WebKitchenDepot sells commercial restaurant equipment across an enormous range of categories: refrigeration, ranges and ovens, hoods and ventilation, cookware, POS systems, and a custom option for Asian restaurant equipment such as woks and steam tables. The core challenge: display an enormous range of products without overwhelming visitors, while still making specific items easy to find. Customer behavior varied, repeat buyers usually know the exact model or SKU they want and need to get there fast, while new customers browse more broadly, thinking in terms of product type or their business. Navigation had to support both without slowing either down.

Menu navigation: Buyers don't all browse the same way, so I built a mega-menu with product images next to each category, letting buyers visually confirm they're in the right place instead of guessing from text alone. This mattered in particular given the customer base: many buyers come from Asian backgrounds and aren't always most comfortable navigating in English, so imagery gave them a faster, less language-dependent way to know they'd found the right category. Alongside it, SKU/name/brand search covers repeat buyers who already know exactly what they're ordering.

Mobile’s prominent search bar: Since a mobile menu takes more taps to navigate than the desktop mega-menu, I gave the search bar a more prominent, centered placement on mobile specifically, letting buyers who already know their SKU or product name skip multi-level navigation entirely.

Beyond the mega-menu, I added curated homepage sections (best sellers, popular Asian items, and featured categories) so returning or high-intent buyers could skip full navigation entirely and land straight on relevant products from the homepage.

Working within the palette my boss set, I used orange consistently for CTAs and highlighting important information such as sales price and expandable components, so the visual system stayed consistent across a catalog of thousands of SKUs, not just the homepage.

Capturing non-standard demand: For custom equipment, exhaust fans, and hoods, I built dedicated quote-request forms directly into the site so buyers with non-catalog needs (custom dimensions, specific hood types, made-to-order metalwork) could still convert instead of hitting a dead end.