Designing a Luxury Hat Brand Experience

Mistiqueando is a high-end hat brand born in Colombia and brought to Montreal, focused on premium handcrafted felt and woven hats. As it entered the Canadian market, the challenge was to build a digital experience that conveyed luxury, cultural roots, and exclusivity while making it easy for customers to explore and purchase online.

Headquarters

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Founded

2024

Industry

E-commerce

Challenge

How do you position a premium, handcrafted hat brand born in Colombia, new to Canada—in a city that thrives on style, culture, and individuality… but has no real luxury hat scene?

Mistiqueando needed more than just a good-looking online store. It needed a full digital experience that could:

Educate new audiences without losing elegance
Communicate luxury without a physical showroom
Build trust across multiple buyer personas refined collectors, festival-goers, and first-time hat buyers

This case study explores how design, storytelling, and UX thinking helped shape Mistiqueando’s entrance into Montreal’s fashion market.

First Launch Frictions

1. Website Assumptions Were Flawed We assumed that simply launching a well-designed website with SEO and clean UI would bring in sales. We hid the products deeper in the site, hoping to "guide" users through our story. It was cluttered and confusing.

Result: High bounce rates, low conversion.

2. Fantasy Personas Led Us Astray Inspired by other brands, we idealized our buyer as a fashionable, mid-20s globetrotter. This shaped our early aesthetic and even market participation.

Reality: That buyer doesn’t have money or interest in spending $200+ on a hat.

3. Selling Hats Is Emotional and Impulsive At markets, we thought the product would sell itself. It didn’t. People needed emotional connection and confidence. Online, the hesitation was even worse.

"I’ll think about it" meant no sale.

Before

Products hidden in deep navigation.

Brand story overshadowed shopping.

Cluttered layout, weak CTAs.

After

Hats front and center in themed collections.

Simple navigation + strong CTAs.

Mobile-first design for faster shopping.

After

Hats front and center in themed collections.

Simple navigation + strong CTAs.

Mobile-first design for faster shopping.

Before

Products hidden in deep navigation.

Brand story overshadowed shopping.

Cluttered layout, weak CTAs.

Redefining Our Buyer Personas

After one season, we threw out our original assumptions and rebuilt around three personas based on real buyers:

#1

The Affluent Woman (45–65) Located in upscale areas like West Island Montreal

Anglophone, no haggling

Values premium quality, buys on impulse

#2

The Cowboy Enthusiast Native Québécois

Attends festivals, rodeos, line dancing events, western-themed festivals

Connects with the brand through identity and lifestyle

#3

The Latin Newcomer Emotional connection to Colombia and South America

Not always high-spending, but deeply loyal

Buys for cultural pride, nostalgia, and representation

These personas now guide our design, messaging, event selection, and ad strategy.

#1

The Affluent Woman (45–65) Located in upscale areas like West Island Montreal

Anglophone, no haggling

Values premium quality, buys on impulse

The Affluent Woman (45–65) Located in upscale areas like West Island, Outremont & Westmount in Montreal

Anglophone, no haggling

Values premium quality, buys on impulse

#2

The Cowboy Enthusiast Native Québécois

Attends festivals, rodeos, line dancing events, western-themed festivals

Connects with the brand through identity and lifestyle

The Cowboy Enthusiast Native Québécois

Attends festivals, rodeos, line dancing events, western-themed festivals.

Connects with the brand through identity and lifestyle.

#3

The Latin Newcomer Emotional connection to Colombia and South America

Not always high-spending, but deeply loyal

Buys for cultural pride, nostalgia, and representation

These personas now guide our design, messaging, event selection, and ad strategy.

UX + Marketing Strategy Based on Personas

Marketing Adjustments:

Instagram + Facebook became persona-specific channels, driving 19,989 total views in the last 30 days, with 76.7% from non-followers.

Created content in English, French, and Spanish, increasing online store visitors by 495% (from 286 to 1,702 year-over-year).
Event-specific reels tailored to persona and location—reels now account for 69.4% of all views and 86.6% of all interactions.
Built a small but loyal following: 1,728 followers, with a 100% daily response rate to messages.

UX Adjustments:

Homepage now features hats upfront in themed collections (“Vamos a la Playa” for woven beach styles, “Brews and Bonfires” for felt outdoor hats).

Simplified navigation + stronger CTAs helped reduce bounce rate
Live chat for buyer support.
FAQ section addressing in-person questions (sizing, shipping, tradition).
Emphasis on storytelling: handmade, millenary tradition, not mass-produced tied to persona-driven events and Instagram campaigns.

Marketing Adjustments:

Instagram + Facebook became persona-specific channels

Created content in English, French, and Spanish

Event-specific reels tailored to persona and location

Built a small but loyal following focused on connection, not virality

UX Adjustments:

Homepage now features hats upfront in themed collections:

“Vamos a la Playa” (Woven hats for beach style)

“Brews and Bonfires” (Felt hats for outdoors)

Simplified navigation + stronger CTAs

Live chat for buyer support

FAQ section addressing in-person questions (sizing, shipping, tradition)

Emphasis on storytelling: Handmade, millenary tradition, not mass-produced

“ With our new visual branding and language in place, the new Shopify brand clearly captures the essence of our current and target customer base, our employees, and our values. ”

Tania Liberman

Co-founder | Mistiqueando

The redesign of Mistiqueando’s e-commerce experience not only improved clarity and navigation but also drove measurable business growth.

Online store visitors increased by +495% (from 286 to 1,702) and sessions by +594% compared to the previous year.
Bounce rate decreased slightly to 66.05% (1.9%), a modest but notable improvement given the high emotional and tactile nature of hat purchases.
Instagram became a key acquisition channel, generating 19,989 views in the last 30 days, with 76.7% of reach coming from non-followers, significantly expanding brand awareness.

A major industry challenge for premium hat brands is that customers want to touch and try products before committing to a high-ticket purchase. Our strategy addressed this by creating trust and connection online using short-form video, customer-centric product showcases, and storytelling that bridged the gap between digital browsing and the in-person buying experience.

This project reinforced how UX isn’t just about making a site look good it’s about designing the entire customer journey, from first impression to purchase confidence, across multiple channels.

Tools used in this Project

Tools used in this Project

Conclusion

The redesign of Mistiqueando’s e-commerce experience not only improved clarity and navigation but also drove measurable business growth.

Online store visitors increased by +495% (from 286 to 1,702) and sessions by +594% compared to the previous year.
Bounce rate decreased slightly to 66.05% (1.9%), a modest but notable improvement given the high emotional and tactile nature of hat purchases.
Instagram became a key acquisition channel, generating 19,989 views in the last 30 days, with 76.7% of reach coming from non-followers, significantly expanding brand awareness.

This project reinforced how UX isn’t just about making a site look good it’s about designing the entire customer journey, from first impression to purchase confidence, across multiple channels.