Gautham Palanisamy
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05 · KUSHALS FASHION JEWELLERY · 2024 — PRESENT · D2C COMMERCE

Redesigning D2C commerce at scale

Nobody was dropping off because of one broken screen. They were dropping off because small frictions stacked up — across discovery, evaluation, purchase and everything after it. So I stopped redesigning screens and started redesigning the decision system they sit in.

MY ROLE
Lead designer, full funnel
PLATFORM
Mobile web & app
TIMELINE
Feb 2024 — ongoing
OUTCOME
+12% YoY revenue · +10% PDP conversion
[ HERO — PLP / PDP / CART, FULL BLEED ]
01 / THE PROBLEM

Friction was compounding across the funnel

I audited the journey from first listing view to post-order support. No single catastrophic screen — instead, four smaller failures that each cost a little and together cost a lot.

01 · PLP
Two products above the fold
Listing density was wrong and filters added cognitive load exactly when shoppers were trying to narrow down.
02 · PDP
Everything competing at once
Price, variants and CTA all claimed the same level of attention at the exact moment of commitment.
03 · CART & CHECKOUT
Three pages and a maths problem
Weak price clarity, gifting logic applied where it didn't belong, and checkout spread across three separate pages.
04 · POST-ORDER
Trust stopped at payment
Tracking, returns, exchanges and support were treated as operations, not as part of the shopping experience.
02 / WHO'S SHOPPING

Three intent modes, often in the same session

Jewellery shoppers browse visually and decide carefully. The same person wanders, then compares, then wants to be out of checkout in ninety seconds — and each mode needs the interface to behave differently.

TYPE 01
Explorers
Browse by mood, style and occasion. Need fast visual scanning and low-effort discovery paths.
TYPE 02
Evaluators
Compare price and detail before committing. Need hierarchy and confidence signals on PDP and cart.
TYPE 03
High-intent buyers
Ready to buy. Need frictionless checkout and clear post-order expectations, nothing else.
WHAT THEY WERE ACTUALLY ASKING
"Which pieces match the style or occasion I'm shopping for?"
"Is this right for me, and can I trust the quality and price?"
"What happens if the piece I want is unavailable?"
"If I buy this, how easy will delivery, return or exchange be?"
03 / APPROACH

Treat the journey as one decision system

Once flow continuity became the organising principle rather than screen quality, each surface started setting up the next one instead of competing with it. That reframing is the single most useful thing I did on this project.

01
Journey audit
Friction mapped from PLP to post-order with one full-funnel lens.
02
Synthesis
Usability signals, feedback and behavioural data collapsed into decision themes.
03
Prioritisation
Sequenced by where confidence and conversion were breaking hardest.
04
Discovery rebuild
PLP density, filter clarity, wishlist utility, out-of-stock recovery.
05
Post-order layer
Tracking, returns, exchanges and support designed as commerce, not ops.
06
Iterate on live
Priority surfaces refined against real engagement and conversion movement.
04 / DESIGN DECISIONS

Five interventions, each tied to a behaviour

Challenge, what we learned about why it was happening, and what I did about it.

01 PRODUCT LISTINGMaking browsing productive above the fold
CHALLENGE
Dense, hard to scan, and only two products visible before a scroll — in a category where people shop by looking.
INSIGHT
Scanability shapes discovery quality. If shoppers can't compare quickly, they postpone the decision and the session dies.
RESPONSE
Rebalanced card hierarchy and on-fold density so shoppers can shortlist sooner, with quick-scan cues doing the comparison work.
[ PLP — BEFORE / AFTER ]
02 PRODUCT DETAILTurning the PDP into a decision point
CHALLENGE
Cluttered price and variant area, inconsistent emphasis, and a CTA that didn't always match the state of the product.
INSIGHT
People needed faster confidence, not more content. Clarity comes from hierarchy, not volume.
RESPONSE
Resequenced the page into value → choice → action, with trust cues attached to the moment they're needed rather than pooled at the bottom.
[ PDP — HIERARCHY BEFORE / AFTER ]
03 CART & CHECKOUTRemoving ambiguity right before payment
CHALLENGE
Cluttered cart cards, gifting logic firing where it shouldn't, weak price clarity, and a checkout split across three pages.
INSIGHT
Cart is where people reassess total value. Any uncertainty about cost or what happens next creates hesitation even at high intent.
RESPONSE
Made item-level and order-level value explicit, fixed the gifting rules, and tightened the transition from cart into checkout.
[ CART → REVIEW → CHECKOUT ]
04 DISCOVERY TOOLSFilters, wishlist and the dead end
CHALLENGE
Filters were clumsy, wishlist was a place things went to die, and out-of-stock ended the session outright.
INSIGHT
Jewellery shoppers browse by occasion and taste. Discovery tools have to support curation and recovery, not just narrowing.
RESPONSE
Filters made visual and grouped; wishlist rebuilt as a shortlisting surface wired back into the funnel; out-of-stock now offers close substitutes instead of an apology.
+20%
FILTER ENGAGEMENT
+12%
WISHLIST ENGAGEMENT
+18%
WISHLIST → CART
05 POST-ORDERExtending trust past checkout
CHALLENGE
After payment, shoppers were left guessing about delivery, returns, exchanges and how to reach anyone.
INSIGHT
In jewellery, trust doesn't end at payment — it's maintained by transparency afterwards, and that's what brings people back.
RESPONSE
A full post-order layer: order tracking, structured return reasons, exchange-at-store, support with image upload for verification, and invoices where people look for them.
Order tracking
Returns & reasons
Exchange at store
Support & image upload
05 / WHAT CHANGED

Not cleaner screens — a stronger shopping system

+12%
YOY REVENUE
GROWTH
+10%
PDP
CONVERSION
+12%
WISHLIST
ENGAGEMENT
+18%
WISHLIST
TO CART
+20%
FILTER
ENGAGEMENT
06 / WHAT I TOOK FROM IT

Design for confidence, not just conversion

01Commerce UX is inspirational and transactional at onceShoppers want visual delight and practical clarity in the same session. Either one alone underperforms.
02Decision architecture beats visual polishPDP and cart improved most when hierarchy and action sequencing became explicit choices rather than by-products.
03Utility features are growth surfaces in disguiseFilters, wishlist and substitutes moved real numbers once they were treated as core UX rather than secondary features.
04Trust continues after checkoutPost-order clarity isn't support design. It directly affects confidence, repeat purchase and how the brand is described to other people.
05End-to-end thinking outperforms isolated redesignsThe compounding gains came from coordinating discovery, decision and post-order as one continuous system — not from any single screen.
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