E-Commerce meets editorial
Blending editorial storytelling with online shopping to inspire discovery and conversion.
Process & Approach
The content strategy was built around WS customer data, not assumptions. Working with the content editor we mined 150 books against top performing products and seasonal timing to plan what stories would resonate and when. Each story was structured to move the user naturally from editorial to product without the transition feeling like an ad. These screens show that journey: story entry, content and product embedded mid-scroll, and product detail with a direct path to purchase.
By the time we presented the prototype, the app had working purchase pathways, live content across all four story types, a full launch content schedule and a one year roadmap. The CEO saw it and redirected the WS product roadmap entirely. Rather than launching as a standalone app, this content commerce model was integrated into the main Williams-Sonoma app, which launched in 2022.
industry
Luxury Hospitality
timeframe
6 months
team
Design lead partnering with content, creative direction, and a small engineering team
skills & tools
Branding, content strategy, information architecture, UI and interaction design, prototyping, Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Usertesting.com
Homepage, featured content feed and product detail, three of the four content journeys showing how editorial and commerce were structured to work as one experience.
A seasonal entertaining story moving from recipe entry through ingredient detail to how-to tips and product, showing how content and commerce were woven together within a single narrative.
The homepage prototype showing the full content architecture in motion: Featured, For You, Saved and All Titles navigation, with Chef Spotlight, seasonal stories, product in use content and book collections all structured as distinct but connected journeys.
The full story journey: article entry, how-to tips, product in context and a direct path to purchase, all within a single piece of content without breaking the editorial experience.
Results
Prototype compelling enough for the CEO to redirect the WS product roadmap
Content commerce model integrated into the main WS app, which launched in 2022
Full launch content ready and one year content roadmap completed at point of handoff
Proved that editorial storytelling could drive product discovery and purchase intent within a single experience
What I'd do differently
Build user testing into the process earlier to validate journey assumptions before full content production
Develop a more robust content management framework to make seasonal updates faster and more scalable
Track engagement and conversion data from launch to prove the content commerce model with real numbers
Push for a phased launch rather than a full pivot, to test the model in market before full integration
