Helping a shaving industry giant compete with the rising tide of shaving subscriptions.

Who: Schick
What: Website redesign and rebrand
Role: Senior Experience Designer

Part I: The situation

Facing a whole new market

After years of stability in the razor market, Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s totally disrupted the game. They changed how millions shopped for razors with online subscriptions.

Schick was unprepared. Their existing site didn’t allow online shopping. Then their own attempt at a subscription service (limited to a single product line) only snagged 500 sign-ups.

My role

Senior Experience Designer

Conducted user research on terminology and product categories to inform site architecture
Partnered with client to define products for subscription program
Designed flow diagram to outline the logic behind subscription sign-up
Created a subscription quiz to give users personalized recommendations
Partnered with third-party vendor to implement referral program functionality
Provided detailed functional annotations to developers

Our mission

Elevate Schick’s online presence with a clear brand identity.

Design a robust, responsive ecommerce experience, including a personalized subscription program, to make customers more engaged and likely to buy.

Deliver a flexible design system to extend to other brands within the Edgewell family (Schick’s parent company).

The original Schick homepage was actually a splash screen with trapdoors into the separate men’s and women’s sites.

The original landing pages for both the men’s and women’s sites lacked a cohesive brand identity.

Part II: The approach

Unpacking terminology

What does the average person think a “razor” means? Is it the blade itself, the one that does the shaving? Or does it mean the entire item you hold in your hand? And how do people distinguish between disposable and non-disposable razors?

We answered these questions with multiple rounds of user testing, using open and closed card sorts. We also had participants describe various terms in their own words to inform the final product terminology and categories.

Card sort results Open and closed card sorts allowed us to understand and then confirm how consumers categorized products. — **Card sort results**
Open and closed card sorts allowed us to understand and then confirm how consumers categorized products.

Navigation flyout with final terminology “Refills” are the replacement blades that can be loaded into a razor. “Blades” is a specific component of the razor (the sharp cutting edge). “Refillable” is a handle that holds replaceable blades. — **Navigation flyout with final terminology**
“Refills” are the replacement blades that can be loaded into a razor. “Blades” is a specific component of the razor (the sharp cutting edge). “Refillable” is a handle that holds replaceable blades.

Driving value through subscription

Dollar Shave Club, Harry’s and other disruptors all transformed the shaving market with a subscription model. This new reality meant Schick needed to offer a personalized subscription to increase engagement, motivate purchase, develop brand loyalty—and keep up with the competition.

First we worked with Schick to choose which products would be part of their subscription service. Then we helped create a simple flow that helped users easily find the right razor, based on their personal needs, in a few fast steps.

Criteria for a strong subscription plan:

✓ Have a defined set of products

✓ Show people a clear reason to buy

✓ Include enticing hooks (starter sets or add-ons)

✓ Be personalized and simple

Subscription wireframes and flows

**Men’s subscription landing page (desktop)**

**Men’s subscription landing page (mobile)**

Subscription flow diagram Making things simple for users took a lot of careful planning. Users see a simple, few-step flow, but behind the scenes we wove in lots of complexity, with hundreds of possible subscription permutations across both genders! — **Subscription flow diagram**
Making things simple for users took a lot of careful planning. Users see a simple, few-step flow, but behind the scenes we wove in lots of complexity, with hundreds of possible subscription permutations across both genders!

The final subscription offering

Men’s subscription, landing page, quiz, and summary A simple 4-step guided selling experience for a personalized shave plan offering for men.

Women’s subscription, landing page, quiz, and summary A simple 5-step guided selling experience for a personalized shave plan offering for women.

Part III: The result

A 33% increase in subscription

Schick caught up with the times, thanks to a fully responsive website with ecommerce functionality (240 product pages!) and shave plan subscriptions for both men and women.

In the first two weeks after launch, 1500 people signed up for a new subscription—a 33% increase from their initial subscription offering.

Moreover, we delivered a scalable design system that could be leveraged for other brands within the Edgewell family (Schick’s parent company).

My takeaway
Sometimes your biggest challenge will be talking a client out of an idea that can undermine brand loyalty. One of Schick’s razor blades actually fits the handle of one of their competitors, so they wanted to offer this razor blade (sans handle) as one subscription possibility. Steering them away from that idea took patience, a calm voice, and a giant flow diagram.