A few weeks ago we shared our interview with Pamela Madsen, founder of Back to the Body. Today we want to show you what we actually built.

Back to the Body runs transformational women's wellness retreats. No simple add-to-cart products. This is a high-ticket, considered purchase where the buyer is making a deeply personal decision and the site has to do a lot of emotional heavy lifting before anyone books anything. It's a different kind of conversion problem than most ecommerce brands face, which is why we thought it’d be fun to share.

Here's just a snippet of what we changed and why. You can see the live site at backtothebody.org.

(less than 2-minute read)

Top Mobile Navigation

Rebuilt the nav from the ground up

The old nav was a cluttered dropdown with every page listed, and the mobile menu was even worse. The new nav strips it down to four items: Retreats, Free Masterclass, About, Blog. On desktop a rich mega menu under Retreats shows both retreat types with imagery and descriptions. On mobile it's clean, fast, and actually usable. Simpler navigation, faster decisions on every device.

Added a "this is for you if..." section above the fold

Instead of asking visitors to read a lot before knowing if it's relevant to them, the new homepage leads with four specific, relatable scenarios. "You've lost the spark," "pleasure has taken a backseat." So the right person recognizes themselves immediately.

Redesigned the retreat cards with urgency signals

The new retreat listing cards show remaining spots directly on the card. "Only 2 spots remaining," "sold out." Scarcity is visible without any hard sell. That kind of social proof does the closing for you.

Moved press logos immediately below the hero

NYT, Vogue, Allure, LA Times. This brand has serious third-party credibility. The old site buried it. We moved it up to where doubt lives so visitors get a trust signal before they've had a chance to hesitate.

Added a sticky booking sidebar to the retreat PDP

On the old retreat pages, pricing and availability were buried in the copy. The new design adds a persistent sidebar that stays with you as you scroll, showing room type, dates, price, and a clear CTA. No hunting. No scrolling back to find the button.

Made room selection visual and interactive

The old site listed room options as text. The new design lets visitors compare room types side by side with clear pricing, bathroom options, and a "most popular" flag, reducing decision anxiety right before the purchase.

Added a day-by-day retreat schedule

The biggest barrier to booking a high-ticket retreat is uncertainty. "What am I actually signing up for?" Walking visitors through each day of the experience builds confidence and removes the hesitation that kills conversions on considered purchases.

Migrated the whole thing onto Shopify

Beyond the design, the site now runs on Shopify. Cleaner backend, easier retreat and inventory management, and a significantly better experience for the team behind the scenes. Better for the customer, better for the business.

The result is a site that earns trust faster, explains the offer more clearly, and makes it significantly easier to say yes to something that already had a great product behind it. And from the looks of the retreats selling out, it's working.

If you're curious what we'd change about yours, chat with one of the co-founders, Shaun or Taylor.

Listen to our team talk about what we do, and why we do it.

We've been lucky enough to share our perspective on conversion, design, and what actually moves the needle across a bunch of podcasts, from The Unofficial Shopify Podcast and DTC Pod to 10 Minute Marketer and beyond. Over 20 episodes and counting.

If you want to go deeper on the thinking behind the work, it's all in one place.

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