How NW Eye Design Transformed Patient Care with WooCommerce Store

Putting Patients First Online

Northwest Eye Design has earned trust by guiding each patient through loss and restoration of vision with handcrafted prosthetic eyes. The team sees patients as more than orders on a form—they offer steady support, practical advice, and reassurance from first call to final fitting. Yet the company's website fell short of that standard. It used stock photos and rigid layouts on a legacy e-commerce platform that forced patients to hunt for information. Cosmetic updates on that old system took hours or required a designer. NW Eye Design needed a new site that felt warm, was easy to update, and put patients right at the center of every page online. They envisioned a space where every image was a real patient, and where navigation guided new visitors smoothly from understanding what they do to buying the products they trust. Above all, they wanted to make sure that nobody felt lost on the site—and that the staff could keep every detail fresh.

Facing a Clunky Storefront

Before the redesign, the online store ran on Volusion. It handled orders but offered little flexibility. Price updates, unlimited sample images, and international shipments all required manual tweaks. It waste everyone's time whenever they wanted to tweak shipping labels. Any small change—like adding a new lubricant for daily cleaning—meant back-and-forth with a developer. The shop page felt disconnected from core patient resources, so people ended up bouncing from one site section to another. Marketing campaigns couldn’t link to targeted product pages easily. This fragmented digital experience failed to mirror the careful, human touch patients received in the clinic. At the same time, the brand had evolved. They'd updated their logo and refined color palettes, but the old site still wore its original look. That gap damaged the sense of consistency the team worked so hard to build.

Switching to WordPress & WooCommerce

The team researched platforms. Trials on Shopify and other hosted options always meant trading control for simplicity or vice versa. They needed a single solution that offered built-in store features, easy content editing, and the option to customize. WordPress and WooCommerce fit the bill. In 2016, Administrative Coordinator Emily Spiker launched the store migration. Within weeks, the site lived on WordPress. Emily could add products, update prices, and swap photos without touching code. The team rebranded at the same time, renaming the store and rolling out new typography and brand guidelines across every page.

Building an Accessible, Image-Driven UX

Designing with patients in mind meant ditching generic stock images. NW Eye Design reached out to past clients to gather photos of patients outside the clinic. Every hero banner, gallery shot, and testimonial image now shows a real person, taken by another patient. This collection of portraits conveys trust and artistry in one glance. On the UX side, the team created a clear site map that mirrored a patient’s journey: from 'What is an ocularist?' to 'Order supplies' to 'Contact us.' They also tested for accessibility, making sure font sizes, color contrasts, and keyboard navigation aligned with WCAG standards. No barrier remained between visitor and vital information.

Powering Operations with Smart Plugins

To automate operations, NW Eye Design adopted several WooCommerce extensions and third-party tools. ShipStation handles customs forms and packing slips automatically, so international orders fly out with branded labels instead of blank paperwork. Jilt runs follow-up emails, newsletters, and abandoned-cart reminders — all without manual effort. Akismet Anti-Spam keeps product reviews and blog comments clean of junk. WooCommerce Tax calculates real-time tax rates. Tidio provides a live chat widget that lets patients ask quick questions, improving conversion rates. Finally, WooCommerce Subscriptions allows patients to set up recurring orders for lubricants and other consumables. This setup freed the staff to focus on patient care, not admin tasks.

Marketing and Growth

Earlier this year, NW Eye Design enlisted a digital marketing firm to drive new business. The agency began by crafting blog posts on eye health topics, which boosted organic traffic. They launched Google Ads targeting keywords like 'ocular prosthesis' and 'eye care supplies,' sending qualified leads straight to product pages. Remarketing campaigns via AdRoll drew visitors back, leading to more first-time orders and repeat purchases. Combined with automated email workflows, these efforts reversed a long sales decline. NW Eye Design started seeing month-over-month sales jumps of 60% or more. Now they track performance in Google Analytics and can attribute every sale to a specific campaign.

Results and Next Steps

With the new WordPress site and streamlined operations, NW Eye Design has a solid foundation for future growth. Patients enjoy a seamless path from learning about custom prosthetics to reordering daily care items. Staff members spend less time on maintenance and more time on patient outreach - expanding the company's reach and reputation. Next, they plan to roll out video tutorials for lens care and introduce a loyalty program via WooCommerce Subscriptions. By building on the digital tools in place, NW Eye Design can continue to serve patients effectively and scale its online store while keeping the human touch front and center.