Designed to Sell
Insight
The seed collection space is a high-volume, highly competitive market — especially on Amazon. The product thumbnail is the most impactful asset.
Response
We redesigned the packaging on our already-competitive herb seed collection, resulting in 440% more views on Amazon while reducing manufactured cost by 25%
PRODUCT STATUS
Launched: 2019
Units Sold: 49,000
Amazon Stars: ★★★★ (4.3)
Original Design
TeST → ITERATE → TeST → ITERATE → TeST → LAUNCH
Designing a product around it’s listing image is unusual, but as our Amazon “cash cow” product, getting high click-through-rates in a field of competitors was top priority. Research revealed that images of plants and thumbnail legibility were important, setting our design focus. We tested each version against both our past versions and the top competitors.
A Respectable Start
Our starting design tested well but we knew there was room for improvement. We worked up a new proposal with lots of green and a bold color that would make our listing stand out from the brown-greens of the field (option C below).
A slaughterhouse at the polls
The bold design massively turned off our customers… it did better in ranked choice voting but it was back to iterate - using the same design with more standard gardening colors.
Looking better
The vibe was fixed but we were still afraid of being lost in a sea of green thumbnails. We came back with some color with a focus on evoking a bright, happy, high-quality feeling.
better than Best
Our packaging was better than any other brand – even those including more seed packets at the same price.
Formalizing a New Brand Standard
To differentiate these Amazon centric products, we created the “Urban Leaf Outdoor” sub-brand, with its own distinct, but related visual language.