Choose chocolate
Bestsellers and product categories
View an item → choose an option → add to cart
Ecommerce website redesign case study
French Broad
Chocolates.
Made for a
closer look.
ROI.LIVE redesigned this Asheville chocolate maker’s Shopify storefront around the way people choose a treat, send a gift and plan a visit.
See the old website beside the new design, then explore the shopping decisions and search strategy behind the work.
New website in preview · September 14, 2026
A richer introduction.
01 / Inspect the work
Same business.
A new way to explore it.
Explore the homepage, product page, Shop All and About. Each comparison pairs the earlier website with the new preview at matching dimensions. The mobile view compares the two homepages.
Homepage · Before: August 24, 2026 · Preview: September 14, 2026 · 1440 × 900 CSS pixels
A fair comparison. The earlier homepage was captured August 24, before ROI.LIVE’s Fall Caramels campaign hero was added. The redesign is the September 14 preview. Both views use matched dimensions. The new theme is unpublished; sales and conversion results are not yet available.
02 / Start with the customer
A gift in the mail.
A visit to Asheville.
Two reasons to begin.
Someone sending a birthday gift needs chocolate and delivery information. Someone planning a trip needs locations, tour details and a reservation.
French Broad Chocolates serves both through one website. The redesign puts “Shop the chocolate” beside “Plan my visit,” then develops that choice with product imagery and a look inside the chocolate factory.
For a business with online and physical sales, that is an early design decision: identify what people need to do before choosing how the homepage should look.
FRENCH BROAD CHOCOLATESWhat brings you here?
Send a gift
Occasion suggestions and corporate gifting
Choose a gift → review delivery or inquiry options
Plan a visit
Asheville locations and factory tours
Find the location → read tour details → reserve
Design map of the preview’s customer choices. The corporate gifting preview begins with an inquiry.
03 / The product decision
Give the details
room to do their job.
A person comparing a 12-piece box with a 24-piece box needs a clear view of the chocolate, the price and the purchase options. The new product page brings those choices into one deliberate sequence.
Same product. Both captured at 1440 × 1200 CSS pixels. Use the interactive comparison ↗
See what’s inside
Product photography and flavour descriptions give the gift a specific identity.
Choose the box
Size and price sit together. The selected option has a visible state.
Understand the purchase
One-time and recurring options have separate controls, followed by quantity and the cart action.
The same discipline carries
into the homepage.
The bestseller section contains eight products. Each card connects its image and description to the selected Shopify variant’s price and availability. Available variants receive an add-to-cart action; sold-out items show their status.
The image, displayed price and item added to the cart should describe the same purchase. That relationship is worth checking on every ecommerce redesign.
Beyond the homepage
The catalog.
The people behind it.
Two more pages show how the design changes with the job. Shop All helps someone choose where to browse. About introduces the people making the chocolate.
A catalog with a starting point.
The earlier Shop All page opens with seasonal product rows. The redesign introduces the range, then provides category links and a product catalog with filters, sorting and availability.
Compare Shop All before & after ↗
Meet the makers sooner.
The earlier About page begins with a chocolate banner and a film. The redesign opens with the founders at the roaster, their names, the company’s beginnings and its connection to Asheville.
Compare About before & after ↗Shop All and About: old live site and new preview captured September 14, 2026. Each pair uses 1440 × 1100 CSS pixels.
A different way into the catalog
Start with
the person
receiving it.
Gift buyers often know the occasion before they know the product.
The new homepage connects “Happy Birthday,” “Thank You,” “Congratulations” and “Thinking of You” with named products and photographs of the gifts.
Product categories stay available for someone who already wants bonbons or chocolate bars. A dedicated Bonbon Box of the Month section gives recurring gifting its own introduction.
Client product photography, also used in the storefront.
The business behind the order
Corporate gifting
gets its own conversation.
A company sending gifts to colleagues has a different set of questions from someone buying one box. The preview separates sending to one address from sending to multiple recipients, with product suggestions and a gift-note explanation.
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Brand, content & discovery
The story belongs
beside the shop.
The school bus, the chocolate factory and the blue box give this brand a story competitors cannot borrow.
The new homepage gives founder and process imagery room alongside products. A reader can move from the company’s Costa Rica beginnings to the work inside its Asheville factory, then back to a specific collection.
This is useful information for someone comparing makers. The detail explains who makes the chocolate, where it comes from and what happens before it reaches the box.
Answer what affects the order.
The preview also addresses warm-weather shipping, vegan options, shipping costs, visits and subscription management. Item-specific ingredients and current policies remain the sources that govern the purchase.
That is the connection between conversion and discovery: publish the useful detail, name the business and product accurately, and connect the answer to its relevant next step.
How we approach useful, original content ↗
Open the complete story-section capture ↗
04 / The national growth strategy
Made in Asheville.
Built to compete
nationally.
A shopper searching for a chocolate gift may never have heard of French Broad Chocolates. The website needs a useful way to introduce them.
ROI.LIVE’s strategy connects the storefront with The Riverside, French Broad Chocolates’ journal and resource area. Buying guides, chocolate education and firsthand factory stories create more ways to discover the maker before choosing a product.
National visibility is the ambition behind this foundation. The new site remains in preview; rankings, AI citations and sales gains still need to be earned and measured after launch.
Introducing The Riverside
A place to learn.
A reason to find the shop.
- Stories in the preview index
- 30
- Topic chapters
- 10
Organized around what
people want to know.
The ten chapters cover bonbons, hot chocolate, gifts, recipes, chocolate guides, bean-to-bar making, cacao origins, ethical chocolate, pairings and Asheville. A reader can follow a topic instead of working backward through a date-ordered archive.
