A platform built to grow with Merry People
Merry People are known for their colourful, 100% waterproof boots, designed to be both stylish and practical. After conducting research to support their expansion into new markets, the team came to us as their e-commerce website wasn’t meeting expectations.
To support their growth and global expansion, we migrated them to Shopify Theme 2.0, redesigned and aligned the visual experience, and built a scalable platform to improve conversion and streamline the online shopping experience. Over the past three years, we’ve implemented ongoing optimisations, integrations, and custom apps to continually improve results, supported by a tight, test-based feedback loop to ensure each change delivers incremental value and informs future updates.
The result is a faster, more flexible solution that empowers the Merry People team to make updates easily.
UI/UX Design
Conversion is always the goal, but the experience has to feel natural and enjoyable. We’ve designed features like a “Notify Me” widget for sold-out products and a country selector to support international shoppers. Each update is made with Merry People’s uplifting, community-driven brand in mind, creating an experience that’s positive, and never pushy.
Custom Dev & Shopify Support
We take a practical approach to development, starting with the a strong 2.0 Theme and tailoring only where needed. This keeps the site fast, scalable, and easy for the Merry People team to build new pages. We also research and implement the right tools and integrations to ensure the tech stack supports growth and delivers on business goals.
Data Tracking & Reporting
Each month we meet with the team to review data and track improvements. From supporting A/B tests and lifetime value monitoring to inbox trends and Google Analytics, we help set up the right infrastructure, including Elevar tagging and Shoplift to measure results and refine performance.
Home page uplifts: Continuous, small improvements to homepage panels and sections, always testing to see what drives results. Most recently, we’ve introduced a collections sliders that quickly introduce the range, and finding a balance between brand and product in the header. We’ve tested different ways of telling the founder story, highlighting product USPs, and surfacing UGC.
Product Page optimisations: Making product pages faster and clearer and finding ways to compress content/sections whilst communicating the right amount of information. Exploration includes surfacing community UGC in key panels, tested larger swatches for easier browsing and incorporated Volumental to help customers find the perfect fit, addressing one of the most common purchase questions.
Collection Page upgrades:  Finding ways to make the Merry People range quicker to browse and easier to scan. Initial layouts were long and text-heavy. Explored concise product cards showing key details like price, reduced the overall page length, and added a top slider to give an instant overview of the range. We also tested different image styles, studio vs lifestyle, varied angles, to strike the right balance between clarity and brand warmth. Explored subtle motion (like a GIF or carousel) above the fold to bring the range to life, and introduced simple cues for heel height and scale without looking too cluttered.
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Highlights
Notify me function
Allows customers to sign up for back-in-stock alerts when their size or colour isn’t available. Not only does it prevent dead ends in the shopping journey but also captures valuable leads for future launches.
Country redirect
X
Smart checkout upsells
Researched and implemented free and paid Shopify plugins that surface tailored upsells in checkout. Highlighting key product USPs and matching add-ons to chose products in cart, creates a smoother path to higher-value orders.
Product sizing & low stock dropdown
Toggle that lets users switch between three sizing categories. The dropdown updates to show the correct options for that category and stock levels are displayed alongside each size in a clear, colour-coded format, giving customers a transparent view of availability.
Creating value with retired products
Merry People’s range evolves with time, with colours and products occasionally being retired. Rather than leaving customers at a dead end, we turned this into an opportunity to boost conversion, SEO, and lead generation.
We created a dedicated section on collection pages to highlight retired products and designed a new product page template to drive newsletter signups for future launches. This showcased Merry People’s history while creating subtle urgency and excitement, resulting in higher CTR, CVR, add-to-carts, revenue per user, stronger SEO, and more signups.
Navigation & cart optimisation: Refined the navigation experience with the goal of making it simpler, and more compelling. Updates have included bringing forward customer service statements like 30 day free returns and warranty and adjusting layout for improved readability. We’ve also tested smaller details for the cart, like condensing the free shipping line, adding preorder text, inserting visual separators, surfacing USPs below the checkout button.
Improve LCO/Load Speed & SEO Rankings: X
“Harvey have continued to provide well-researched, logical, high-quality solutions to problems we don't have the capacity to solve in-house.”
– Pete Chappell, Merry People
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Working closely with their talented team, we’ve gained a deep understanding of the brand;  from how to showcase a smaller range to how the founder’s story builds loyalty. Our partnership is built on collaboration and trust and we’re proud of our long term relationship with Merry People.
