The challenge
A growing direct-to-consumer brand was losing revenue during peak traffic events. Their existing platform could not handle load spikes, page speeds were poor on mobile, and the checkout flow had a 68% abandonment rate.
What we did
- Redesigned the entire purchase flow with a focus on reducing steps — checkout went from five screens to two
- Built the storefront with Next.js and edge caching to deliver sub-second page loads globally
- Implemented optimistic UI patterns for cart and wishlist interactions to eliminate perceived latency
- Set up automated performance budgets in CI — no deploy ships if LCP exceeds 2.5 seconds or total bundle exceeds 400KB
- Designed a responsive product grid system that adapts from mobile to ultra-wide without layout shifts
The impact
- Checkout abandonment dropped from 68% to 31%
- Mobile conversion rate increased 2.4x
- Page load time reduced from 4.2s to 0.9s on 4G connections
- Platform handled 12x normal traffic during launch event with zero downtime
- Average order value increased 18% after UX improvements