Case Study · Shopify CRO & PDP Development

Alia

aliasenses.com

A complete rebuild of the Shopify product page for a luxury DTC fragrance brand. Restructuring the purchase journey to convert considered buyers at every step.

Shopify Dawn PDP Architecture CRO Custom Liquid Mobile UX
7+
Custom sections built
10
CRO improvements
3
New conversion components
0
Dead code in final build
Client
Alia
Scope
PDP architecture, CRO, Liquid development
Platform
Shopify · Dawn (custom build)
The Brand

Fragrance as a facet of self

Alia is a DTC fragrance brand celebrating the multifaceted modern woman. Each scent in the Alter Ego Collection is a character, a frequency, a facet of you from the grounded assurance of Main Character, to the bold radiance of Scene Stealer, to the commanding power of Power House.


Roxie Nafousi, Founder
Bestselling author · Forbes "cultural phenomenon" · 1M+ books in 122 countries
The Challenge

The brief

Alia had the product, the founder story, and editorial press. What the store lacked was a product page built to carry the weight of all three.

The default Dawn structure buried scent character below the fold, left conversion signals out of the decision zone, and offered no bundle incentive until a customer was already in checkout.

The task was to rebuild every element of the PDP from the information architecture down without disrupting the brand's existing visual language or Liquid conventions.

What we found

The opportunity before we touched the store

Every brand we work with has the same pattern. Strong product, strong identity and a product page that has not been built to carry the weight of either.

Default Dawn structure
No social proof visible before the price point
Fragrance notes absent from the purchase zone
BNPL not visible until checkout
Bundle offer not placed at the right moment
No gift messaging or personalisation layer
No fragrance pyramid to guide considered buyers
No Application Affirmations or brand story sections
Trust bar limited to two default elements
Northbound build
Stars, review count and in-stock status above the price
Top notes surfaced inline, full pyramid on reveal
Klarna positioned immediately after the purchase buttons
Bundle offer placed after the add to bag decision
Gift message component built into the purchase zone
Full fragrance pyramid with top, heart and base notes
Application Affirmations and Roxie Says brand sections
Three-pillar trust bar including gift wrapping
Interactive PDP Walkthrough

Above the fold, optimised for purchase

View live PDP

Hover the numbered markers to reveal the thinking behind each decision

See the full page experience on the live store
Conversion
Social proof before price

Stars, reviews and price in the same decision zone. Converts hesitation into confidence before the customer reaches the add to bag button.

Discovery
Fragrance notes above the fold

Key scent notes surfaced inline with progressive disclosure. Communicates character without pushing the add to bag button out of view.

Conversion
Price on the add to bag button

Cost and commitment confirmed in a single element. No need to look up — the price is visible at the exact moment of decision, removing the last point of hesitation.

AOV
Bundle offer after the decision

The 10% offer placed after the primary add to bag. The customer has already committed — this captures the upsell at peak openness.

Friction removal
Klarna at the decision point

BNPL placed after the add to bag, not buried in checkout. Breaking £60 into three £20 removes the final price barrier where it matters.

Trust
Two-pillar trust bar

Shipping and security as equal centred containers. Addresses core objections directly after the add to bag, before the brand copy.

Brand
Affirmations and brand narrative

Custom accordion sections delivering the alter ego narrative, Roxie Says founder voice, and application ritual — none of this existed in the original build.

Always on
Sticky add to bag

The add to bag bar stays fixed as the customer scrolls through brand story, notes and reviews. Purchase intent is never lost to navigation — one tap from anywhere on the page.

Authority
Press bar

Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Forbes validate the luxury positioning for first-time visitors arriving without prior brand awareness.

Storytelling
Fragrance pyramid section

Visual top, heart and base note structure below the fold. Helps considered buyers understand the scent before purchase, reducing returns at this price point.

Built with
Shopify DawnCustom Liquid sections
GA4Event tracking
KlarnaBNPL integration
Shop PayAccelerated checkout
01 · CRO Optimisations

Ten decisions. One coherent purchase journey.

Every section a deliberate commercial decision. Benchmarked against leading luxury fragrance brands before a single line of code was written, then iterated until the experience matched the product.

Conversion

Social proof above the fold

Stars, review count and in-stock status placed before the price. At £60 a bottle, these signals neutralise hesitation before it forms.

Discovery

Fragrance notes in the purchase zone

Top notes surfaced inline with progressive disclosure revealing the full pyramid. Scent character communicated without pushing the add to bag out of view.

AOV

Bundle offer placed after the decision

The 10% offer placed after the primary add to bag action. Lands when the customer has already committed mentally, not before when it creates noise.

Friction removal

Klarna visibility and positioning

BNPL placed immediately after the add to bag, not buried at checkout. Breaking £60 into three £20 payments removes the final price barrier at the point of decision.

Brand

Application Affirmations component

Custom Liquid section translating the scent into character language. Aspirational copy that speaks to buyer identity and deepens emotional connection before purchase.

Gifting

Gift message and wrapping

Personalisation prompt and gift wrapping option in the purchase zone. Increases gifting conversion and surfaces use-case intent at the decision moment.

02 · Mobile UX

Mobile first,
purchase ready

Over 70% of fragrance discovery happens on mobile. Every layout decision was validated at 390px before desktop, not retrofitted after. The result is a purchase experience that removes friction at every thumb's reach.

Always on

Sticky add to bag

Fixed ATC bar follows the user on scroll. The purchase action is never more than one tap away, regardless of where they are on the page.

Navigation

Swipeable gallery

Full width swipeable carousel replaces the desktop thumbnail strip. Uses the entire mobile viewport for the imagery that drives purchase decisions.

Accessibility

44px touch targets

All controls meet WCAG 2.5.5 minimum tap target guidelines. Eliminates the misfire frustration that breaks purchase intent at the final step.

Hierarchy

Single column button stack

Add to bag and bundle offer stacked full width with deliberate vertical spacing. Clear hierarchy, no accidental taps between adjacent actions.

image
Above fold

Mobile-Optimised UI: Layout and visual hierarchy calibrated for small-screen rendering

image
Scrolled

Sticky add to bag bar stays fixed — one tap away no matter how far you scroll

03 · How we work

From audit to live store

A structured four-stage process for Shopify DTC brands. Every engagement starts with your specific store no generic templates, no inherited assumptions.

Audit and benchmark

Your PDP mapped against leading luxury brand benchmarks. Friction points prioritised by conversion impact before a single line of code is written.

Architecture and strategy

Section structure designed around your brand's purchase psychology. The sequence of information that converts a considered buyer at your price point.

Build and iterate

Custom Liquid development matched to your brand's naming conventions. Refined until the experience matches the product, desktop and mobile simultaneously.

Deploy and monitor

Live deployment with GA4 event tracking configured. Performance baseline set. Findings feed directly into the next optimisation cycle.

Why Northbound

We have sat inside luxury brands, accountable for ecommerce revenue. We know what a product page needs to do because we have been responsible for it across brands where every conversion point is measured.

Is your Shopify store working as hard as your brand?

We work with luxury and premium DTC brands on Shopify. If your product page is not converting the way it should, a free audit will show you exactly where and why. Senior led, no handoffs.

Book a free Shopify audit See how we work

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