Petsutra Website Redesign
Context & Problem
Petsutra’s e-commerce platform was scattered and inconsistent, with gaps in order transparency, product information, and post-purchase experience. Users faced friction throughout browsing and checkout, resulting in a fragmented and confusing experience compared to industry standards.
Results & Impact
The redesigned platform streamlined navigation, clarified workflows, and unified the brand experience across web and mobile, significantly reducing customer friction. Post-checkout processes were simplified, leading to a significant drop support calls and smoother interactions with the support team.
These improvements contributed to a 20–30% year-over-year increase in customer retention, higher user engagement, and an overall more satisfying and reliable experience for Petsutra’s customers.
My Role
I joined Petsutra in a leadership role, working with a cross-functional team that included a product manager, an external TPO, five external developers, two freelance junior designers, and a copywriter. I started with conducting a comprehensive audit of the website through heuristic evaluation. I identified transparency gaps in order fulfillment, product overviews, and overall site usability.
To understand the competitive landscape and uncover improvement opportunities, I performed a market analysis of leading e-commerce pet brands, including Dogspot, Heads Up for Tails, and Royal Canin. As Petsutra’s website was originally an Amazon-first strategy, my primary goal was to enhance the direct website experience and increase customer retention through a more seamless and engaging user journey.
Research & Discovery
Research & Discovery
We used surveys, support call analysis, social media and email insights, Google Analytics, and SEO data to understand our users. Mobile emerged as the dominant platform, and we discovered that loyal users value brand engagement and social connection with their pets. Security (2FA), reliable order tracking, and timely confirmations were critical pain points. Designing with the distinction between user and customer in mind became key to improving overall experience.
Persona Summary
Two primary personas shaped the redesign: Premium Pet Parents—social, digitally active 20–35-year-olds with disposable income who treat pets like family; and Amazon-Focused Shoppers—convenience-driven users motivated by fast, reliable shipping. These personas helped prioritize loyalty, engagement, and trust in the redesigned platform.
Ideation & Design Process
The Core Problem
Petsutra's "My Profile" was functional but lacked personalization, offering limited insights into user behavior. This gap hindered our ability to tailor experiences and recommendations effectively.
Strategic Pivot
Recognizing that the end user isn't just the purchaser but the pet itself, we reimagined the profile to center around pet-specific details—breed, age, activity level, and food preferences. This shift enabled personalized recommendations and fostered a deeper connection between users and the platform. To incentivize profile completion, we integrated PetFirst loyalty points, providing immediate rewards for engagement.
Key Design Decisions
Order Transparency: Enhanced tracking to provide comprehensive order details, including contents, cost, and shipping status, aligning with user expectations for clarity.
Wishlist & Cart Persistence: Introduced features to save items and display potential savings, accommodating users' shopping behaviors and promoting return visits.
Unified Wallet Experience: Consolidated the Pet Wallet and loyalty program into a single system, streamlining the checkout process and reducing cognitive load.
Proactive Support: Elevated help resources within the navigation hierarchy, ensuring users could easily access assistance when needed.
Wireframe Iteration
Initial wireframes adhered to a standard e-commerce hierarchy. However, after conducting competitive analysis and user testing, we repositioned the pet profile to the top, emphasizing the emotional connection users have with their pets. This change was informed by Jakob Nielsen's recognition principle, ensuring that loyalty points remained visible and accessible throughout the profile sections.
Design System Impact
Developed reusable components and form patterns across the profile, wallet, and checkout systems, ensuring consistency and scalability for future iterations.
Solution
The final solution transformed Petsutra’s platform into a connected ecosystem built on trust, personalization, and consistency. Each page — from profile to checkout — was designed to feel part of a larger whole, where every interaction informed the next.
The visual language emphasized clarity and familiarity. We leaned into a warm, clean interface that reflected the emotional nature of pet ownership while maintaining e-commerce precision. Cards, modular grids, and scalable components formed the foundation of a lightweight design system, allowing updates across modules without visual drift.
Every feature was designed to reinforce continuity. The pet profile powered personalized recommendations and loyalty rewards; order tracking and wallet modules shared a unified interaction pattern for predictability; and persistent wishlists and coupons encouraged long-term engagement. Together, these created a seamless feedback loop — one where users felt seen, supported, and in control at every step.
What I'd do differently now…
I’d place greater emphasis on direct user interviews to validate design assumptions, especially around the mobile-first experience, which drove most user engagement. While data and analytics shaped our direction, richer qualitative input would have uncovered subtle friction points in navigation and purchase flow.
Beyond structure, a cleaner, more visually inviting UI could better support how users naturally browse, often casually, not transactionally—while maintaining brand trust and warmth. Integrating UMUX-Lite as a lightweight, ongoing usability measure would also give clearer visibility into long-term satisfaction.
Finally, the navigation system, constrained by SEO priorities, never fully reflected user logic. Redesigning it for intuitive discovery without compromising technical goals would strike a more effective balance between usability and business intent.
