Helping Japan House London launch their first ecommerce website
Japan House is the cultural home of Japan in London. Part gallery and exhibition space, part restaurant and part shop, Japan House is a global initiative led by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A new ecommerce site for a well-respected international brand
Japan House London has a wonderfully immersive retail space in their Kensington High Street location but they identified a need to start building an ecommerce presence which, up until now, they had only experimented with.
MintTwist entered into the pitch process and won the work off the back of our pitch creative and presentation, as well as our commitment to thought-provoking and effective website design, UX and technology, all within the strict bounds of the beautiful Japan House brand and guiding principles.
The wordpress website project presented some unique challenges: we needed to ensure the integrity of the user experience from the main Japan House London website, which we would not be changing, as well as making sure the products in the online shop are easy to find and buy.
Supercharging a new business venture
Objective
Build a new visual language for ecommerce on top of an established system
Objective
Engage with the target audience to encourage them to learn more about products
Objective
Ensure a robust and efficient ecommerce experience for website visitors
Objective
Allow the Japan House guiding principles to lead the design process
A unique ecommerce challenge
Japan House London had very specific requirements around how their products would be categorized, with regions, product categories and designers taking centre stage.
One of Japan House’s guiding principles is education about and appreciation of Japanese culture, so it was important to Japan House that users not only buy the products, but are informed and educated about them and their origins.
We designed an WooCommerce website product template to show off the products themselves, as well as their origins and the stories that accompany them. The pages have a distinctly editorial feel, each with unique product stories and information about the product’s heritage weaved into the standard ecommerce paradigm.
The work MintTwist did was spot on and we’re happy with our new website.
Heidi Isa
Marketing and Communications DirectorLaunched to great success
We’re incredibly proud of the work we’ve done with Japan House.
The final ecommerce website is a capable and future-proof ecommerce system, seamlessly integrated into Japan House London’s global website.
We continue to support the business with their growth goals, and take pleasure in building upon our wonderful relationship with the team at Japan House.
Green Stem CBD
Ecommerce for an award-winning brand
Nahdi Medical
The Oracle OCP platform was used as the e-commerce programme for this project.