CASE 3 - How We Redesigned a Local Gifting Platform's Entire Customer Experience and Scaled Revenue from $0 to $890K in 6 Months
The Client Early-stage e-commerce startup in Pune, India. Building a personalized gifting platform for the local market. 8 developers, 1 junior designer, ambitious founders, but zero systematic approach to growth or user experience.
The Growth Nightmare: The founders had built a functional website, but customers weren't converting. Beautiful product photos, decent inventory, but a 1.2% conversion rate and 89% cart abandonment. They were burning ₹2L monthly on Facebook ads with minimal returns.
Conversion rate: 1.2% (industry average: 3.5%)
Cart abandonment: 89% (couldn't figure out why)
Customer acquisition cost: ₹1,200 per customer (unsustainable)
Average order value: ₹800 (too low for gifting platform)
Return customer rate: 8% (people bought once, never came back)
Mobile experience: Completely broken (70% of traffic was mobile)
The killer detail? Their checkout process had 7 steps and asked for 23 pieces of information. Users were abandoning carts at the shipping address page because they got overwhelmed.
What We Found in 3 Weeks We analyzed user behavior, conducted 25 customer interviews, and mapped the entire customer journey. The problems were everywhere:
Website designed for desktop in a mobile-first market
No systematic approach to conversion optimization
Product discovery was confusing - users couldn't find gifts for specific occasions
Checkout flow designed by developers, not customers
Zero personalization or user research
No testing framework for improvements
The Complete Customer Experience Redesign
Growth Strategy & Roadmap
Rebuilt entire platform strategy around mobile-first, conversion-focused design
Created a systematic experimentation framework for continuous optimization
Prioritized features that drove immediate revenue, not just engagement
UX/UI Design & Optimization
Complete mobile redesign: Rebuilt entire interface for mobile users
Visual identity overhaul: Modern, gift-focused design that built trust
Product discovery redesign: Intuitive categorization by occasion, recipient, and budget
Checkout flow optimization: Reduced from 7 steps to 2, cut form fields by 70%
Landing page designs: Created 12 different templates for different gift categories
A/B Testing Everything
Homepage layouts: 8 different approaches tested (winner: +240% engagement)
Product page designs: 6 variants tested (winner: +180% add-to-cart rate)
Checkout flows: 5 different processes tested (winner: -67% abandonment)
Payment options: Tested 4 different payment flows and installment plans
Email designs: 15 different templates for cart recovery and promotions
Mobile app interface: 9 different navigation patterns tested
User Research & Insights
Conducted 47 interviews with gift buyers and recipients
Mapped customer journey from awareness to repeat purchase
Identified key occasions and gift-giving patterns in the Indian market
Created detailed personas for different customer segments
Built a customer feedback loop for continuous improvement
Product Management
Redesigned the entire product catalog organization around customer needs
Built a gift recommendation engine based on occasion and budget
Created personalization features (custom messages, wrapping options)
Optimized product pages for conversion, not just aesthetics
Implemented inventory management that prevented stock-outs during festivals
Acquisition Experiments
Social media creative: Designed 23 different ad creatives for Facebook/Instagram
Influencer partnerships: Created branded content with 15 local lifestyle influencers
Content marketing: Designed gift guides and occasion-based content
WhatsApp marketing: Built a customer communication system for order updates
Referral program design: Created shareable gift experiences that drove word-of-mouth
Sales Funnel Optimization
Redesigned the entire customer journey from awareness to repeat purchase
Built a cart recovery system with personalized design and messaging
Created a post-purchase experience that encouraged reviews and referrals
Optimized upsell/cross-sell recommendations throughout the experience
Designed customer retention campaigns for repeat gifting occasions
Growth Dashboards
Built real-time analytics tracking conversion by device, traffic source, and customer segment
Created a cohort analysis showing customer lifetime value by acquisition channel
Implemented funnel analysis to identify and fix drop-off points
Weekly growth reports showing design impact on revenue metrics
The 90-Day Results
Conversion rate: 1.2% → 4.7% (+292%)
Cart abandonment: 89% → 34% (-62%)
Mobile conversion: 0.8% → 5.1% (+538%)
Average order value: ₹800 → ₹1,890 (+136%)
Customer acquisition cost: ₹1,200 → ₹420 (-65%)
Return customer rate: 8% → 34% (+325%)
Monthly revenue: ₹0 → ₹148K (+∞%)
The Breakthrough Moment Week 6 after launch: Diwali season hit, and our redesigned gift discovery system handled 10x traffic without breaking. Single-day revenue hit ₹89K (previous best: ₹12K). The new mobile checkout flow processed 340 orders in 24 hours with only 2 customer service tickets.
6-Month Impact
Monthly revenue: ₹148K → ₹890K (+502%)
Customer base: 450 → 12,000+ active customers
Product catalog: Expanded from 200 to 2,000+ curated gifts
Market position: #2 gifting platform in Pune
Team growth: Hired 6 more people based on revenue growth
Why This Matters Local e-commerce needs world-class user experience design to compete with Amazon and Flipkart. Every design decision should be tested and optimized for local customer behavior, not copied from global platforms.
The Founder's Reaction: "Godwin didn't just redesign our website - he built us a growth machine. We went from struggling to get orders to processing 500+ orders during festival season. Our customers love shopping with us now."
Ready to turn your website into a conversion machine? I'll audit your entire customer experience for free. If I don't find at least 3 design optimizations worth $50K+ monthly, dinner's on me.
Design Portfolio Note: Visual designs and detailed mockups for this project and other client work are available upon request on a case-by-case basis, with original branding and logos removed to protect client confidentiality.