From a one‑man shop to an award‑winning eCommerce leader — this is the story of how design, data, and strategy turned a local healthy food store into a high‑performance brand ready for European expansion.
Client
Ochutnejorech.cz
Year
2019 — 2025
Responsibilities
design system — ux — ui
From Idea to Impact
Since 2019, I’ve been the key UX and product design partner for OchutnejOřech.cz, one of the Czech Republic's largest online shops for nuts, dried fruit, and healthy food. What began as a one-man business running on a template-based platform has evolved into an award-winning, high-performance eCommerce brand with international ambitions.
From Solo Store to Data-Driven Growth
When I first joined the project, the founder was running the business alone, relying on a standard eCommerce solution with limited flexibility. My initial focus was on understanding the customer journey and identifying friction points through a comprehensive UX audit. I mapped out areas of missed opportunity, usability bottlenecks, and conversion drop-offs. These findings formed the foundation for a new UX and UI direction that prioritized clarity, trust, and ease of purchase.
After aligning on a set of priorities, we implemented a refined user experience and updated interface. The result was not just a visual improvement, but a major leap in business performance. Key metrics improved by hundreds of percent, including conversion rates, average cart values, and customer retention. It was an early proof of how thoughtful UX design, grounded in real behavior and data, could directly translate into commercial success.
Redesigning for a New Brand Identity
As the company matured, the founder decided to invest in a full rebrand—introducing a new logo, updated color palette, typography, and a more premium, modern feel. Although I wasn't responsible for the visual rebranding itself, I led the complete redesign of the eCommerce experience to reflect the new brand direction. This included revisiting the structure and hierarchy of all key pages, updating the interface components, and ensuring the new brand assets were used consistently and effectively.
This wasn't just a visual refresh. We saw the redesign as an opportunity to revalidate design decisions, clean up UX flows, and further streamline the customer journey. After launch, the new site retained all the performance momentum of the earlier version—while elevating the overall brand perception and making the experience feel more mature, confident, and scalable.
Rebuilding the Foundation for Growth
By 2022, it became clear that the original eCommerce platform couldn't support the growing needs of the business. The team initiated a complete technological overhaul, from ERP systems to the storefront itself. I was brought in to lead the product design side of this transition and help shape a modern, scalable design foundation that could keep up with both operational complexity and the ambitions for international expansion.
The new platform design was underpinned by a fully token-based design system—ensuring visual consistency, faster design-to-dev handoff, and long-term scalability. I worked closely with the external development agency to define a smooth and efficient collaboration process, connecting our Figma workspace directly into their dev workflows. Every UI decision was tied to real-world user data, business priorities, and long-term flexibility. We built a design architecture that supported not just the shop's current state but also its future roadmap.
Long-Term Collaboration & Optimization
My involvement with OchutnejOřech.cz goes beyond visuals. Over the years, I've helped shape product vision, align UX decisions with business goals, and maintain a culture of continuous improvement. I regularly track user behavior through tools like Microsoft Clarity and internal analytics. I review session replays, monitor conversion funnels, evaluate NPS results, and support the team in translating insights into actionable UX updates.
This iterative, insight-led approach has become core to how we work. New ideas are tested against user behavior. Design decisions are informed by real data. Every update is measured by how it impacts real business performance. That consistency in mindset is one of the key reasons why the platform has seen sustained, year-over-year growth.
"Martin is a key partner for OchutnejOřech.cz in UX and product design. Thanks to his detailed customer journey analysis, we were able to remove major barriers and significantly boost our e-shop’s performance — from conversion rates and average order value to overall customer satisfaction. Beyond leading our full visual redesign, he also supports us with long-term strategy and data-driven optimization. His systematic approach, eye for detail, and ability to collaborate closely with developers have enabled us to grow from a small shop into an award-winning brand with European ambitions. Working with Martin has been one of the main drivers of our success."
Jakub Cígl
CPO at OchutnejOřech.cz
Results & Recognition
OchutnejOřech.cz is now a benchmark for eCommerce excellence in the region. The store has not only grown in size and sophistication but has also received recognition as a finalist—and winner—of the prestigious "Eshop Roku" (Eshop of the Year) award.
The impact is clear: more orders, higher average order values, increased conversion rates, more products per basket, and happier returning customers. But behind those numbers is a long-term design collaboration rooted in clear thinking, scalable systems, and a shared drive for constant improvement.
This project is a living case study in how thoughtful product design, supported by data and delivered through strong dev-design collaboration, can turn an ambitious idea into a nationally recognized success.
