Designing an e-commerce site is one thing. Designing a connected commerce strategy that includes online and offline components is another.

Those who approach e-commerce platform design in a vacuum are overlooking how people actually shop. Rarely does someone know exactly what they want and head directly to a brand’s website to buy it. In reality, paths to purchase wriggle and writhe along online and offline touchpoints. Perhaps a shopper sees something on Instagram, Googles it, and finds a review that leads them to a retailer with a store nearby, where they try on the item, then jump on their phone to take a dressing room selfie and compare prices to other retailers.

Fail to prepare for these complicated customer journeys and you will miss out on chances to connect with buyers. At Said Differently, we take a cross-channel approach to connecting with shoppers, architecting holistic systems that can support and integrate all the ways a product or service is bought and sold, including desktop, mobile, and in-store shopping experiences.

Specifically, our teams have helped consumer brands develop strategies for standing out in wholesale and social shopping environments, as well as on Amazon. We have designed and developed websites, shopping apps, and in-store shopping experiences that generate sales, win design awards, and reflect a brand’s ethos.

One example is designing and developing a shopping website and app for a well-known subscription-based service. Our project scope covered the entire customer journey, from the customer acquisition campaign, to the sign-up experience, to product unboxing. When these elements are handled by different agencies, the end experience is often disjointed. Our holistic approach allowed us to stitch together an effective process for driving qualified leads and improving the likelihood of those leads converting.

For Neiman Marcus, the iconic luxury retailer, we developed an omnichannel commerce strategy that was so well-received, we were hired to bring elements of the strategy to life. On the heels of this engagement, Bergdorf Goodman, a subsidiary of Neiman Marcus, enlisted our help to reimagine the in-store and online shopping experience for loyalty reward members, design the functionality for the market-ready version (MVP) of its website and app, and replatform the retailer’s app and website to the FARFETCH platform, an enterprise commerce solution for luxury brands. Because we assemble bespoke teams for each task, we can tackle multiple projects in tandem, without losing sight of the overarching strategy.

Our user-centric design approach underlines every project, allowing us to build applications that act as the remote control of a brand’s ecosystem. For example, when tasked with building an app for a travel hub, we didn’t start by drawing app wireframes. We started by visiting the physical space to observe consumer patterns, interview future app users, and identify ways to deliver unique value to audiences.

Commerce apps are one subtype of app experiences. Our teams have designed and developed award-winning shopping apps for brands you would recognize, including luxury retailers. The apps we build look as good as they perform, emanating luxury principles while engaging users throughout their connected shopping experience.

After the successful development of a four-year omnichannel commerce strategy for Neiman Marcus, the retailer hired us to design and build key components of the plan, including its website and commerce app. For the commerce app redesign, we brought on industry-leading design, UX, and UI experts, whose work decreased the user bounce rate and increased the app’s rating in the Apple App store from 2.4 stars to 4.5 stars in six months. Our work reflected in-depth customer research, including surprising discoveries about Neiman Marcus shopper demographics, as well as luxury design principles, and tried-and-true e-commerce best practices. The app won a 2022 PRINT Award for design excellence.