Rexel USA: Architecting Quality & Scale
Strategic focus:
Design System implementation & future-state vision
Domain expertise:
International B2B E-commerce & Electrical Supply
Project duration:
12-Month system rollout & global concept development
Platform scope:
U.S. & International E-commerce Sites
Context & Challenge: Scaling Innovation and Overcoming Systemic Design Debt
The Rexel USA e-commerce platform was experiencing a severe decline in operational efficiency due to a high degree of design debt and lack of component standardization. This inconsistency was manifesting across all platforms, slowing down feature velocity and preventing the organization from executing critical strategic goals.
My mandate as the Senior UX Designer was to address this challenge on three interconnected fronts:
- Foundational Quality: Architect and implement a Design System to act as the single source of truth, drastically reducing redundant code and ensuring the entire experience met baseline accessibility (WCAG) standards.
- Conversion Optimization: Drive immediate value by leading the concept re-design for the high-traffic Product Listing Page (PLP), a core feature critical for e-commerce conversion success.
- Future-State Vision: Define and showcase the company's long-term digital vision by designing the Future Homepage Innovation Dashboard for the global Paris trade show, aligning product strategy with international leadership.
Strategic Approach: Driving Foundational Quality and Future-State E-commerce Vision
This section details my hands-on leadership as the Senior Individual Contributor across three parallel strategic initiatives:
1. Design System Implementation: Architecting the Single Source of Truth
My initial priority was the establishment of a robust, scalable system to counteract design debt and ensure consistency. This involved initiating a comprehensive UI/UX Audit across all existing U.S. platforms to define the required scope. I then architected the core system by establishing a foundational library of Design Tokens and master components. Crucially, I defined the governance model and contribution model that empowered front-end engineering teams to adopt the system efficiently, ensuring alignment between design and code for all future feature development. This work directly supported the entire organization's quality control and speed. Take into account that the example below is just an example of a small part of the Design System and for only one Brand under Rexel. The rest of the Design System is scalable to Rexel's other proprietaries and includes A11y guidelines as well as going more in-depth into input fields, navigational elements, etc.
2. Core Conversion Optimization: Product Listing Page (PLP) Re-Design
To drive immediate business value, I led the conceptual re-design of the high-traffic Product Listing Page (PLP), which is critical for B2B e-commerce conversion. My approach focused on information architecture (IA), leading the effort to improve product discoverability through optimized filtering, sorting, and comparison tools. The new IA model was validated with internal stakeholders, setting the roadmap for future e-commerce optimization and directly addressing user pain points identified in the discovery phase.
3. Global Innovation: Future Homepage Dashboard Design
I was invited to Paris to collaborate with the Global Head Product Owner on a high-visibility, future-state design initiative for the annual trade show. The goal was to conceptualize an innovative Homepage Dashboard that would provide users with actionable business insights, such as spending habits and popular purchases. This required leading design sessions focused on insight visualization and stakeholder alignment across international teams, successfully translating abstract business goals into a tangible, strategic product vision for thousands of international B2B constituents.
Strategic Impact: Quantified Efficiency and Global Design Maturity
The implementation of the Rexel Design System and the strategic vision projects resulted in a significant shift toward a more mature, scalable digital organization:
- Engineering Efficiency: By moving to a standardized component library, we achieved an estimated 40% reduction in Front-End build time per sprint. This allowed development teams to shift focus from styling UI to building high-value business features.
- Design Debt Elimination: Successfully unified a fragmented B2B ecosystem into a single source of truth, reducing design debt by approximately 60% and ensuring visual and functional consistency across U.S. and global platforms.
- Accessibility Compliance: Established and enforced the organization’s first comprehensive set of WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, mitigating legal risk and ensuring the platform is usable for all B2B customers.
- Strategic Alignment: The Future Homepage Innovation Dashboard was showcased to thousands of international stakeholders in Paris, successfully aligning the U.S. product roadmap with the global digital strategy.
- Accelerated Time-to-Market: The new Product Listing Page (PLP) IA model provided a validated blueprint for the engineering team, reducing the discovery and design phase for future e-commerce optimization sprints by weeks.
