Our agency team had already developed Marshalls’ overarching brand and identity standards, guiding creative executions for social posts, advertising spots and in-store signage. However, launching e-commerce necessitated refining these guidelines to make sure that visuals and messaging across website and email channels would be consistent, compelling and effective at driving to purchase. I lead our creative team through translating color palettes, typography and photo treatments into digital standards, always with an eye towards supporting accessibility. We deconstructed headline treatments, mapped button styling and defined reusable components. These digital standards also provided desktop and mobile build specifications for key assets across the site, plus standards for building any triggered emails that Marshalls shoppers would receive.

Our digital identity standards came to life across a series of prototypes for Marshalls’ e-commerce site. Sibling brand, TJMaxx, provided the core functionality and page structure being used to develop this new site, though we took the opportunity to differentiate Marshalls via a custom home page layout, graphic category banners for curated shops, and graphic navigation ads. My approach to designing the home page structure was modular, allowing different visual components to be rearranged based on seasonal promotions, shopper personalization or multivariate testing. We also defined clear jobs for all of our asset types, whether conveying personality and playfulness, highlighting price and value, or showcasing specific merchandise.

Triggered email communication were also a part of our design system and launch deliverables, communicating with our shopper at key moments of her consumer journey. Our welcome series targeted new site registrants, highlighting breadth and freshness of merchandise, inviting social participation and introducing the rewards card. We developed flexible templates for price drops and abandoned carts to drive re-engagement, plus post-purchase followups.