Condé Nast, home to some of the world’s most iconic publications, was looking to reduce its reliance on traditional ad revenue. As media spend shifted toward social and digital channels, the business wanted to explore more e-commerce-driven opportunities. This project aimed to help each title think more like a brand with a shopfront.
I joined during the discovery phase, supporting the brand commerce strategy through audits, research and future journey design.
How and Where Do I Begin?
Working with the Product Director who was also from an e-commerce background, we knew what needed to be done. But we didn't exactly know where or how to start.
Discovery workshops were run with key stakeholders to encourage more collaborative ways of working between Editorial, Commerce, and Product Technology teams.
I had many, many chats with editorial and product teams to understand what they were currently doing for the affiliate links featured on their sites.
There was an existing design system. Tailored more towards an editorial experience rather than a shopping one. They had product cards and I thought this was a good place to start.
From Read to Buy
We partnered with publications that already featured products and had a loyal readership invested in trusted reviews.
Building on the existing design system, I adapted product card components to create a more seamless editorial-to-shopping experience — enriching product listings with contextual content while retaining the depth and credibility of reviews.
Encouraging Discussion and Provocation
The wireframing and journey mapping formed the foundation of templates that could be reskinned and reused across all Condé Nast publications.
The prototypes created were used to spark conversations with editorial teams and to encourage thought about how might we move from a pure reading experience to a rich shopping experience.