Case Study · New Store Design & Development

A new Shopify store for
Canada's fragrance
market.

Perfume Online is a Canadian fragrance retailer offering a curated selection of designer and niche perfumes across men's, women's, and unisex categories. We designed and built their new Shopify store from the ground up a fragrance-focused, conversion-optimised storefront built for the Canadian market.

Canadian
market
Fragrance
& beauty
New
store build
2.0
Shopify
Live Store Preview

The finished store, live on Shopify

A clean, premium, fragrance-focused storefront built for Canadian buyers and designed to convert on every device. Desktop and mobile views of the new Perfume Online store.

Visit perfumeonline.ca
Perfume Online desktop
Perfume Online mobile

A Canadian fragrance retailer built for the online era

Perfume Online is a Canadian eCommerce retailer bringing the breadth of the global fragrance market to Canadian consumers from heritage houses like Chanel and Dior to niche perfumers and emerging independent fragrance brands. Operating in a market where consumers are increasingly comfortable purchasing fragrance online (aided by better sampling programmes and strong review infrastructure), Perfume Online needed a Shopify store that could handle a wide and growing catalogue, deliver an experience worthy of the premium products inside it, and compete effectively with larger international retailers who also ship to Canada.

The brief was clear: build a store that feels as premium as the fragrances it sells.

Perfume Online screenshot Homepage - perfumeonline.ca

Understanding the context of the project

Before building anything, we needed to fully understand what Perfume Online was and what it required. Four key facts shaped every design and build decision.

01
A wide fragrance catalogue spanning multiple categories
Designer, niche, celebrity, and independent fragrance brands for men, women, and unisex a catalogue that demands smart navigation, strong brand presentation, and effective discovery architecture.
02
Canadian market specifics
CAD pricing, Canadian shipping rates, and a checkout experience relevant to Canadian buyers including relevant payment methods and a shipping cost structure that reflects Canada Post and courier options for a geographically diverse country.
03
The online fragrance challenge: selling without smell
Fragrance is experiential by nature. Selling it online requires compensating for the absence of physical sampling with rich fragrance descriptions, scent family categorisation, expert editorial content, and social proof from verified buyers who describe the scent accurately.
04
Competing in a market with large international retailers
Canadian fragrance buyers have access to UK and US retailers who also ship internationally. Perfume Online needed a store that matched the professionalism and product presentation quality of larger competitors while offering the advantages of a Canadian-first, CAD-pricing operation.

Four problems that shaped every decision we made

Building for the Canadian fragrance market came with a specific set of challenges from navigation architecture to the unique demands of selling a sensory product online.

Discovery
Fragrance catalogue navigation
A wide fragrance catalogue requires careful navigation design: by brand, by gender, by scent family (floral, woody, oriental, fresh), by concentration (eau de parfum, eau de toilette), and by price range. Getting this architecture right is the difference between a discovery-friendly store and a frustrating one.
Content
Selling fragrance without physical sampling
The biggest challenge in online fragrance retail is helping customers make confident purchase decisions without the ability to smell the product. Rich fragrance notes descriptions, scent family tagging, customer reviews that describe the actual scent, and comparison tools are all required to substitute for the in-store experience.
Market
Building for the Canadian market specifically
A CAD-first experience for Canadian buyers: local currency pricing, transparent Canadian shipping rates, relevant payment methods, and product availability aligned to what can realistically be shipped within Canada not just a generic store with a currency converter.
Performance
Speed for a large, image-heavy catalogue
Fragrance product pages are image-heavy multiple angles, lifestyle photography, and detailed packaging shots. Delivering fast page loads across a large catalogue required careful image optimisation and lazy loading architecture from the theme build outward.

Built from the ground up, designed for Canada

We started with a clear brief build a store that feels as premium as the fragrances it sells, that works natively for Canadian buyers, and that makes finding the right fragrance genuinely easy. Every decision, from information architecture to checkout configuration, was made with that goal in mind.

