Crafting the Holiday-Themed Landing Page for Petite Eats

Brand Strategy | UX Design | Development

I crafted a festive landing page for Petite Eats, enhancing user engagement and streamlining holiday treat exploration. The design aligned with the brand identity, creating a seamless and visually appealing shopping experience.

The Team

Designer and Strategist (me!)

Timeline

From kickoff to completion: 2 weeks

External Links

Context

What is Petite Eats and who is their customer?

Petite Eats is a boutique bakery that creates handcrafted, bite-sized desserts and seasonal treats with care and creativity. Petite Eats customers are those who value high-quality, unique baked goods and look for a seamless, stress-free shopping experience, especially during busy seasons like the holidays.

From a small-scale bakery to an elevated online experience

As Petite Eats’ popularity grew, the manual ordering process struggled to keep up, especially during the busy holiday season. Customers often faced delays and confusion when navigating multiple communication channels to explore products, place orders, or confirm availability.

Internal feedback revealed that 40% of potential customers abandoned inquiries due to unclear instructions or slow response times. Additionally, the lack of a centralized digital presence made it challenging for new customers to easily browse and purchase treats, impacting sales during peak seasonal demand.

To solve this, the goal was to create a cohesive, user-friendly landing page that simplified the customer journey while enhancing the brand’s digital presence.

Identifying the Challenge

Traditionally, Petite Eats relied on word-of-mouth and direct inquiries to manage orders, creating a personal but manual process. Over time, the business shifted toward building a stronger digital presence, leveraging platforms like Squarespace to create a more streamlined and accessible experience for customers.

The holiday landing page represents a pivotal step in this evolution, providing customers with a modern, user-friendly platform to browse and purchase seasonal treats effortlessly. This shift not only enhances the customer experience but also positions Petite Eats as a brand that blends artisanal quality with digital convenience.

I needed to create a streamlined digital experience to eliminate the inefficiencies and confusion caused by manual ordering processes.

Laying the Groundwork for Holiday Cheer

Discovery & Research

Competitive analysis revealed the core features that made holiday landing pages successful across similar food brands. I analyzed examples from larger brands, noting elements like festive gift guides, bold visuals, and streamlined navigation. No need to reinvent the wheel—these insights guided the design of a more engaging and user-friendly experience for Petite Eats.

Original Shop Interface

Key Takeaways:

  • Maya’s Cookies has a festive and inclusive approach but could enhance user engagement through interactive features or more product-focused visuals.

  • Crumbl excels in minimalism and product-driven design but lacks navigation depth and explicit holiday elements.

  • Insomnia Cookies offers the most robust navigation and value communication but relies less on holiday-specific branding.

Ideation

Turning Insights Into Holiday Magic

After identifying gaps in navigation and product discoverability during competitive analysis, I brainstormed and prototyped solutions to improve the shopping experience. By focusing on intuitive layouts and personalized touches, I reimagined the shop’s structure to streamline browsing. These enhancements set the stage for a more user-friendly platform, aimed at increasing engagement and reducing drop-off rates.

I sketched the initial drafts of the holiday landing page, focusing on simplicity and the essentials. These early wireframes captured the vision for a festive, user-friendly design that felt true to Petite Eats.

To refine the concept, I shared the drafts with my informal “design review board” (my partner and close friends). Their feedback offered fresh perspectives, helping me enhance the layout to ensure it was both functional and aligned with the brand's festive charm.

From there, I brainstormed the core sections that would bring the page to life:

  • Hero Section: A bold, holiday-themed banner with a clear promotional CTA, like 'Order by Dec 10 for holiday delivery!' to create excitement and urgency.

  • Seasonal Offerings: Clear navigation paths to highlight limited-time products, ensuring customers can easily explore and purchase holiday specials.

  • Gift Guide: A curated collection of featured items, such as the Holiday Cookie Sampler Pack, designed to make gifting decisions easy and irresistible..

Design

Bringing the Vision to Life

Key Design Choices:

  • Typography: I chose a clean yet festive font pairing to vibe with the Petite Eats branding, making sure it felt approachable but still a little elevated.

  • Color Palette: Petite Eats’ signature pink stayed front and center, but I added accents of red and green for that extra holiday sparkle.

  • Imagery: Product photos stole the show, styled with festive touches like ornaments and cozy backgrounds to set the holiday mood.

Feedback & Iterations:

  • My reviewers pointed out that the hero section needed more oomph to create urgency. I didn’t add a countdown timer, but I did spice up the banner messaging to better highlight the holiday timeline.

  • I refined the layout to ensure it looked just as polished on small screens as it did on desktops.

Development

A Little CSS and a Lot of Finesse

Creating the Petite Eats holiday landing page was all about smart and intentional design. Using Squarespace as the foundation, I applied custom CSS to remove the default header and footer, giving the page a distinct identity while technically remaining part of the same site as my portfolio.

By implementing a second domain to redirect users directly to the shop, I ensured a seamless experience with complete separation between the two. Petite Eats customers won’t accidentally navigate to my portfolio, and recruiters exploring my portfolio won’t end up on the Petite Eats site (unless they’re intentionally visiting 😊). This approach provides clarity and focus for both audiences, ensuring everyone lands exactly where they need to be.

The Results: Measuring Success

The Petite Eats holiday landing page launched on November 17, 2024, and is currently live, marking the brand’s first-ever dedicated landing experience. Designed to captivate with festive cheer and curated gift ideas, it’s all about making holiday shopping seamless and joyful. The launch not only brought the design vision to life but also delivered measurable results, driving increased traffic, fostering high engagement, and maintaining ongoing interest. These outcomes underscore the page’s success in attracting and retaining a holiday audience.

The landing page attracted 90 active users in the first 30 days, all of whom were new visitors. This demonstrates the page's ability to draw in a fresh audience.

Visitors spent an average of 4 minutes and 32 seconds per session, reflecting strong interest in the page's content and offerings.

While user numbers tapered slightly, the page maintained steady engagement with 38 users in the past week and 12 users in the last 24 hours.

What’s Next:

  1. Refine the Experience: Use insights to improve usability and impact.

  2. Plan Ahead: Start brainstorming ideas for future seasonal landing pages.

This case study is a work in progress, with updates coming as data rolls in. Want to see it in action? Check out the live site here!

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Redefining Custom Orders Through UX-Driven Innovation