The information gain comes from French Broad Chocolates’ own work: how a bonbon is made, what a named gift box contains, or how three 70% cacao bars differ by origin. Those details give shoppers something specific to compare and give an answer engine a clear source to reference.
One guide, several useful next steps
Help someone
choose the gift.
The Chocolate Gift Guide combines a direct opening answer, a fact-check date, product comparisons, shipping guidance and a gift finder.
It links to named gift sets and the gifts collection. Readers can keep learning, compare what is inside a box or move to the product when they are ready.
A useful guide can become a customer’s first visit to French Broad Chocolates. The store is part of that experience from the beginning.
An example of the intended discovery journey
- 01 / A question“What is a bonbon?”
A useful entry point for someone discovering filled chocolates.
- 02 / A clear answerThe Riverside guide
Shells, centers and types, with related maker stories.
- 03 / A relevant choiceBonbons & Truffles
A linked collection turns learning into product exploration.
- 04 / The orderA specific box
Contents, size, price and purchase details support the decision.
Content and navigation strategy, not a measured customer journey.
SEO · AEO · GEO
The foundations
run through the site.
Search engine optimization helps people find the pages. Answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization focus on making the information useful in answers, too. The work starts with the same business facts and connected pages.
Connect the routes.
Navigation, category links, article links and breadcrumbs connect the store. The inspected preview pages declare clean canonical URLs, with the preview parameters kept out of those canonical addresses.
Identify the business.
The About page names the founders, the maker and Asheville. Shared Organization and WebSite data connect that identity with page-specific information, including Product, CollectionPage and Article markup.
Answer the buying question.
Product details, collection buying guidance and Riverside articles explain what someone needs to choose. The gift guide connects its answers to relevant products; collection FAQs link readers to policies and further help.
Build from original knowledge.
Factory processes, cacao origins, recipes and actual gift contents provide substance for future coverage. The wider editorial plan gives those topics a place to grow, with guides connected to collections and products.
Google’s guidance carries existing SEO practices into its AI search features: make content accessible, useful and internally linked, and keep structured data consistent with the visible page. Inclusion is not guaranteed. Read Google’s AI search guidance ↗
Before launch, the public routes, redirects, crawl access, canonical URLs and structured data need a final check on the published storefront. The preview demonstrates the build; it does not establish indexing or AI visibility.
05 / What the work proves
The design is
here to inspect.
The results come next.
The preview shows a new shopping structure, product merchandising, The Riverside and a fuller expression of French Broad Chocolates.
As of September 14, 2026, the new theme remains unpublished. Post-launch sales, conversion and search results are not yet available.
After launch, the useful question is how the new experience performs with real customers. Orders, revenue per visit and qualified gifting inquiries need context: device, traffic source, promotions, availability and seasonal demand.
| Buyer action | Measure | Keep in view |
|---|---|---|
| Find a product | Product views and add-to-cart rate | Device, entry page and product availability |
| Complete a purchase | Orders and revenue per visit | Traffic mix, promotions and seasonality |
| Arrange a corporate gift | Qualified inquiries and accepted orders | Inquiry source, order value and fulfilment |
| Find the brand through search | Relevant clicks and observed AI referrals | Query, landing page and measurement limits |
Evaluation plan for future measurement. These rows are not reported project results.
Before your own redesign
A few questions
worth asking.
Use the work to judge the approach. Use the measurement to judge the result.
What did ROI.LIVE redesign for French Broad Chocolates?
ROI.LIVE redesigned the Shopify storefront experience shown here, including shopping and visit navigation, product merchandising, gifting, subscription discovery, brand storytelling and buyer questions. The case compares the homepage, Signature Collection, Shop All and About pages, and shows The Riverside resource hub and search foundations.
Is the redesigned website live?
As of September 14, 2026, the new design remains in preview. The old website continues to serve the live store. The screenshots identify each version and capture date.
Did the redesign increase sales or conversion rate?
Post-launch results are not yet available. This case documents design decisions and implemented features. A later performance update needs a stated measurement period, comparable traffic and the context of promotions, inventory and seasonality.
Why separate shopping from visiting Asheville?
French Broad Chocolates sells chocolate online and welcomes visitors in Asheville. Shoppers need products, prices and delivery information. Visitors need locations, tour details and reservations. The new homepage names both actions from the opening screen.
How does The Riverside support the redesign strategy?
The Riverside connects chocolate education, buying guides and firsthand maker stories with the store. Its preview index contains 30 stories across ten topic chapters. The aim is to introduce French Broad Chocolates to relevant readers and help them move from a question to a collection or product.
Does SEO, AEO or GEO guarantee national rankings or AI mentions?
No. The preview includes linked content, clear business information, canonical URLs and page-specific structured data. National rankings and AI mentions depend on discovery, relevance and the systems selecting sources. Public launch checks and post-launch measurement are still required.
Can ROI.LIVE help with a similar ecommerce redesign?
Yes. Start with a free growth call to discuss your store, customers and the change you need. ROI.LIVE quotes website work after agreeing the page scope, integrations, migration and review rounds. The call is separate from a detailed audit or complete written strategy.
Keep exploring
See the wider work.
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Plan the scope with our guide to website cost and payback, or explore ongoing Shopify management for the work after launch.
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Explore website design ↗Your next website
Make your business
worth a closer look.
Bring your store, your customers and the question you need answered. We’ll discuss what the website needs to do and the next step that fits.
Book your free growth call
Free 30-minute call · Brief summary and next steps
A full audit or written strategy is separate scoped work.
Prepared by ROI.LIVE · Meet founder Jason Spencer
Earlier homepage captured August 24; redesign preview and case prepared September 14, 2026.
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