Bellerby & Co. Globemakers – eCommerce Design & UX for a Luxury Brand

The Challenge

Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, based in the UK, create handmade globes that feel more like heirlooms than products. Each piece is crafted by a team of globemakers, painters, woodworkers, and cartographers. It’s detailed work. Slow, precise, and hard to replicate. But the website didn’t reflect that.

It felt dated. A bit cluttered. And it didn’t carry the same sense of quality you’d get from seeing one of their globes in person. That gap started to matter.

As the business grew and reached more international clients, the site struggled to keep up. It made browsing harder than it needed to be. It didn’t support the kind of buying experience you’d expect at this level. Here’s where things were falling short:

• The design felt outdated and didn’t match the brand’s position
• Pages were cluttered, which made the experience harder to navigate
• Load times were slow, especially on image-heavy pages
• Updating content was frustrating and time-consuming
• eCommerce functionality was limited, particularly for custom orders and global sales

So we stepped in. We rebuilt the site on WordPress with a clear focus: make it easier to manage, easier to browse, and more aligned with the quality of the product. Less friction. More clarity. A better experience all round.

Discovery and Technical Review

Lilo’s WordPress design team collaborated with Bellerby through in-depth workshops to understand their brand’s aesthetic.

• Using InVision, we crafted wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes, incorporating custom globe illustrations and a clean, responsive layout.
• Iterative feedback ensured the design aligned with Bellerby’s vision, with usability testing refining navigation for luxury clients.

The visually striking e-commerce website showcased Bellerby’s globes with high-resolution imagery, boosting engagement by 98% in goal conversions and creating a premium user experience that mirrored their craftsmanship.

Woocommerce for Effortless eCommerce

Our development team integrated WooCommerce into the WordPress platform, building a flexible catalog for Bellerby’s bespoke globes.

• We configured custom order forms and integrated a secure payment gateway, testing international transactions to ensure reliability.
• Performance optimization reduced checkout load times, enhancing user trust.

This WordPress design solution streamlined purchases, increasing conversions by 30% and enabling Bellerby to handle global orders efficiently, supporting their expansion into new markets.

eCommerce Development

Under the surface, this is still a proper eCommerce build. Product listings. Variations. Pricing tiers. Commissions. It’s all there. But we kept it controlled. We built a custom ecommerce web design that lets the team present globes properly. Not squeezed into rigid templates. Not boxed in.

The collection pages needed to feel calm, even with a lot of products. Filters had to help, not confuse. Pricing had to be clear without feeling transactional. And performance mattered more than it looks. There’s a lot of imagery. High detail. Texture. If the site slows down, the whole experience breaks.

So we kept things lean behind the scenes. Fast load. Clean structure. No unnecessary weight.

The Solution

Lilo delivered a bespoke WordPress platform that merged performance, usability, and flexibility into a cohesive digital solution. What we ended up with isn’t just an online shop. It’s a space.

• You land on the homepage and you’re not rushed. You get a sense of the brand first. The craftsmanship. The history. Then the products come in naturally.
• Collections are structured so you can browse without thinking too hard. Sizes, styles, materials — all there, but not overwhelming.
• Product pages carry more weight now. Better imagery. More context. You can actually picture the globe in a room, not just on a white background.
• And the commission side of things feels more considered too. It doesn’t feel like filling out a form. It feels like starting a process.

That shift matters.