+46% Revenue Growth — CPO Website Redesign

Project Overview

CPO Outlets is a web-only retailer selling both new and reconditioned power tools. Their catalog is large and highly spec-driven, making information architecture, search, and comparison critical to the experience.

CPO came to us during a period of declining online performance despite operating in a growing tools market. The site worked reasonably well for expert users but struggled with product discovery, onboarding new customers, and supporting confident purchase decisions. The goal was to redesign the full e-commerce experience — from search and navigation through product detail pages — to help users quickly find the right tools and buy with confidence.

Impact & Results

The redesign launched ahead of CPO’s peak holiday season. Post-launch results showed significant improvements across every key metric.

My Role & Responsibility

I was the sole designer on the project, partnering with a UX researcher who led interviews and usability testing. I owned the end-to-end experience strategy and design — defining research questions, synthesizing insights, and translating them into product direction, interaction models, and UI. I also led prototyping, execution, and stakeholder alignment.

Discovery

We began discovery to understand why performance was lagging — not just where it was down. The CPO team lacked deep user insight and relied mostly on high-level Google Analytics. Search and navigation drove high bounce rates, PDPs were missing critical information, and customers had to call support for basic tasks.

Research Methodology

We recruited 12 participants across three segments: frequent customers, occasional customers, and new customers. Each participant completed a 30-minute conversational interview followed by a 30-minute remote usability testing session with screen sharing and think-aloud protocol.

User Personas

Based on research, we defined three core personas to guide design decisions. Experienced users cared most about brand, durability, and reliability, while amateur users focused more on price and felt overwhelmed by options.

Vision

With these insights, we aligned on a clear vision: to make CPO not just a place to buy tools, but a trusted destination where users can quickly find the right tool for their needs.

We translated that vision into three guiding questions: how to improve shopping efficiency, how to increase engagement and trust, and how to better educate new users without slowing experts down. This led to a focused set of solutions — stronger filtering, improved search, product comparison, customizable tool kits, saved products, and a future-facing tool finder.

Design

Rather than walking through the full end-to-end build process, I’ll focus on the key features and strategic decisions that were unique to CPO — particularly how we addressed user segmentation, comparison gaps, and decision-support challenges.

1. Search Redesign

Research showed users were bouncing between search and filters, often needing exact model numbers to find products — which created friction, especially for less experienced users. I redesigned search to be more assistive and intent-driven by surfacing popular categories, related keywords, and product images, while improving suggestion accuracy through cleaner search data.

2. Product Comparison

One of the most consistent pain points was product comparison. Users had to open multiple tabs to compare tools, which was especially frustrating in a spec-driven category like power tools. We introduced product comparison directly on the Product Listing Page, allowing users to scan key features side by side without leaving the flow.

3. Product Detail Page

On the PDP, the biggest issue was information overload without clear hierarchy — especially for combo kits. Key details were buried, and users struggled to understand what was included. I reorganized the page around decision-making: surfacing important features near the product images, structuring specs into scannable tables, and adding sticky tabs for longer pages.

4. Cross-Selling & Alternative Configurations

Many users were looking at a single tool without realizing it was available in different bundles or combo kits that might better fit their needs. I surfaced alternative configurations directly on the PDP — for example, showing how a drill could be purchased alone or as part of a higher-value kit. This created a more natural upsell moment aligned with user intent.

5. Create Your Own Kit

User research showed users didn’t want a fixed combo kit. Some already owned tools, and others wanted to build a kit based on a specific job. Instead of forcing them to leave the page, I designed a “Create Your Own Kit” experience directly on the PDP — surfacing compatible products and letting users customize their setup in context.

Reflection