Phase 01
Discovery & Fragrance Navigation Architecture
A detailed study of how fragrance buyers discover and choose products online building the navigation and filter architecture around actual purchase behaviour: by brand, by scent family, by concentration, by occasion, and by price. The product taxonomy was designed before a single page was built.
Phase 02
Design Direction
Premium and fragrance-focused: clean backgrounds that let product photography lead, editorial typography, and a visual language that communicates quality and curation without visual clutter. Desktop and mobile wireframes reviewed with the Perfume Online team before development began.
Phase 03
Shopify 2.0 Theme Development
Custom Shopify 2.0 theme built with fragrance-specific page templates: scent family collection pages with editorial introductions, brand landing pages, product pages with layered fragrance note display and concentration comparisons, and a gift guide template for seasonal campaigns.
Phase 04
Canadian Market Configuration
CAD pricing, Canadian shipping zones and rates via Shopify Shipping, payment methods relevant to the Canadian market, and tax configuration for Canadian provincial tax requirements. International shipping configured for customers outside Canada.
Phase 05
App Integration & Content Setup
Review app configured and styled for the fragrance context with review prompts that encourage customers to describe the scent, longevity, and projection alongside the standard rating. Loyalty programme, wishlist, and email marketing (Klaviyo) configured and tested. Product catalogue populated with fragrance note metadata.
Phase 06
QA, Performance Optimisation & Launch
Pre-launch QA covering product data accuracy, navigation and filter logic, checkout for Canadian and international buyers, and cross-device performance. Core Web Vitals optimisation pass completed. Launch managed with active post-launch monitoring.

Four things that made the biggest difference

The new Perfume Online store delivers a premium, Canadian-first shopping experience that gives the brand a genuine competitive edge. Here are the four areas that drove the most meaningful impact.

01 - Navigation
Fragrance discovery architecture that converts
Navigation by brand, scent family, concentration, and occasion making it genuinely easy to find the right fragrance even without prior knowledge of the brand. Discovery that sells.
02 - Design
Premium presentation for a premium product
A clean, fragrance-focused visual language that gives the product photography room to perform and communicates the quality of the range at first glance competitive with any international fragrance retailer.
03 - Market
Built for Canada, not just set to CAD
CAD pricing, Canadian shipping infrastructure, provincial tax handling, and a checkout experience designed for Canadian buyers from the ground up not an afterthought currency conversion on a generic store.
04 - Content
Selling fragrance without the smell
Rich fragrance note taxonomy, scent family editorial sections, and a review system configured to surface the descriptive, experiential reviews that give Canadian buyers confidence to purchase online.
CAD
Canadian market built from the ground up
2.0
Shopify - custom theme design & development
Fragrance
-first navigation & UX architecture
A
Core Web Vitals grade post-launch

Built on the right foundation

Every technology decision was made for the specific requirements of selling fragrance to the Canadian market performance, scalability, and long-term maintainability built in from day one.

Shopify
Shopify's platform chosen for its excellent Canadian market support CAD pricing, Shopify Payments for Canadian businesses, and native integration with Canada Post and courier shipping options.
Shopify 2.0 Custom Theme
Bespoke fragrance-focused theme with fragrance-specific page templates, scent family collection pages, brand landing pages, and a product page designed around the unique requirements of selling fragrance online.
Fragrance Note Metafields
Custom metafield structure storing top, middle, and base fragrance notes, scent family classification, concentration type, and longevity rating powering both product page display and faceted filtering across the catalogue.
Klaviyo Email Marketing
Klaviyo configured with fragrance-specific flows: new subscriber welcome with bestseller recommendations, abandoned cart recovery with product description highlights, and post-purchase review request flows designed to capture descriptive fragrance reviews.
Judge.me Reviews
Review system styled and configured for the fragrance context with review prompts encouraging customers to describe scent character, longevity, and projection, generating the rich review content that helps future buyers make confident decisions.
Canadian Shipping & Tax Configuration
Shopify Shipping configured with Canada Post rates, provincial tax rules for all Canadian provinces and territories, and international shipping rates for buyers outside Canada delivering an accurate, transparent checkout for every customer.

What our clients say about working with us

View all on Shopify
★★★★★

"Axis Web Art developed our website. They are easy to work with, thorough, and responsive. We have been very happy with their service."

GL
Garrett Leather
Roberta Sand, Marketing Director
★★★★★

"Great work, they know how to change your theme effectively without any issues. Fixed a few tiny issues moments after identifying them. Always a pleasure to work with this team of highly skilled players."

TC
Timothy
Founder, Timothy De Clue Collection
★★★★★

"We crafted a soothing online shopping experience for Bubbaroo, a leading Australian baby sleep bag brand. Our Shopify store design and development focused on safety, comfort, and parent peace of mind."

BU
Bubbaroo
Nicole Cassey, Founder
Launch
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