Rat & Boa Brand Credibility and Mobile Performance on Shopify Plus

A Fashion Brand Outgrowing Its Storefront.

Rat & Boa built a following on bold, unapologetic design and a founder-led point of view that travels well on social. By the time Valentina and Stephanie came to DBCO, the brand had become a reference point in direct-to-consumer fashion; the store had not kept pace. It sold the product, but it no longer carried the attitude that made the brand worth following, and most of its customers were arriving on a phone.

The brief was a brand refresh expressed through commerce: sharpen the identity, then rebuild the Shopify Plus store around the mobile customer so that credibility and conversion rise together. Working with the founders, the in-house marketing team and the brand's wider partners, DBCO took the project from audit through design to launch.

Brand Discovery, Desktop

Mega Navigation, Mobile

Product Detail Page, Mobile

Brand Discovery, Mobile

Where the Old Store Added Friction.

Rat & Boa's customer discovers the brand on social, on a phone, in a feed full of competitors. The existing store asked that customer to slow down and adapt. Navigation had grown by accretion; search and filtering lagged behind the size of the range; product pages told the customer less than a single Instagram post did. For a brand whose appeal is immediacy, the storefront was adding friction at exactly the points where it should have been removing it.

The usual response is the one most direct-to-consumer fashion brands reach for: a faster template and a heavier promotional layer. It converts in the short term, and for a brand competing on price it is often the right call. Rat & Boa competes on attitude, and a discount-led store would have spent the credibility the founders had built. The refresh had to do two things at once: give the brand a store with the standing of the label it had become, and convert on mobile without cheapening it.

Modular Editorial Template, Desktop

Predictive Search, Mobile

Collection Page Filters, Mobile

Brand Refresh, Mobile-First UX and a Custom Shopify Plus Theme.

DBCO led the project across brand refresh and positioning, an eCommerce site audit, user experience design and a custom Shopify Plus theme, working with the founders and the in-house marketing team. The phone came first. An overlay shopping experience keeps the customer inside the collection while they look at a product; the menu promotes sub-collections directly; search and collection filtering are sized to the range; a carousel with quick navigation moves the customer between looks without a page load.

Product pages gained a style breakdown section, so each piece is explained as well as shown. Shoppable lookbooks and editorial templates let the brand sell from its own storytelling; the campaign imagery that drives the following now carries the product with it. A loyalty programme was designed into the journey to reward repeat customers, and Klaviyo email marketing templates were built on the same system, so a campaign email and the store read as the same brand.

Quick Shop Overlay, Mobile

Carousel with Navigation Links, Mobile

A Store That Holds Its Own in the Feed.

The refreshed Shopify Plus store matches the brand's confidence and works the way its customers shop. Navigation, search and product pages carry the attitude of the campaigns; editorial content sells directly; the loyalty programme gives the most engaged customers a reason to return. Because the theme is custom and the marketing team can run it, the refresh is a platform the brand keeps developing, not a redesign that dates at the next collection. Rat & Boa's growth has always come from being seen, and the store now competes in the same feed as the brand: bold, fast and unmistakably its own.

Editorial Typography, Mobile

Frequently Asked Questions

DBCO delivered a brand refresh and a mobile-first rebuild of Rat & Boa's Shopify Plus store. The scope covered brand refresh and positioning, an eCommerce site audit, user experience design, a custom Shopify Plus theme, conversion rate optimisation, shoppable lookbook and editorial templates, integration of a customer loyalty programme and a set of Klaviyo email marketing templates. Every element was designed as one system; the store, the editorial content and the email campaigns read as the same brand.

Rat & Boa's customers discover the brand on social media and arrive on a phone; for most of them the mobile experience is the brand experience. DBCO designed the store for that customer first, with an overlay shopping experience, a menu that promotes sub-collections, advanced search and filtering, and a carousel with quick navigation, then adapted the design for desktop. Designing for the smaller screen first forces the clarity and pacing the brand's immediacy depends on.

A brand refresh in eCommerce sharpens how a brand presents itself and then expresses that through the store itself, in navigation, product pages and pacing, not only in a logo applied to a template. For Rat & Boa, DBCO began with an audit of the existing site, refined the brand's positioning and visual system, and rebuilt the Shopify Plus theme around the refreshed identity. Credibility and conversion rose together because the brand and the shopping experience were designed as one.

A shoppable lookbook is editorial content with product detail and purchasing built directly into it; the customer buys from the story without leaving it to find the product. For Rat & Boa, DBCO designed lookbook and editorial templates that place products within campaign imagery and styling content. The brand sells from the storytelling that drives its following, customers stay engaged for longer, and purchase intent rises without promotional noise being added to the store.

The loyalty programme was designed into the shopping journey, not added as a separate page. Rewards, points and perks for frequent shoppers appear at the moments in the mobile experience where they influence a decision, from product page to account. The aim was repeat purchase and brand advocacy without breaking the refreshed brand; loyalty reads as part of Rat & Boa, not as a third-party widget.

Beyond the store, the project gave Rat & Boa a refreshed brand system, a custom Shopify Plus theme the marketing team can run without a developer, editorial templates for future campaigns, a loyalty programme that keeps working after every order and Klaviyo email templates that match the store. The brand gained a platform built to be adapted and optimised as the collections and the audience grow; a one-off redesign would have dated within a season.

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