Case study · Commerce
One brand system,
from deck to checkout.
Cedar’s deck, website and store looked like three different companies, and the checkout leaked a third of its buyers. One system fixed both, and the numbers moved.
The challenge
Three companies,
one leaking funnel
Cedar sold a product people liked, wrapped in an identity that had accreted rather than been designed. The pitch deck said premium, the website said startup, the store said template. Buyers felt the seams, and the checkout was where they acted on that feeling: a third of them left with a full cart.
The instinct was to treat these as two projects, a rebrand and a conversion fix. They were one. A checkout is the moment a customer decides to trust you with money, and an inconsistent identity weakens that trust.
Our approach
One system,
proven where it pays
The audit
Every surface a buyer meets, laid side by side. The gaps between them explained the checkout numbers better than any heatmap.
Identity as tokens
The new identity built as a working system: colour, type and components, not a PDF. If it could not survive the returns policy page, it was not done.
The checkout, rebuilt
Fewer steps, honest copy, the new system carrying trust through the moment of payment. Shipped behind a test against the old flow.
Rollout with guidelines
Deck, store, email and social moved onto the system, with guidelines Cedar’s own team uses without us.
The results
Nine weeks later,
measurably tighter
- −33%
- Checkout drop off
- 9
- Weeks end to end
- 1
- System, deck to checkout
- 100%
- Owned by Cedar
