Repositioning Heliocare as Cantabria Labs UK
How we helped Ferndale move from a single-range store to a scalable platform for all Cantabria Labs products
The Problem
Ferndale had grown a loyal UK audience through its Heliocare store. With new Cantabria Labs ranges launching, the team faced a choice: spin up more individual range sites, or consolidate everything under a single brand.
Multiple stores risked siloed experiences and made cross-selling almost impossible. At the same time, Cantabria’s global strategy was shifting. The focus was moving from promoting individual ranges to building recognition of Cantabria Labs as the umbrella brand.
Ferndale needed a site that could deliver on both goals: protect the equity built with Heliocare while creating a scalable platform to introduce and sell the full Cantabria portfolio.
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Journey Mapping
- Wireframes
- Prototyping
- Design
- Shopify Development
The Process
We ran a series of structured discovery, UX, design and development phases to map customer needs and minimise the risk of transition throughout.
We began with discovery, working with stakeholders across marketing, sales, brand and leadership to understand customer needs and expectations. Through interviews, persona workshops and empathy mapping we explored how audiences would navigate the shift from a single Heliocare store to a broader Cantabria Labs UK presence.
From this, we mapped user journeys and defined user stories, shaping the information architecture and wireframes around how customers wanted to explore: by concern, range or treatment goal. Every decision was rooted in improving the customer journey and making it easier for people to find what worked for them.
We established a flexible design system that Ferndale’s team can reuse for future pages and campaigns, reducing design effort and simplifying handover to developers. In parallel, we collaborated with Ferndale’s SEO partner to ensure search visibility was protected and improved as content and structure evolved.
Because Cantabria doesn’t sell online globally, we also had to adapt the brand for a UK ecommerce context. By aligning with the global team throughout, we kept consistency with the parent brand while creating a model fit for direct-to-consumer sales in the UK market.
Single store for all UK product ranges
Clearer product discovery paths
Scalable structure for future growth
Smooth brand transition for customers
The Solution
The new site gives Cantabria Labs a one-stop-shop for the UK market.
We designed and built a custom Shopify site that gave Cantabria Labs a scalable UK ecommerce presence. The platform brings all ranges together in one place, with dedicated space for Heliocare to reassure existing customers while introducing them to the wider portfolio.
The system was built to grow. Tailored content models and custom extensions give Ferndale the flexibility to add new ranges, design new pages, and launch campaigns with less effort. The new setup makes it easier for designers to hand work over to developers and allows the team to react quickly to seasonal or one-off opportunities.
A bespoke offer extension was developed to meet marketing requirements that Shopify’s ecosystem didn’t cover, giving the team full control over how they promote and bundle products.
SEO was preserved and strengthened through close collaboration with Ferndale’s partner agency, ensuring the site retained search rankings during the transition.
For customers, the result is a faster, more intuitive way to shop by concern, range or treatment goal. For Ferndale, it’s a single platform that’s easier to manage, reduces overhead, and is designed to scale as Cantabria launches new product ranges in the UK.