Oh La La! Macarons

Oh La La! Macarons is a London-based artisan macaron brand founded by Meredith O’Shaughnessy. What started as a bespoke bakery serving private clients like Vivienne Westwood Couture and Manolo Blahnik has grown into a multi-channel business spanning direct-to-consumer gifting, corporate branding, team-building workshops, hen parties, weddings, and nationwide delivery. The brand has won multiple Great Taste awards and been featured in the Daily Mail, Marie Claire, The Sunday Times Style, Wall Street Journal, and TimeOut.

When Meredith came to Refact, the business had evolved well beyond selling boxes of macarons online, but the website had not kept up. She was running on Squarespace, and needed a platform that could match where the business was headed.

Oh La La! was no longer just an e-commerce brand. It was an experience business. Corporate clients wanted Pantone-matched branded macarons for product launches and press events. Brides wanted custom wedding favors. Groups wanted macaron-and-martini workshop bookings for hen parties. Individual shoppers wanted curated gift boxes delivered same-day in London or next-day across the UK.

The Squarespace site only really supported one of those audiences: the straightforward online shopper. Everything else (corporate enquiries, event bookings, bespoke orders, wedding consultations) lived outside the site in emails, phone calls, and manual back-and-forth. The storefront could sell a box of macarons, but it could not communicate the full range of what the business actually offered or capture the leads those services generated.

On top of that, the site’s look and feel did not match the brand’s positioning. Oh La La! operates in the luxury gifting space. Their macarons are handcrafted, their packaging is thoughtful, and their client list includes names like Harvey Nichols and Swarovski. The digital experience needed to reflect that same level of care and craft.

We started with a site audit of the existing Squarespace presence to understand what was working, what was not, and what the business actually needed from its digital platform. That audit confirmed what Meredith already sensed: this was not a case for incremental improvements. The business needed to migrate to a new platform entirely.

We walked Meredith through her options and recommended Shopify as the foundation for the rebuild. The decision came down to operational fit: Oh La La! needed a platform that could handle complex product merchandising, gifting workflows, campaign flexibility, and service enquiries without requiring a developer for every change.

The core strategic question was not “how do we make the shop look better?” It was “how do we turn a product store into a platform that supports an entire experience business?”

We mapped the distinct audiences the site needed to serve and what each one needed to do. A corporate buyer browsing for branded event macarons has a completely different journey than someone ordering a birthday gift box for next-day delivery. Trying to serve both through a standard product catalog was forcing the wrong experience on at least one of them.

So we structured the site around clear pathways. The main navigation separates Shop, Made to Order, Corporate Gifting, Team Building, and Hen Parties as distinct entry points. Each one leads to a purpose-built experience: product collections lead to purchase flows, while service pages lead to enquiry forms and consultation requests. The site became a dual-purpose platform, part retail storefront and part booking and enquiry engine.

For the gifting experience specifically, we built custom cart functionality that reflects how people actually buy for special occasions. Shoppers can add gift messages, request specific delivery dates, and include order notes directly in the checkout flow. These are small details, but they matter enormously when someone is ordering macarons for a wedding or a corporate event with a hard deadline.

We also connected Meredith with copywriting resources to create the marketing assets and content the new site needed. The build was not just design and development; it included helping her get the right materials in place so the site could launch strong.

Meredith had high expectations for the design, and she pushed back on some of our initial ideas. That is exactly how the process should work. The design team course-corrected quickly, and the result is a site that genuinely reflects her vision for the brand.

We delivered a full migration from Squarespace to Shopify, building the new storefront from scratch. The build included a brand-first homepage with editorial storytelling, press credentials (Great Taste awards, Daily Mail, Marie Claire, WSJ, TimeOut), delivery education, and occasion-based navigation that lets gift buyers find the right collection quickly. We created dedicated landing pages for corporate gifting, branded events, team-building workshops, hen parties, and weddings, each with its own enquiry flow. The product and cart experience was enhanced with gifting-specific inputs for custom messages, delivery dates, and special instructions. We built campaign-ready templates for seasonal collections and promotional launches, a trust ecosystem of press features, testimonials, reviews, FAQs, and delivery information layered throughout the journey, and localization readiness for future multilingual expansion.

Oh La La!’s website went from a straightforward Squarespace shop to a platform that represents the full scope of the business. Corporate clients and event planners can now discover and enquire about branded macarons and workshop experiences directly through the site, rather than through word-of-mouth and manual outreach alone. Gift buyers get a checkout experience that actually accommodates the way people buy for special occasions. The marketing team can launch seasonal collections and promotional campaigns without waiting on developers.

The relationship has continued well beyond the initial build, with ongoing development as the business grows and the site evolves alongside it.

“They have a 360-degree approach, which has been valuable for me. They’re not pushy in any way; they listen to my business needs and suggest the best options for us to grow and what we need to achieve that growth.”

“They’re very knowledgeable and want to understand my company and my needs. The team isn’t just trying to sell me something; they’re trying to help me reach my business goals and objectives.”

“I had quite a high expectation of the design, so I initially pushed back on some of their ideas. They immediately rectified the course without much trouble; they understood my point of view, and the design team changed things.”

Meredith O’Shaughnessy, CEO & Founder, Oh La La! Macarons