Sekkisei Beauty
Japanese skincare, rebuilt for North America
The ask
SEKKISEI is a cornerstone of Japanese skincare. In Japan, the brand carries the kind of quiet authority that doesn't need to announce itself. However, the North American presence lacked that same power.
As a result, KOSÉ came to us with a clear brief and a hard deadline. The mission: redesign and launch a storytelling-driven e-commerce experience for U.S. and Canadian customers in time for a key seasonal sales window.
The new site launched ahead of the key seasonal sales period, allowing customers to explore SEKKISEI’s rich heritage and product rituals in advance.
The challenge
The challenge
The core challenge was cultural translation. SEKKISEI’s identity is deeply rooted in Japanese concepts: harmony, ritual, seasonality, and intimacy with nature. For North American audiences, that perspective needed to feel relatable without losing its integrity.
Our discovery work confirmed this tension. Through stakeholder interviews and customer research, we found that rituals and loyalty were central to how North American customers approached skincare. Purchasing a moisturizer wasn’t just a transaction; it was an entry point into a ritual.
The new experience needed to honor that mindset — to convey the brand’s philosophy without exoticizing it, and to sell the product without undermining the feeling.
The work
The work
We built the design language around restraint: soft textures, deliberate whitespace, and subtle seasonal cues that created atmosphere without leaning on literal Japanese aesthetics. It still needed to make a statement. The goal was a site that felt like a ritual.
On the commerce side, we developed a fully custom Shopify storefront with geolocation targeting the U.S. and Canadian markets, supporting separate pricing, currencies, and shipping within a single admin. We integrated reviews, loyalty, and social content without disrupting the editorial feel.
Navigation prioritized discovery over transaction. Customers could explore rituals and seasonal collections, arriving at products naturally and uncovering education and offerings they might not have otherwise found.
We launched ahead of KOSÉ’s critical sales window and continue to support SEKKISEI through ongoing optimization and feature development.
The result
- 35% increase in U.S. revenue since launch
- 20% increase in number of active users
- 246% year-over-year increase in Canadian sales since launch
The new SEKKISEI website turns brand equity into performance. It delivers a clear, cohesive path from discovery to purchase, driving gains in engagement, conversion, and overall site performance.
We continue to partner with KOSÉ and SEKKISEI to build on that momentum, iterating, optimizing, and scaling the experience over time.