Kickoff strategy and landscape analysis

We worked closely with the stakeholders and leadership team to develop a strategy based on the landscape analysis. The main purpose is to make sure that we establish the goals of this project.

Unique ONE Championship UX challenge

Every great digital product strikes a fine balance between business goals and user needs. ONE Championship e-commerce website was no different. While the overarching business goal was to make it easier for users to add to cart and checkout, there were several user goals that needed to be addressed and accomplished. We were able to strike a nice balance between driving sales, helping users get engage with the community and get latest updates.

Understanding the user personas

MMA is a widely renowned social sport and activity. Both fighters and fans tend to actively engage and communicate with each other within the MMA community. To better comprehend the needs of the fans, we have created unique user personas to represent the variety of users who have helped us to focus specifically on the user needs. Through this research, we've proposed various sections to boost traction and enticement for users to explore the site.

Building the taxonomy

To build a future-proof inventory, we payed close attention to the taxonomy of the sitemap where we drew inspiration from e-commerce giants. This allowed us to form a good taxonomy to facilitate the browsing experience for users.

Sketches and Lo-fidelity wire-framing

Some early sketches shows different versions of how content is being displayed to establish and optimise the One Championship user experience

Version 1 – Events:
This concept would focus mainly on fights. The hero banner would promote upcoming fights and there will be sections to help users browse ONE FC essentials or merchandise from specific fighters. This helps to keep the site updated and give users visiting the main site a sense of familiarity. This concept also thrives a lot on what’s trending within their community and this keeps engagement with their audiences.

Version 2 – Products:
While both concepts would have sections to promote their products, this version focuses on displaying recommended shopping categorisations. This helps to guide users into exploring their products and promoting new collections. This option was also less strenuous for the client to upkeep since it requires lesser updates.

Brand and style guide

The focus for the visual design was to enhance the functionality while retaining their brand positioning. A minimal primary colour palette and profound use of secondary colours throughout the website was utilised to assist the user in navigating the website while providing visual cues for different types of content.

Final look

After several rounds of user testing on the wireframes, we created the final design of the website and developed it. We were able to strike a nice balance between boosting sales, enhancing the user experience and assisting the user's search for merchandise of interest. Thus, we were able to improve their overall experience for online shopping at One Championship.

Results — One Championship online sales grew by 20x

1. Why online sales grew 20–25x

1. Cause: Migrating to Shopify Plus streamlined the e-commerce experience (fast, mobile-friendly, easier checkout) and added features like upsell automations and free shipping automation triggers.

2. Effect: Customers had fewer friction points and were incentivized to spend more, resulting in exponential sales growth compared to the old e-commerce setup.

3. Sales Meaning: A jump of 20–25x suggests the online channel went from a minor support role to becoming a primary revenue driver.

2. Why overall customer base grew 5x

1. Cause: A stronger online presence made the brand accessible to fans outside live event locations, capturing new customers who previously never attended events.

2. Effect: A larger customer base not only increased one-time sales but also created a pool for repeat purchases via marketing automation and customer data insights.

3. Sales Meaning: More customers + better conversion = sustainable revenue growth, not just one-time spikes.

3. Shift from 20% to 99% online sales mix

1. Cause: Pre-pandemic, 80% of merchandise sales came from physical event venues. With COVID-19 cancelling events, online became the only viable channel.

2. Effect: Instead of sales collapsing, digital investments allowed almost all sales to migrate online.

3. Sales Meaning: This shows agility—pivoting from event-dependent revenue to an online-first model, retaining fans and merchandise demand.

4. Overall sales up 3–4x

1. Cause: Even with events gone, the combination of: A 5x larger customer base, Higher average cart size (due to upsell/free shipping), Near-total shift to online led to overall revenue being 3–4x higher than before digital transformation.

2. Sales Meaning: This isn’t just recovery; it’s business model expansion. The company grew beyond its original physical-event limits and unlocked scalable e-commerce revenue.

Business Takeaway

1. It turned a crisis (no live events) into an opportunity by fully committing to e-commerce.

2. It used automation, customer experience improvements, and multi-location data to build a scalable, global merchandise business.

3. The result wasn’t just maintaining revenue but multiplying it while shifting from a high-risk physical channel to a resilient digital-first model.

Its online experience now takes care of the consumer journey, reducing the obstacles in the path, and create a seamless and pleasant experience to purchase.