Designing a Scalable E-Commerce Experience for FGX International

My role: Creative direction, digital brand and customer experience strategies

Deliverables: Persona development, Content Strategy, End-to-end design solutions, journey mapping, research and testing.

Timeline: May 2014 thru April 2016

This project exemplified how a modular, user-centered design approach can serve both brand differentiation and business scalability. By grounding our work in research, embracing iterative design, and building a flexible e-commerce system, we helped FGX International evolve its digital presence and connect with customers in more meaningful ways—across brands, channels, and experiences.

  • Research & Analysis: Conducting a comprehensive market and competitor review, and partnering with research teams to interview customers, particularly in high-temperature regions, to validate that our digital solutions met real-world needs.

  • Strategic Alignment: Leading hypothesis workshops and developing detailed personas and empathy maps that aligned CVS’s brand vision with customer expectations and operational feasibility.

  • Iterative Design & Collaboration: Employing a narrative design approach and facilitating cross-functional ideation workshops to map out the customer journey, identify friction points, and iteratively test digital concepts, ensuring the final design was both intuitive and accessible.

  • Measurable Impact: Delivering a scalable, omni-channel personalization framework that significantly enhanced customer engagement by integrating location-based recommendations, hydration alerts, and tailored wellness plans. This unified strategy not only deepened customer trust in CVS’s health offerings but also provided a strategic foundation for ongoing, data-driven refinements across retail, health, and pharmacy teams.

Opportunity

At my agency, I had the opportunity to lead the design of a comprehensive end-to-end e-commerce experience for FGX International, a global leader in non-prescription eyewear and part of the EssilorLuxottica family. Known for its iconic brand Foster Grant, FGX brings nearly a century of heritage and stylish, affordable eyewear to consumers around the world.

Our goal was to help FGX establish a strong, scalable digital commerce foundation that could evolve alongside their growing portfolio of brands—including Gargoyles Eyewear, Dioptics, and Panama Jack. The challenge was to create a cohesive online experience that honored the unique identity and legacy of each brand while supporting future marketing and business growth across channels.

Approach

We began with a lean UX approach, focusing on balancing business priorities with user needs while preparing for long-term scalability. Our first step was implementing a Magento-based platform for readingglasses.com, which included essential features like:

  • Inventory management integration

  • Marketing tools for email and social campaigns

  • Analytics and performance tracking

This implementation laid the foundation for additional brand rollouts and rebranding initiatives over the next two years. With an agile mindset, we tackled the work incrementally, building out core experiences while leaving room for brand expression and functional evolution.

Design Workshops & Iteration

To ensure the solution met the needs of both the business and the end users, we ran a series of collaborative workshops with cross-functional teams from FGX, including marketing, brand managers, and customer service stakeholders. These workshops focused on:

  • Defining business objectives and KPIs

  • Understanding target audiences for each brand

  • Mapping the end-to-end user journey from discovery to checkout

  • Identifying pain points and opportunities within legacy systems

Research Plan Highlights:

  • Competitive benchmarking of eyewear and lifestyle retail sites to identify industry standards and opportunities to differentiate

  • Persona development based on customer interviews and existing sales data, resulting in archetypes such as:

    • The Practical Shopper: Primarily interested in affordability and convenience

    • The Trend-Focused Buyer: Driven by aesthetics, brand stories, and seasonal styles

    • The Legacy Loyalist: Longtime Foster Grant customers seeking familiarity and trust

  • Usability testing of early prototypes with real users to validate flows, product discovery, and checkout experience

These insights directly informed our design iterations and content strategy, helping us prioritize features that aligned with customer expectations and business goals.

Design Challenge

Create continuity across brands using similar page templates while honoring each brand's unique voice and tone. The templates offered an elegant, efficient solution, enabling seamless updates across domains while establishing a strong foundational user experience.

The Vision & Implementation

The overarching design vision was to create a flexible, scalable e-commerce platform that could adapt to different brand identities while delivering a unified shopping experience. Key principles included:

  • Modular Design System: Built in Figma, allowing for scalable UI patterns that could flex for different brands without sacrificing usability or speed

  • Customizable Brand Templates: Enabled individual brand expression while retaining consistency in structure and functionality

  • Mobile-First Experience: Recognizing the increasing share of mobile traffic, we optimized layouts and interactions for small screens

  • Accessible & Inclusive Design: Ensured WCAG compliance and seamless experiences for all users

For Foster Grant, our flagship implementation, the focus was on blending legacy and modernity. We honored its 90-year heritage through thoughtful visual storytelling and photography, while layering in contemporary design elements such as:

  • Dynamic filtering and smart search

  • Product detail enhancements (360 views, style guides)

  • Simplified checkout with guest options and persistent cart

Once the Foster Grant experience launched, we replicated and tailored the framework for brands like Panama Jack and Gargoyles Eyewear, each of which required distinct visual languages and customer journeys.

Success of the Launch & Ongoing Refinement

The Foster Grant relaunch was a success, both functionally and commercially. Post-launch performance metrics showed:

  • 22% increase in conversion rate in the first 90 days

  • 30% growth in mobile transactions

  • 15% decrease in cart abandonment due to checkout flow improvements

  • Improved bounce rate across product category pages, attributed to enhanced navigation and product filtering

Following the initial rollout, we continued to support FGX with:

  • New product launches and seasonal campaigns

  • Landing pages and microsites for promotions

  • Social and email marketing asset design

  • Content strategy aligned with each brand’s evolving voice and market position

This ongoing partnership ensured that the platform remained aligned with FGX’s digital marketing strategies and that user experiences stayed fresh, relevant, and optimized for performance.