Shopify is a commerce platform that allows users to quickly set up an online store and sell their products. In addition to displaying and selling products, you can also use it to create regular web content such as static pages, blog posts, contact forms, etc. So in essence, Shopify is a combination of a website builder and an online store builder.

Shopify decided to land its very first footstep in China by introducing a brand new Chinese website that is easy to use for Chinese users. For that, Shopify chose MADJOR as its localization partner.

Brand thinking + Intuitive design*. That is the primary reason why MADJOR has earned the trust of Shopify. 

At MADJOR, we always have optimal user experience and our clients' brand values in mind. And we are proud of our talented UI/UX team with extensive experience working with some of the world’s best brands to bring a high-level web design portfolio.

Our innovative UNIQ model supports over 8% of the Fortune 500 worldwide, by seamlessly connecting Digital Strategy, Brand DNA, User Experience, and Performance Measurement to bring a successful brand transformation and elevate the brand above its rivals.

To build a Chinese channel for the prospective merchants who wish to start their cross-border business and partners who hope to learn about/partner with Shopify.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that Shopify’s Chinese customers have a better user experience in the language they speak, in the long run gaining their trust and paving the way for future success in the market.

-Competitor Audit-

Before kicking off our design work, we conducted a thorough competitor audit to gain a deeper understanding of Shopify's main competitors in the Chinese market (local cross-border SaaS platforms such as Shoppy, Ueeshop). This gave us an opportunity to benchmark some of the best practices and more importantly, assess them against Shopify's own business model and find gaps in areas where its competitors are not present. The competitor audit also helped lay a foundation for decisions related to UI/UX, content, and value-added features.

-Understand the Audience-

We gathered some insights with the help of the Shopify team to build a picture of what we’re targeting in China.

| 70%: South China – background in export;

| 20%: Shanghai – ex-factory owners/OEMs now doing things themselves, with a certain level of brand awareness;
| Rest: North China/Beijing with strength in marketing. Especially marketers migrating from virtual selling to other industries.

Conclusion: Most of Shopify’s target audience are those who are already selling abroad but know little about the power of their own brands. When planning content for its Chinese website, the focus should be on encouraging marketplace sellers and existing cross-border sellers to own their brand and customer relationships.

 -UX Wireframe Creation-

Okay, with a solid strategic foundation to work off, we can now get down to the real business: the wireframe.

Shopify prefers to keep consistency across multilingual websites with the same look and feel. That’s why we designed a wireframe that shares the same grid system as Shopify’s global website, and starting from there built up all the basic sections (top navigation, footer, banners, etc.) for main pages and some key go-to actions.

Then our copywriters cooperated with designers to create Chinese content with appropriate wording and proper length/Chinese font sizes to fit into typographic designs - now we're talking details.

-UI Mobile & Desktop-

The official website is a company’s face and personality: if you want to connect with new audiences, your website’s content must be culturally relevant and relatable. This is why we decided to use Asian / Chinese faces on some key visuals to build a bridge between Chinese users and Shopify.

A new set of illustrations were also created to go with the Chinese copy. Now, time for the new Chinese website to go live.