SEKKISEI
Uncover how Prototypical turned a legacy Japanese skincare brand’s North American e-commerce site into a high-converting, emotionally resonant mobile-first experience.
The ask
SEKKISEI, a Japanese skincare brand under KOSÉ Corporation, is cherished for its heritage rooted in harmony and nature. However, its North American site felt purely functional, missing the brand’s emotional core.
Tasked with designing, developing, and launching a high-performing, storytelling-driven e-commerce experience for the U.S. and Canada by July 2025, we set out to reimagine their digital presence.
The new site launched ahead of the key seasonal sales period, allowing customers to explore SEKKISEI’s rich heritage and product rituals in advance.
Project highlights
- User research
- Shopify
- Responsive web development
- Visual design
- Content strategy
The work
Prototypical’s multidisciplinary team led SEKKISEI through a full-cycle website transformation. We began with user research, stakeholder interviews, and immersive workshops to gain a deeper understanding of both brand vision and customer needs.
From this foundational work, we uncovered that the previous site was functional but did not fully capture the brand’s heritage and unique identity. We learned that seasonal rituals and loyalty were most important for North American customers. It also became clear that the SEKKISEI team wanted the site to be educational while providing a seamless transaction experience.
Armed with this knowledge, our creative direction focused on emotional storytelling and cultural relevance. We created a design language highlighting seasonal rituals and soft textures (with subtle cues to Japanese design), all while emphasizing SEKKISEI’s underlying brand identity. Additionally, we implemented intuitive navigation to facilitate seamless content and product discovery, gently guiding users toward conversion.
The front-end experience was built for beauty and speed. On the backend, we implemented a custom Shopify storefront with geolocation capabilities for the U.S. and Canada. Additional key features included a customer review system, loyalty rewards, and native integrations for social content.
This resulted in a tailored, scalable Shopify store designed for the present and the future. Post-launch, Prototypical continues to support SEKKISEI with performance monitoring, updates, and new feature development.
The result
The new SEKKISEI website embodies a modern digital expression of a heritage skincare brand. Both the North American team and customers have praised the improved shopping journey. From discovery through purchase, the new experience brings clarity, warmth, and trust.
Prototypical is proud to continue our relationship with KOSÉ and SEKKISEI as we support new features, test experiences, and scale their digital presence over time.
