Kandl Artistique

● SERVICE PROVIDED

UX / UI Design
E-Commerce
Conversion Optimization

Kandl Artistique

UX / UI Design

E-Commerce

Conversion Optimization

Background

Kandl Artistique is a luxury candle boutique in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood. Their signature Candle Making Lab, a 90-minute custom candle experience, is both the heart of the business and its primary revenue driver.

By the time we partnered with them at Sovi Creative, Kandl had built a strong, loyal following through social media. But their website wasn't keeping pace. The digital experience felt disconnected from the premium, tactile world they'd created in-store and the site was leaving significant revenue on the table, particularly around the Candle Making Lab experience.

We partnered with Place New Studios for art direction and photography. I owned the UX strategy, information architecture, and all web design execution — responsible for translating the creative vision into a high-performing digital experience.

Challenges

Bridging the "Sensation Gap"

Kandl's brand awareness was driven almost entirely by social media — a channel built on texture, scent, and atmosphere. But when potential customers landed on the website, the experience deflated. The legacy site looked generic, felt transactional, and couldn't justify the premium price point Kandl commanded in person. The challenge wasn't just aesthetic. It was about making a sensory, physical brand feel credible and desirable through a screen.

An Underperforming Revenue Engine

The Candle Making Lab wasn't just a product — it was the brand's most powerful storytelling vehicle and its highest-margin offering. But the original page treated it like a simple info sheet. It didn't explain the experience in a way that built desire, didn't differentiate between the different occasions it served (date night, corporate team builder, girls' night out), and had no upsell logic built into the flow. Customers who wanted to book were leaving revenue behind without even knowing it.

A Mobile Experience That Wasn't Converting

Despite a primarily social-driven audience. People were discovering Kandl on Instagram and arriving on mobile. However, the site's mobile conversion rate was less than half its desktop rate (1.81% vs. 3.77%). The design wasn't meeting customers where they actually were.

The Strategy

The first design decision was structural: I moved away from standard e-commerce grid layouts entirely. Large, full-bleed imagery and deliberate whitespace became the primary tools for communicating premium — mirroring the physical experience of walking into a beautifully curated boutique rather than browsing a catalogue.

But luxury alone doesn't convert. So I expanded the content strategy across product pages to include scent profiles, brand heritage stories, and product care guidance. This turned each product page from a transaction point into an education moment — giving customers the context and confidence to buy without needing to visit the store first.

Execution

The Candle Making Lab page required a fundamental rethink. Rather than one generic experience description, I restructured the page to speak directly to multiple distinct customer intents — the couple looking for a unique date night, the friend group planning a celebration, the company building team culture. Each framing addressed a different decision-maker with a different reason to book.

I also designed a strategic upsell flow directly into the booking experience, allowing customers to add diffuser upgrades and charcuterie boards as enhancements to their session. This transformed the page from an information sheet into a dynamic sales tool — and the results reflected it. Average order value for the Lab held steady at $107 even as the broader market softened, meaning the upsell architecture was working: the customers who booked were spending at the same level as before.

Given that Kandl's audience was arriving primarily from Instagram, I treated the mobile experience as the primary surface — not an afterthought. Every layout decision, every tap target, every content hierarchy choice was made with a mobile user in mind first, then adapted for desktop.

This approach produced one of the most meaningful shifts in the post-launch data: mobile and desktop conversion rates have essentially flipped. Before the redesign, desktop converted at 3.77% and mobile at 1.81%. In the year after launch, mobile climbed to 2.56% while desktop sat at 1.88%. Kandl's customers are now converting more effectively on the device they actually use to discover the brand.

Results

The redesign dramatically changed who was finding Kandl online. Social sessions grew from 5,647 to 11,566 in the year after launch — a 105% increase. This influx of new visitors were discovering Kandl for the first time through Instagram. The Lab is Kandl's core revenue driver, and this is where the redesign's impact is clearest.

Total Orders

4,722

YEAR BEFORE (SEPT 2022 – SEPT 2023)

7,089

YEAR AFTER (SEPT 2023 – SEPT 2024)

Average Order Value

$97.40

YEAR BEFORE (SEPT 2022 – SEPT 2023)

$107.57

YEAR AFTER (SEPT 2023 – SEPT 2024)

Revenue grew by over 70%. Orders grew by 50%. And critically, AOV increased by 10% — meaning the upsell architecture built into the booking flow (diffuser upgrades, charcuterie add-ons) was working. Customers weren't just booking more, they were spending more per session.