The Glasshouse archives was an initiative to bring several small London-based retailers online in a unified digital marketplace during the Covid-19 pandemic. Similar to the Greenrooms market, Glasshouse Archives was a conglomerate of small retailers and independent businesses specialising in plants and plant wear. Due to the nature of their goods many of these small businesses where ill-equipped to sell and market themselves digitally, having relied on local and passing trade.
In response to the challenging market, the eight businesses involved teamed together under one domain to reach customers, and cross-pollinate shoppers.
Due to the nature of the project, the dev team and I had to unify several existing brands under one e-commerce system and brand experience. We needed to manage the transition between retailers and categories in a way that was intuitive for users and covered the businesses varying requirements. The businesses had next to no online presence and all needed to adapt to the ‘new normal’ rapidly, creating tight deadlines with little room for error.
It was my job to empower the team behind the initiative to create a seamless and unified experience, allowing retailers to market under a unified brand and e-commerce retailer. I aimed to create a visual style that acted as a soft ‘umbrella brand’ for the businesses to unify under.
Due to the nature of the product combining several inventories, we needed a system that allowed users to traverse products quickly and easily through a set of universal categories. We needed to steer clear of anything too complex such as multiple filtering interfaces, to keep the transition between retailers and inventories smooth. The platform was planned to act intuitively across multiple devices, following the core category boundaries needed, but appearing bespoke on each device
One stop shop
To consolidate the varying inventory of the businesses involved, we started by creating a common set of categories that each business stocked to provide even coverage of the products. Naturally, the boundaries blurred slightly between businesses which informed the design. I created a system of carousels and category buckets that allowed for some cross over of products, based on plant species or material.
As the management of the CMS and inventory fell to the dev team, ensuring these systems where stable and flexible was a top priority. Distinct designs were created to accommodate these across breakpoints and devices.
Umbrella (plant) brand
The pared-back and neutral direction for the platform was chosen to avoid competing or overpowering with the existing names using the platform. It was key that we enabled the brands to coexist in the marketplace alongside each other, and to represent the quality of products in the design.
The more you know
Through competitor analysis and collective input from the partnered brands, we created an information hierarchy and guide template for products. This allowed for each product page to have plant care guides and tips displayed intuitively within the product page. We sought to inform users of the care and maintenance required for each plant as a substitute for the in-store expertise that customers would normally receive whilst shopping.
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