Challenge
This project sat within a wider business initiative to implement a new PIM (Product Information Management) tool, which would enable the richer merchandising, filtering, and product variation grouping the listings pages needed. The initiative was prioritised off the back of insight and results from my earlier PDP redesign, which had already surfaced how much variable-product handling was limiting both discoverability and conversion.
The Cotswold Company’s product listing pages had fallen behind what customers needed to shop confidently. Filtering was limited and generic rather than category-specific, presented through a basic in-page dropdown that made it hard to see which filters were even applied — a problem that was worse on mobile. Key facets customers needed, like product dimensions, were missing entirely.
Products from the same range in different colours and finishes were listed as entirely separate products rather than grouped, making discovery harder and slowing sales of new colourways. Listing cards themselves were thin on information — a single image, frequently overlooked stock status, no reviews — leaving customers to click into a product page just to find basic details. On top of this, featured categories at the top of listings used cutout-style imagery inconsistent with the studio/lifestyle shots used elsewhere, creating visual clutter before a customer had even started browsing.
Process
Research and Analysis
- On-site surveys: I gathered direct user insight through on-site surveys to understand where customers were struggling on listings pages.
- Customer Service and in-store staff insight: I collected frequently asked questions from Customer Service and in-store teams, using the questions customers were already asking in person or by phone as a signal for what the website wasn’t answering for them.
- Session recordings: I reviewed Hotjar recordings to see how customers were actually using (and struggling with) filters and listings cards.
- Analytics: I used this to understand engagement with filters, listing cards, and featured categories, and where drop-off was happening.
- Competitor analysis: I benchmarked filtering, listing card content, and merchandising patterns against competitors to identify where Cotswold had fallen behind category standards.
- Baymard Institute: I used Baymard’s best practice guidelines and UX research library to inform my decisions.
Solution
A redesigned listings experience addressing filtering, product discovery, and card content together:
Results
This project shipped shortly after I left The Cotswold Company — my last project before handover — so live results aren’t available to me.
Key takeaways
- Combining on-site surveys with Customer Service and in-store FAQs surfaced problems analytics alone wouldn’t have shown — the questions customers were already asking in person were a direct signal for what the site should be answering itself.
- Competitor benchmarking helped separate “nice to have” from “customers now expect this as standard,” particularly for filtering and product grouping.
- Grouping colour and finish variations under a single listing card addressed a discoverability problem that also had a direct commercial angle — new colourways were launching into reduced visibility under the old structure.
