site’s performance on different devices, especially on mobile, was subpar. Their existing site scored only 52 on desktop and 36 on mobile performance metrics, creating a poor user experience and affecting search engine rankings.
- Overcomplicated navigation structure: With thousands of products, the website was difficult to navigate. Users struggled to find specific items due to unique characteristics and specifications. As part of the audio accessories store design, our Shopify designers faced a challenge of creating a logical, easy-to-navigate structure that could handle all this information. The layout needed to flow naturally and accommodate many different pathways.
- Challenging product detail pages (PDPs): The PDPs were tricky because every product had its own set of features, custom accordions, FAQs, and unique graphics. Some included special tools like “Comparability”, a product comparison option, which added complexity. Swatches for colors were sometimes confusing, especially when multiple shades or mixed colors were involved, making it hard for users to identify what they were selecting.
- Poor search, filtering, and sorting functionality: The site’s search, filtering, and sorting functionalities were insufficient for handling Wicked Cushions’ extensive and complex catalog. The search engine couldn’t process negative keywords or understand product relationships and compatibility, often returning irrelevant results. Similarly, filtering and sorting lacked intuitiveness, leaving users overwhelmed by too many options and making it hard to quickly find the right product, ultimately damaging user satisfaction and conversions.
- Complex customization requirements: The client needed nearly full control of site elements via the admin panel, making customization complex and scalable.
- Underperforming SEO: Many pages had inconsistent headings, poor metadata, and weak internal linking, negatively impacting visibility. The client needed a strong SEO strategy to improve organic search discoverability for potential customers.
- Lack of a strong UX/UI foundation: Our client needed a new headphone accessories website design to enhance the user experience. The task was to create wireframes that would redefine the UX and develop a sleek, user-friendly interface.
Our solutions for redesigning a Shopify website
DigitalSuits partnered with Wicked Cushions for a four-month transformation. We started with interviews, heatmaps, competitor analysis, and tech audits, then delivered tailored Shopify Plus redesign solutions to meet their needs.
- Performance improvement through theme customization: Speed was a top priority. Our Shopify developers streamlined the codebase, reduced JavaScript file sizes, and used a highly optimized custom theme, resulting in faster load times and smoother browsing across devices.
- Custom Shopify Plus headphone accessories store development: We developed a custom Shopify Plus theme based on our proprietary framework. It was built for flexibility, performance, and scalability, tailored to meet the specific needs of the client’s large and diverse catalog.
- Advanced search engine: Search became one of the most powerful and complex features of the new site. We built an intuitive and intelligent search experience that includes keyword and metadata mapping, synonym and association logic, negative keyword handling, always-active, prominently placed search bar with animations.
This custom logic ensures users can discover products even if they don’t know the exact name or specs. It understands intent and relationships, offering both relevant and related results.
- Streamlined filtering and sorting:
Sorting and filtering have also been significantly improved for better usability and visual simplicity. The filters were previously inside dropdowns that required further clicks, and the product cards were small and lacked visual previews of the variants.
In the new version, filters are made visible and are arranged in a neat left-hand panel at all times, which can be easily read and selected. Product cards are larger with clear variant options listed below each item, so the user can compare. Larger star ratings and review numbers give confidence, and bold “Add to Cart” buttons enhance the shopping experience and improve conversions.
- Smart navigation structure: We redesigned the mega menu to reflect a logical and user-friendly path from general categories to specific models. This helped simplify product discovery across a vast inventory with multi-level categorization (product type → brand → model).
- Highly configurable admin panel: Wicked Cushions wanted complete autonomy over their site, and the DigitalSuits team delivered just that. Around 75–80% of elements are customizable through the admin interface. Clients can easily enable/disable components, adjust positions, and update content styling without developer input.
- Product detail page (PDP) enhancements: We enhanced the Product Detail Pages (PDPs) by optimizing elements and implementing tailored improvements for each product. This included a custom accordion system for organizing product-specific FAQs and information, an improved comparison tool for viewing specs, refined color swatch functionality to simplify choosing between similar or mixed colors, and FAQs customized for different product categories.
- SEO optimization: Our specialists improved SEO by reworking heading hierarchies, writing cleaner metadata, and strengthening internal linking. This improved visibility and ensured the site was better indexed by search engines, leading to stronger organic performance.
- UI/UX transformation: Our design process was structured into two clear phases. First, we focused on creating wireframes to establish a solid UX foundation through collaborative planning and approval. Once the UX was aligned, we progressed to developing the headphone accessories store design, translating the wireframes into a polished and user-friendly interface.
- Quality assurance: We conducted thorough software testing and QA to ensure smooth performance on all devices, preventing frustration for users and post-launch issues.
Results of the ecommerce website redesign
The collaboration between Wicked Cushions and DigitalSuits resulted in a successful Shopify Plus redesign. Following the launch of the new site, the brand saw:
- Over 50% improvement in site speed, resulting in smoother performance across all devices, particularly mobile.
- 30% increase in conversion rate, thanks to faster load times, a streamlined shopping experience, and intelligent product discovery.
- Refined ear pads store design, delivering a more intuitive and user-friendly shopping experience.
- Enhanced product discovery and engagement, driven by a custom-built search engine and smarter navigation system that helped users find what they needed faster and more intuitively.
These improvements didn’t just solve performance and UX issues; they helped boost customer retention, satisfaction, and overall revenue. If you want to dive deeper, check out this case study on Behance where we share the full design journey - complete with key visuals, creative direction, and a behind-the-scenes look at how it all came together.
If you need full-scale development or a premium headphone accessories store design, contact the DigitalSuits team. We’d love to help you achieve great results.
Adam Amzalag
COO, Wicked Cushions
5.0
"Everything about working with them was impressive."
DigitalSuits improved the client's site speed by over 50% and their conversion rate by 30%. The team also enhanced the site's visual design. DigitalSuits was timely and responsive through virtual meetings, emails, and messages. Their custom solutions and efforts were commendable.