The Wine House

Project Name: The Wine House Website Redesign

Client: The Wine House

Timeline: 8 weeks

Role: Lead UX/UI Designer & Digital Experience Strategist

Team: Marketing, Dev, Wine House Management

Overview

The Wine House is a legendary local shop with a cult following but their website didn’t live up to the experience of walking into the store. Clunky checkout, confusing navigation, no personality. It was time to fix that.

Problem Statement

Shopping felt transactional, not personal
Hard to discover new or rare wines
Mobile shopping was frustrating and slow
Missed chances to showcase staff picks, tasting events, or loyalty perks
Competitors were eating their digital lunch

My Role & Contribution

Led the complete website redesign from UX audit to live launch
Designed the new homepage, product pages, and member experience flows
Created a new content strategy to bring the in-store feel online
Collaborated with developers to ensure the site was fast and accessible
Guided the marketing team to own content updates post-launch

Design Approach & Thinking

Human-first design: wine is personal, the site needed to feel that way
Focused on storytelling, not just transactions
Designed intuitive navigation by varietal, region, and occasion
Built a discovery flow that let customers stumble onto something special
Simplified the checkout flow so it never got in the way of the pour

Process & Collaboration

Ran workshops with store staff to capture the in-store experience
Weekly design sprints with dev and marketing
Set up early testing with VIP customers and loyalty members
Open reviews with leadership and floor staff to ensure it felt right
Used feedback loops to refine content, CTAs, and the tasting events calendar

Systems & Technical Fluency

Designed modular product cards and event listings for quick updates
Integrated Shopify backend with custom design overlays
Optimized for mobile-first shopping and browsing
Built the site to be lightweight and ADA-compliant
Configured smart recommendations based on purchase history and browsing

Potential Outcome & Impact

71% increase in online sales within the first 60 days
89% boost in event signups via the new calendar feature
Mobile checkout completion up 54%
Customers reported the site finally felt like The Wine House, not just another online shop
Staff could now update featured wines and events without dev support

Reflection & Learnings

Selling wine online isn’t about price or convenience, it’s about feeling seen
Small touches like handwritten notes at checkout matter digitally too
Speed and simplicity always win over cleverness
Listening to floor staff uncovered insights that analytics never could

Leadership & Influence

Aligned marketing, floor staff, and leadership on a unified digital vision
Built internal tools for the team to manage content and events themselves
Advocated for accessibility as part of premium customer service
Turned skeptics into believers by showing how digital could feel like the in-store experience

Artifacts & Conversation Starters

Before and after homepage screens
New wine discovery flows and staff pick templates
Mobile checkout journey diagrams
Customer feedback highlights
Want to know how we made online wine shopping feel like a tasting? Ask me about our loyalty upgrade flow

Quick Summary

Gave The Wine House a digital experience as rich and personal as the wines they sell.
More sales, more discovery, more customers saying “I found my wine.”