Continental Clothing Co.™

A unified but 'brandless' feel for one of Europe's largest clothing wholesalers

Name: Function & Form
Price range: $$$

The Continental Clothing Co. is one of the largest wholesale clothing manufacturers in Europe. They sell clothing to a variety of large fashion outlets, so their identity had to represent the ‘brandless’ nature of their products. As a wholesale service, most of their customers return regularly to submit large orders, and they wanted this to be a seamless process for their customers, and internally.

So, our goal was to create a platform that put swift transactions and useful features ahead of the distracting ‘bells and whistles’ often found on other ecommerce sites.

Client

Continental Clothing Co.™

Project link

www.continentalclothing.com

Year

2018

Location

London, United Kingdom

Services

Branding / eCommerce / Web Design / Web Development

Design

It was a unique brief, being asked to create a 'brandless' feel for a site. But well-known labels need the reassurance that they can sell Continental Clothing garments under their own brand name.

It wasn't as simple as stripping away all the elements that make up a brand — we still needed to create a sense of identity for the success and growth of the company. So, we devised a combination of simple white space, bold Helvetica typography and friendly iconography to form the basis of their identity. Understated but with a distinctive feel, it ticked the boxes of unifying their assets without overshadowing their purpose.

Product page with varient viewer

Functional product browsing

Product listing needed to be quick and easy to navigate. So we introduced a wealth of useful filtering tools and quick links to make the commerce experience as efficient as it could be.

Mobile-first design

It was important to the client that browsing and ordering products was as easy on a smaller screen as it would be on desktop. Utilising quick links and an easy to access menu helped us to achieve this. And in true Function & Form style, we ensured the experience was just as slick on desktop.

The homepage on a mobile device

The subtle cross sell

One of the biggest challenges with the site design was to introduce more promotional content.

Normally, for consumer commerce this is a relatively simple process. But as this is business to business selling, and Continental Clothing Co.'s regular customers tend to make purchases by navigating from their account dashboard, it was a little trickier.

The solution? We introduced a simple to use management system so staff could add promotions. The homepage can display four of these (including the hero banner) and our algorithm also peppers the entire site with these promotional cards on a rotation based on ranking.

We ensured the banners didn't feel obtrusive, so despite the fact that they're visible in many places around the site, they become a beautiful part of the experience rather than a glaring sales push.

Account management

The most complex part of the build was the bespoke portal customers use to manage their orders, due to the multi-faceted nature of wholesale requirements. So, we started to break down and simplify the problem by creating a simpler and more efficient dashboard for customers.