Pierre Hardy

Full mobile-first luxury e-commerce redesign, combining brand storytelling and transactional performance.

Role

Lead · E-commerce · Creative direction

Challenge

Strong brand. Weak digital presence.

Scope

UX · Mobile · DS · Brand

Impact

+65% revenue. Mobile-first. 3 months.

01 · Situation

A strong creative brand with a digital presence that did not match its level.

A precise, artistic brand with a digital presence that didn't match its level. The redesign had to serve as both brand showcase and point of sale, without sacrificing one for the other.

✕ Brand gap

Digital presence did not match the creative precision and artistic positioning of the physical brand

✕ Mobile-first

Existing platform was not designed for mobile-primary usage patterns of luxury consumers

✕ Brand vs commerce

Tension between storytelling depth and transactional efficiency had not been resolved

✕ No design system

No component logic to ensure consistency across the platform or support future evolution

The design challenge

02 · Approach

Brand precision. Mobile intimacy. Commerce clarity.

Brand precision first. Mobile intimacy second. Commerce clarity third. All three had to win simultaneously.

Brand & identity

Tension

A creative brand constrained by a generic e-commerce template.

The platform was built on standard e-commerce patterns. Pierre Hardy's visual language, silence, proportion, restraint, was being compromised.

Call

Design from the brand's creative principles, not from e-commerce templates.

Every decision grounded in the brand's creative principles. The platform had to feel like an extension of the creative direction.

Result

A digital identity that matched the physical brand's level.

A digital identity that matched the physical brand's level. Brand coherence became a driver of commercial confidence.

Mobile-first UX

Tension

Luxury consumers browse on mobile. The platform was not designed for them.

Luxury consumers on mobile expect brand-level precision on a small screen. The existing platform was adapted, not designed for mobile.

Call

Design for the mobile luxury consumer's actual behaviour.

Rebuilt for mobile luxury behaviour: longer sessions, higher intent, sensitivity to friction. Touch-first, image-first, simplified purchase path.

Result

+65% online revenue uplift post-launch.

+65% online revenue uplift post-launch. Conversion came from resolving the brand/commerce tension, not from choosing a side.

Design system

Tension

No component logic to sustain the redesign over time.

Without component logic, design quality degrades with every update. The redesign needed a system to sustain it.

Call

Build an atomic design system grounded in the brand language.

Atomic DS grounded in brand rules. Co-designed with the dev team to ensure implementation without interpretation loss.

Result

A scalable foundation for future platform evolution.

A scalable foundation. Visual consistency became maintainable, not just achievable at launch.

Take away

03 · Outcomes

What the redesign produced.

A platform that served the brand and the business simultaneously, without compromising either.

Before→After

Brand not reflected digitally

→

Mobile-first platform at brand level

Consumer-adapted mobile

→

Designed for luxury mobile context

No component system

→

Atomic DS sustaining the redesign

Underperforming e-commerce

→

+65% online revenue post-launch

online revenue

+65%

uplift in first post-launch commercial period

first

Mobile

platform redesigned for luxury mobile consumers from the ground up

design system

Atomic

component library built to sustain the redesign over time

coherence

Brand

creative precision maintained across all platform surfaces

04 · Takeaways

Three things this confirmed.

Luxury e-commerce is not a compromise between brand and commerce. The +65% uplift came from resolving that tension.

Mobile-first in luxury means designing for intimacy, not just a smaller screen.

A design system is a brand governance tool. Without it, quality degrades with every update.

Closing

The redesign was not a visual refresh. It was a commercial repositioning.

Not a visual refresh. A commercial repositioning, brand level, mobile reality and component logic delivered together.

← Previous case

Van Cleef & Arpels

BXP diagnostic framework identifying four buyer profiles across 5 markets. AVA Digital Awards Platinum.

Next case →

Célio

Unified digital retail experience for a 550-store network, connecting e-commerce, mobile journeys and store-related services.