Designing an Online Custom Hockey Wax Ordering Experience

Context

After launching the new Jack's Hockey Wax website in January 2022 (see the JHW website case study), the scope of my work expanded to bring the full product catalog online. Supply and production limitations were temporarily restricting standard inventory, so I was tasked with adding a section to the website that would explain the custom wax options and allow customers to place bulk orders, the fastest revenue opportunity available.

The Problem

Custom wax accounted for nearly 60% of all units sold by Jack's Hockey Wax, but there was no online information about it and no way to order it online. All custom orders had to be placed through back-and-forth email correspondence, creating friction for customers, extra work for staff, and no scalable path for growth. The company's most valuable product segment had zero digital presence.

The Solution

I designed a new online custom ordering experience where customers choose their wax's scent and color, upload their own custom label, and select the quantity. The new system eliminates the need for back-and-forth email correspondence to place custom orders. It also surfaces the price breaks for larger orders in real time, removing a key friction point that previously required a staff response before customers knew their total.

The final ordering experience: choose scent and color, upload a label, select quantity, pay.

Research

Stakeholder Interview

I held an internal stakeholder meeting to understand what parts of the product were customizable, who the main customers were, and how the ordering process typically worked. This surfaced the key pain points: the email-heavy process was slow, prone to miscommunication, and made it impossible for staff to handle volume efficiently.

User Interviews

I interviewed a hockey store owner, a hockey team manager, and a hockey head coach: three of the primary customer types who place custom orders. The interviews surfaced their mental models of an ideal ordering process and clarified the specific appeal of custom wax: it's a team identity product, and the ordering process should feel as thoughtful as the product itself.

Journey Map

A journey map of the existing custom ordering process revealed where the most friction existed: discovering the option was available, understanding what customization was possible, knowing the price before committing, and waiting for back-and-forth email confirmation before the order was official.

Journey map of the existing custom wax ordering process, revealing key friction points.

Ideation

After mapping the needs of both the company and its customers, I ran a Crazy Eights exercise to ideate on solutions that would satisfy both sides simultaneously. The winning idea: a single-page ordering flow that guided customers through each stage of customization in sequence, removing ambiguity at every step and eliminating the email loop entirely.

Crazy Eights ideation exercise surfacing solutions that met both business and customer needs.

The Ordering Flow

I designed the ordering experience to guide customers through each stage of customization one step at a time.

Step 1: Choose a scent and color

The most important part of the purchase is the wax itself. Customers can't smell it online, but they can see the full range of vibrant colors available. The scent selection is paired directly with the color choice, giving the decision a sensory quality even through a screen.

Step 1: Select scent and color, the core of the custom wax experience.

Step 2: Customize the label

Customers can instantly see what their team or store's logo will look like printed on one of the wax tins, giving them confidence in the final product before they commit.

Step 3: Select a quantity

Price breaks for larger orders are now reflected immediately. No more waiting on an email response to find out the total. This was one of the most significant friction points in the existing process, and removing it was a direct win for both customers and staff.

Step 3: Quantity selector with immediate price reflection, no email required.

Step 4: Pay

Customers can complete the purchase directly online. Shopify handles the transaction, and the Jack's team gets to work on the order without a single email exchange.

Usability Tests

I tested the new page with three distinct participant groups: coaches and shop owners (the primary custom order buyers), hockey parents (who often manage team equipment), and participants with no hockey background (to test discoverability and clarity for unfamiliar customers).

100% of participants successfully placed a custom order and rated the process "Very Easy (7/7)" on the Single Ease Question, a result that held across all three participant groups regardless of hockey knowledge.

Results

Within a month of adding a Custom Wax page to the Jack's Hockey Wax website, the impact was immediate:

Next Steps

At the time of the project, internal logistics weren't yet ready to fully support a live ordering system, so the page launched as an information and contact page rather than a fully transactional experience. The design, however, was built to be activation-ready. Shopify apps like "Product Options & Customizer" and "Personalized Image Uploader" make the full experience technically feasible without any custom code, the page simply needs to be made active once the internal fulfillment workflow is in place.

The results from even a basic informational page, including the largest order in company history, the first online custom order, and inbound international interest, validated that the custom wax market was significantly larger than the company had recognized.