UsedSurf.com Gets a New Custom BigCommerce Design

September 2, 2021 | Kam Kutz | BigCommerce Designs

Their Story:

UsedSurf was created back in 2004, when the company realized the Internet would be the way of the future. This prophetic vision allowed the company to put their perspective in the forefront for how the future of finding used surfboards online would come to be. In 2005, UsedSurf owned and ran a small operation, no bigger than a walk-in closet. Nonetheless, the groundwork for their evolving business began to materialize. 

The heart of San Clemente, California, home to fantastic beaches and surfing aficionados, has become the home turf of Used Surf. Their online store became the first Online Surf Shop devoted to selling 100% used surfboards. They claim to be the World’s largest used surfboard shop committed to providing used boards to surfers with over 800 boards catalogued to choose from. They also have the largest Fin Demo Program in the world with over 200 fin sets to demo at their store. 

UsedSurf is constantly looking to curate to the needs of their customers, whether that be through stellar customer service or a fresh redesign of their current website. Their shoppers warrant the updated look, feel, and experience they deserve when buying used surf equipment online.

This is where IntuitSolutions comes into play. With our Custom BigCommerce Redesign of their website we were able to produce a bold, clean, and more organized visual design layout, with a system that both new and returning customers alike will come to appreciate. 

The Challenge:

In 2004, UsedSurf understood the significance of an online storefront. It only made sense that they would eventually migrate to the renowned BigCommerce platform to host, optimize, and market their online storefront.

However, without a branded vision, design insights, and a team of developers to make it all work, their previously designed site was falling into a low quality visual experience coupled with functionality issues. IntuitSolutions saw the opportunity for improvement. After gathering context and speaking with the UsedSurf team we began the redesign of their site. 

“It’s best practice to plan on rebuilding your website every 3-4 years”

The Solution: A Custom BigCommerce Design

It was clear the solution for this project would be a Custom BigCommerce Redesign. With the help of our IntuitSolutions Base theme, we were able to provide a standard layout across all of their site’s pages. Our Base theme comes with a multitude of updated functionality that improves upon site components, performance, and accessibility.

Our BigCommerce certified developers are always looking for new ways to build upon our Base theme that will increase client conversions. The theme also aided in an important aspect of shopping online, mobile responsiveness. This helps increase usability and in turn, will drive more customers to a mobile-friendly website. 

Homepage Design Before & After

Category Page Designs Before & After

Product Page Designs Before & After

Custom Category Card Designs

The color scheme opted for UsedSurf evokes a smooth and playfully professional visual experience. The majority of the site design is white, increasing legibility and contrast for the main sections of the site. The highlight colors being a golden yellow, reminiscent of the sun, and slate gray that adds a level of daringness. A custom animation was applied to their entire site, transforming all black and white monochromatic images to vibrant colors that pop off the page when a user hovers over an image with their cursor. 

Custom Product Card Designs

Their product card designs also got an overhaul. These cards utilize the monochromatic transition fade to color as well, but exhibit another site-wide design change this client opted for: rounded images. This is a great UX decision because rounded corners appear easier on the eyes, as the cognitive load to distinguish hard edges is more cumbersome. The site wide design decisions we made benefit their overall system in every aspect. 

IntuitSolutions’ Base Theme

BigCommerce Add-ons & Plugins

In addition to the custom design, our developers implemented several custom add-ons on UsedSurf.com.

Some of these add-ons include: 

ThemeBridge™: The Staging-Like Environment Built for BigCommerce

The Results

UsedSurf proudly launched their new site in July 2021. They are now furnished with a modern fresh design, boosting performance and user experience from their previous site. Accessibility has also greatly increased due to our Base theme updates, mobile usability, and optimized SEO. Their renovated online storefront now has the power to process faster page and image load times, as well as a slick new look. 

Moreover the client was pleased with our end results. They have signed on board for a Monthly Managed Services plan we offer, which includes time we dedicate per month to further work on the design and development of their new site.

Some of these updates include but are not limited to, responsive testing and optimization, design and layout changes to the proposed site, and various updates to content (text, imagery, internal linking, etc). We are pleased with the results of this project. With their new online storefront open, UsedSurf is ready to hang loose.

Is your BigCommerce store design doing your business justice? We’re an Elite BigCommerce Partner and work exclusively on the BigCommerce platform. Shoot us a message or give us a call, 866 901 4650, to discuss how we can help your business succeed online.