A Shopify theme for a Kannauj attar house: a storefront that finds the smell from a memory, says how long it lasts and sends the vials before it asks for a bottle.
Built for a client under NDA. We can't reveal the brand, so the name and identity you see here stand in for theirs.
Sondhi, Kannauj · Theme preview
NDA
Fragrance
Online Store 2.0
Sondhi, Kannauj theme preview: the home page, starting with the video banner.
Challenge
Sondhi distils attars in Kannauj, in copper degs over a wood fire, into sandalwood oil: eight of them at ₹5,900 to ₹12,000 for 12 ml, and eight eaux de parfum at ₹9,800 built on them. A scent cannot be smelled on a screen, and an opened bottle cannot come back. The old store sold it like everything else online: notes in a pyramid of perfumers' words, a discovery set filed under gifting, and nothing about how long any of it lasts.
Notes came as top, heart and base, with a floral-or-woody filter that means nothing to a first buyer
The three vials sat under Gifting, and what they cost was not taken off the bottle
Whether an oil lasts, and where to put it, was not said anywhere on the page
An opened bottle cannot come back, and the store said so only at checkout
The brief was a theme that finds a smell from a memory, says plainly how long each one lasts, and sends the vials before it asks for a bottle.
How we worked
01 Discover: What a shopper needs to know before she buys a scent she cannot smell on a screen
02 Define: Three proto-personas and the journey from a memory she cannot name to a bottle she chose
03 Design: Wireframes first, then the storefront, section by section
04 Optimise: The product page, the vials and how we'd test them
0:0012:00
01 · Discover
The brief
0:00the formula card
Sondhi, Kannauj0:00
Goal
Sell attars at full price online, where nothing can be smelled and an opened bottle cannot come back.
Constraints
1Smell comes before the bottle: three vials ship the next day, and what they cost is credited against the bottle.
2Notes are named as things, earth, rain, rose, wet khus, sandalwood, and every attar says how long it lasts.
3One attar is one product: attar or eau de parfum is a choice on its page, never a second listing.
Tap a vialDoubt · Move
Wants the smell of rain on hot earth, or a grandmother's sandalwood box, and has no word for it.
Wears an eau de parfum every day and has never worn an oil.
Is buying for a mother or a groom and cannot smell anything on a screen.
02 · Define
From a smell you remember to a bottle you chose
0:15 → 2:00the blotters
0:15
01Discover
HesitationIs an oil old-fashioned, and will it last?
AnswerA bar and a film that say it plainly: hydro-distilled in copper, vials first, shipped the next day.
0:30
02Browse
HesitationWhere do I start if I cannot smell them?
AnswerThree sets of three vials come before any bottle, named for what they smell of: the rain, the garden, the smoke.
1:00
03Choose
HesitationWhich one is the smell I remember?
AnswerPick up to three memories and the page names two attars, each with a bar for how long it lasts.
1:30
04Commit
HesitationWhat if it is wrong for them?
AnswerThe vials are the first button, and their ₹1,200 comes off the bottle within 60 days; the bottle is the second.
2:00
05Wear
HesitationHow do I wear an oil?
AnswerA drop on the wrist, not a spray, said on the page and on the vial card; the refill is ₹4,900.
03 · Design
Wireframe to storefront
Ten sections, from the vials-first bar to the footer, each one the team can move, edit or switch off in the theme editor. Wireframes first, then the design.
Home page, Online Store 2.0 · 10 sections. The home page as ten bottles on two shelves of a perfumer's organ, in storefront order: as a light passes along the shelves each one fills and its label goes from the wireframe to the render.
Bottle 1 of 10
Announcement bar
Smell it before you buy it, vials ship the next day, distilled in Kannauj: three promises, no countdown.
04 · Optimise
The product page, decision by decision
An attar cannot be smelled on a screen, and an opened bottle cannot come back. Each number marks a decision on the product page and the reason for it.
8:00The base
Press a drop to see the row it decides
The name is the attar. Earth after rain and sandalwood sit under it in plain words, with the price and taxes beside them.
A bar of three segments, 15 minutes, 2 hours, 8 hours, filled to what this attar lasts, with one plain line under it.
Attar or eau de parfum are two choices on one page, each with its price; the three vials sit under them as an outline button.
Three vials of your pick ship the next day, and the ₹1,200 comes off the bottle you pick within 60 days: said in a card before the button.
Hydro-distilled in copper, no synthetics, and a drop on the wrist, not a spray: said where the doubt is, not on a policy page.
Add to Bag is the only filled button; the refill is an outline button with its own price, and the concierge a plain link.
Sondhi, Kannauj product page buy box, with 6 numbered drops of oil on a blotter, each level with the row it decides: 1. Notes as things, not a pyramid; 2. How long it lasts, drawn; 3. Form as a choice, vials as the way in; 4. Smell it first; 5. An oil, said plainly; 6. One filled button, the refill beside it.
04 · Optimise
Find it by memory
Three steps from the theme, in order: pick the smells you remember, read the two attars that match, then send for the vials. The price follows the form.
1Memories
0 of 3
Pick up to three. A fourth swaps the first.
2The accord
Mitti
1
Mitti
Pick a memory and the two nearest attars come here.
earth, rain, sandalwood
15 min2 h8 h
Earth and rain first; sandalwood close to the skin after two hours; eight hours on cloth.
₹6,500
2
Gulab
Pick a memory and the two nearest attars come here.
rose, honey, warm petals
15 min2 h8 h
Fresh rose for an hour, then a warm, honeyed rose; six hours.
₹7,200
3The vials
₹6,500
Mitti2 ml
Gulab2 ml
Your pick · any attar2 ml
₹1,200 comes off the bottle you pick within 60 days
Three vials, ₹1,200, credited against the bottle you choose.
Attars are oils: a drop on the wrist, not a spray.
Design tokens
10:00 The blotter rack
Colour
Type
Headings & wordmark · Libre Caslon Display
Smell it first.
Interface · Figtree
The attars · Vials ship the next day
Products & prices · Figtree Medium
Mitti ₹6,500
Components
Add to Bag · ₹6,500Send me the vials
Add to Bag · ₹6,500; Send me the vials
₹6,500Smell it first · Vials ship the next day
04 · Optimise
How we'd test it
These are the first three experiments we'd run after launch, and what each one has to prove.
Wear test 1 · On skin
If
the three vials are the first button, with the credit said beside it
Then
more first orders start as vials
Because
a smell is chosen on the skin, not from a description
Metric
Share of first orders that are vials
Guardrail
Average order value
Wear test 2 · On cloth
If
every attar shows a dry-down bar and one plain line on how long it lasts
Then
fewer questions reach the concierge about whether it lasts
Because
the answer is on the card before the money is spent
Metric
Concierge questions about wear time
Guardrail
Add-to-bag rate
Wear test 3 · On paper
If
nine memories, not floral and woody families, lead the choice
Sondhi
Cais