Flight 06 of 10Mark’s OutdoorsVestavia Hills, Alabama
A website that shops like the store.
A Shopify rebuild and a store film for an outdoor store in Vestavia Hills.
Overview
Bringing the aisles online
Mark’s Outdoors is an outdoor store in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, and the people who shop there know it by its aisles. The website did not work that way. The project rebuilt eleven department pages on Shopify so the site is organized the way the building is, then cut a 65 second store film from a weekend of raw footage. The goal was a website that feels like walking in the door.
Challenge
A real store with a website that did not feel like one
An independent outdoor store wins on knowledge, range, and the feel of the place. Little of that survives a website that reads like a generic catalogue. Shoppers who knew the store could not find things the way they would in person, and shoppers who did not know it had no sense of what made it worth the drive. The challenge was clear: make the site carry the store, not just its stock.
Project plan
Following the floor plan
Before designing pages, we followed the store. We used the departments shoppers already navigate in person as the structure for the site, so each became its own page with its own purpose. The Shopify theme was planned around that structure, with the brand as the thread running through it. Alongside the build, we planned a store film that would give the site something a catalogue never has: the store itself.
Execution
Eleven departments and one weekend of footage
With the structure set, we rebuilt eleven department pages on Shopify, each organized the way that part of the store is shopped. The theme carried the brand from page to page, so the site read as one place rather than a set of listings. From a weekend of raw footage, we cut a 65 second store film that shows the building, the stock, and the atmosphere the way a first visit would.
Results
Eleven departments, rebuilt and online
Mark’s Outdoors came away with eleven department pages on Shopify, organized the way its customers already think about the store. Beyond the pages, the 65 second film gave the business a piece of the store it can use anywhere, and the theme gives every future department a structure to fit into. Most importantly, the website now shops like the store, which is why people come to Mark’s in the first place.