A Bold Redesign: Re-Imagining Wild’s Subscription Builder
Wild are a young, vibrant cosmetics company paving the way to a more sustainable beauty industry with their refillable products and subscription-first approach. Their growing product range includes deodorant, body wash and lip balms as well as refills and replacement containers for each product. Wild's mission is clear: empower people to make more sustainable decisions by offering high-quality, natural-based bathroom products with easy-to-order refills.
We’ve been working with Wild for over three years, guiding them through their transition from monolithic to headless commerce, and continuing to support them on their eCommerce journey. As part of our ongoing partnership, we manage and collaborate on a roadmap to optimise the customer experience and grow their eCommerce business.
The Challenge: A Complex Purchase Flow
Wild’s initial purchase flow involved users navigating through multiple sequential steps across different pages. We noticed a lot of users moved back and forth between the steps and some would drop off before completing the process. User testing also revealed customer confusion around the value messaging for product bundles. There had to be a better way to address these challenges.
The Solution: A Streamlined, User-Centric Design for a Better CX
To empower one-time purchasers (OTPs) to join subscription plans, we crafted an engaging all-in-one PDP experience that made it easy for the customer to explore Wild’s offering and understand their value messaging. 83% of Wild’s customers buy on mobile and a significant portion of their site traffic is driven by social media channels, so it was crucial to optimise the customer experience with those users in mind. With plans to expand their product range, Wild also needed to consider how to encourage cross-category purchases throughout the purchase flow.
Designing an All-In-One PDP
Wild's original purchase flow needed streamlining. Each product type (e.g. cases, refills, bundles) had a separate Product Detail Page (PDP), requiring customers to navigate through multiple pages to complete a purchase. To build custom subscription bundles, customers would need to repeat the process if they wanted to add another product from a different category. The customer experience also catered more to new customers than repeat ones; there was no clear path to purchase for returning customers who only wanted to buy refills.
Looking to address both conversion rate and Average Order Value (AOV), we created a streamlined, all-in-one PDP that nurtures both new and returning customers. The new design simplifies the buying process by dynamically displaying relevant options based on the customer's selection - refills and cases, refills only or cases only. For instance, if the customer selects “refills only”, they are then shown scent options to choose from rather than having to scroll through irrelevant options for cases and bundles.
Analysis showed us that scroll depth (how far a user scrolls down a page) on Wild’s mobile site was generous. To shorten this and optimise the experience for typical scrolling behaviour, we opted for a single page experience that showcased all product customisation options on one page.
Communicating Subscription Value
Previously, Wild offered set subscription plans and bundles. This rigid approach required these to be displayed in a list and, through user testing, we discovered that customers were finding it difficult to understand the differences in value.
To address this, we designed a flexible subscription builder that gives customers control. Now they can create customised plans by selecting a variety of different product types and quantities whilst also deciding their subscription frequency. Once they are ready to check out, customers are shown a visual summary of their order alongside pricing for both one-time purchases and subscriptions. This allows them to easily compare prices and make informed decisions to buy or subscribe.
Clarifying Discounts & Promotions
Wild wanted a way to showcase their various discounts and promotions without overwhelming customers with information. We created an "Offers Drawer" that houses these in one place, providing a breakdown of the ongoing promotions and allowing them to shop directly from this list. To further enhance the shopping experience and encourage customers to shop across categories, we added an upsell on the checkout page that highlights relevant discounts for various product bundles without disrupting the purchase flow.
Adopting a Single SKU Architecture
Implementing a single SKU architecture allowed Wild to improve their product management and operational efficiency whilst gaining the ability to run complex discount strategies. Previously, each of their products utilised 3 variants according to how they could be purchased - through subscriptions, one-time and different types of bundles. Each variant needed to be managed separately, creating complexity and potential for errors in inventory and pricing.
This SKU architecture is often a symptom of rapid business growth. For Wild, this impacted the velocity at which we could iterate on the front-end and our ability to test product-related initiatives. Reconfiguring the product data structure provides a solid foundation for future development. In Wild’s case, we unified the variants into a single product with enhanced metadata to track purchase behaviour and apply more nuanced discounts using Shopify's Function APIs. This has simplified the operations process and enabled a powerful discounting engine.
This project with Wild is an excellent example of how powerful user-centric design and data-driven insights can drive business growth. With a newly designed purchase flow and refined subscription messaging, Wild has transformed a complex customer journey into a frictionless, intuitive experience that empowers both new and returning customers. By guiding customers to make informed purchasing decisions, our solutions have unlocked:
11% growth in subscriptions
39% increase in subscription AOV
Visit Wild's website and experience it for yourself
Read about Wild's journey from a monolithic to composable tech stack here .