Brief
Modernize the Platform and Improve Product Navigation
Stay Sharp offers a vast catalog of Japanese knives and specialized kitchen accessories. With the growth of its offering, the company was encountering limitations with its old WordPress site in effectively organizing product information and providing a clear navigation experience.Maze was mandated to migrate the platform to Shopify and design a new e-commerce experience capable of better structuring the catalog, improving product presentation, and simplifying the purchasing journey.
Goals
Facilitating discovery and search in an extensive catalog
The project aimed to improve how users discover and explore products. With a large and technical catalog, the challenge was to enable visitors to quickly find the products they were looking for while maintaining a fluid and intuitive experience. The platform also needed to offer a more flexible structure for managing product sheets and associated information.
Tools and partners
Complexity and challenge
Translating a premium Japanese universe into a complex catalog
Stay Sharp draws heavily on the aesthetics and culture of Japanese handcrafted knives. The visual universe evokes the lively alleyways of izakayas, traditional prints, and an atmosphere that is both raw and refined. The challenge was therefore to design an e-commerce experience capable of reflecting this universe while structuring a rich and technical catalog. Users need to quickly understand the differences between knife types, steels, culinary uses, and manufacturing techniques. The goal was to balance aesthetics and functionality: creating an immersive, Japanese-inspired experience while offering clear and efficient navigation to explore the catalog.
Approach
Aligning Branding and Product Experience
The project revolved around two complementary axes: refining the brand identity and designing a new e-commerce experience. Maze first worked on evolving Stay Sharp's visual universe to create a stronger and more consistent identity, aligning with the brand's premium positioning. The artistic direction is based on a minimalist aesthetic inspired by Japanese craftsmanship, highlighting the precision and quality of the products. Concurrently, the website architecture and user journeys were redesigned to simplify catalog navigation and facilitate understanding of the different knife ranges. Detailed wireframes allowed for optimizing information hierarchy and product presentation before the design phase.
Solution
A Shopify store designed for complex catalogs
The new platform was developed on Shopify to offer a more powerful and flexible e-commerce infrastructure. The site was designed to facilitate exploration of an extensive catalog through optimized navigation and an advanced search system with filters. Users can thus refine their search according to different criteria and quickly find the products corresponding to their needs.
Product sheets have also been enhanced through the use of metafields, allowing detailed information about each product to be structured and displayed. This approach improves the understanding of technical characteristics while maintaining a clear and visual presentation.
The new site architecture thus offers multiple ways to shop, while simplifying catalog management for the internal team.
- +45%Sales
- +21%Conversion rate
- +5%Average order value (AOV)
Results
An e-commerce platform that reflects the brand image
The new store allows Stay Sharp to present its products in an environment more consistent with its premium positioning. The migration to Shopify also offers the team a more flexible and easier-to-administer platform, allowing them to manage the catalog and evolve the store as the brand develops.
“Working with Maze was a great experience. They took the time to answer all our questions during the site migration and made sure all our needs were covered — and more. I’d definitely recommend them!”
Stay Sharp
