Client Overview
The Portobello Bookshop is an independent bookshop based in the Portobello area of Edinburgh. It’s a physical shop first and foremost, with a strong local presence, regular events, and a large and diverse library of books.
The Mission
The brief was to give the bookshop a website that reflects how the shop actually works. Browsing books, finding events, ordering online when needed, and getting basic information without friction. It also needed to be something the team could update themselves, as stock, events and priorities change regularly. The previous site was based on Squarespace and offered limitations, mostly the size of the product library and stock the shop needed to list for sale.
Design
The Portobello Bookshop already had a strong brand and palette in place, the previous site was well designed so I didn’t reinvent the wheel, I took elements from the old design and improved on them in the new design and ensured more consistent use of the branding and palette.
Development
The site was built on WordPress with custom structures for books, collections and events. These sections needed to be flexible enough to handle featured titles, signed editions and one-off events without becoming complicated.
The backend was set up so staff can make changes quickly, whether that’s adding an event, updating a collection or highlighting a particular book. I created custom functionality and optimised not only the codebase but the database to ensure good performance whilst allowing a large product database.
Outcome
The finished site gives the bookshop a straightforward online presence that supports what they already do well. Visitors can browse, buy, check events and find practical information without getting lost. The focus on performance allowed the shop to offer over ten times the previous amount of products listed which lead to increased sales.