Most rebrands begin with storytelling. Olaplex’s started with a technical audit.

When Alexandra Alessi stepped into the role of VP of Brand.com at Olaplex, the challenge was twofold: reintroduce a brand that had fallen out of consumer favor, and overhaul a digital experience that was no longer performing. A new visual identity, tone of voice, and product education model were on the table but so were page speed issues, conversion drop-offs, and global scaling needs.

The result was a complete rethink of Olaplex’s direct-to-consumer platform executed in partnership with Shopify development agency Domaine and a case study in what happens when brand and performance teams collaborate from day one.

Unlike typical relaunches where brand expression leads and digital adapts, Alessi’s approach began with structure. Navigation was rebuilt to clarify product discovery. The hair quiz, once buried, was surfaced across the journey after data showed it drove higher order values. Checkout time was reduced by 20 seconds, a change that materially impacted conversion.

The broader redesign wasn’t aesthetic polish, it was a realignment of content, commerce, and experience. Every choice, from mobile-first sticky CTAs to flexible components that allowed marketing teams to build without developers, was framed through both brand and business lenses.

Crucially, Alessi’s team worked under tight constraints: lean resources, fixed timelines, and a global scope. The final product needed to balance control with flexibility ensuring the brand could scale across seven markets, languages, and currencies without fragmenting.

One of the project’s central themes was simplification. Prior to the redesign, Olaplex’s digital presence was trying to speak to every type of customer simultaneously, professional stylists, ingredient-conscious shoppers, and casual browsers. The result was information overload. The new site prioritized clarity over comprehensiveness: modular content sections with defined goals, simplified navigation, and flexible UX patterns designed for mobile performance.

Alessi also emphasized the cultural shift needed to sustain performance. Internally, the brand website was seen as “belonging to everyone”, a common tension for brand.com teams. Success required not only design and development discipline, but cross-functional communication across creative, product, and merchandising. The agency didn’t just deliver assets they helped socialize new UX and CRO best practices across the wider Olaplex organization.

A major unlock was Shopify Markets. With a small central team, Olaplex now operates localized storefronts across seven markets customized in language, currency, assortment, and promotions. Beyond transactional flexibility, Markets also enabled SEO and generative AI optimization by region, helping the brand adapt to shifting discovery behavior without relying on retailers or aggregators to tell its story.

That autonomy was critical. Even if a customer ultimately buys through Amazon or Sephora, Olaplex wanted its own site to frame the narrative.

For Alessi, digital success isn’t about redesigning pages it’s about building systems that can evolve. Flexible components, not rigid templates. Tech choices that support brand expression without sacrificing performance. And collaboration with partners who understand when to lead and when to support.

“It’s about not painting yourself into a corner,” she noted. “You might think today you only need a JPEG, but build for the MP4 too.”

The session closed with the most telling result: a double-digit lift in PDP conversion, faster mobile performance, and a checkout flow that cleared friction instead of adding flair. The real success wasn’t the look. It was the lift.

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the Events division