Archives: Websites

The National Forest is a UK environmental charity creating a forest across 200 square miles of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and its site carries a small shop alongside the visitor and fundraising content. The catalogue holds eight lines split across Trees, Books and Guides, Partner Clothing and Partner Food and Drink, from a £15.00 tree dedication to a £500 landscape tree, with an Ordnance Survey map at £12.99, a hardback history and a real ale selection at £15.00, and partner shoes and socks. Built on Drupal with a custom theme.

Website Design

Green as the only brand colour. A mid forest green runs through link underlines, icon strokes and button fills over white and black. Nothing else competes with it, so photography of woodland and people supplies the rest of the palette.

TT Commons throughout. The theme loads TT Commons in regular and demi bold as self-hosted web fonts and uses them for headings and body alike, giving a rounded, humanist grotesque across the whole site.

Statistics as section headers. Homepage blocks lead with a figure rather than a headline, so 9.5 million trees planted, 30 years of transformation and 200 square miles of the Midlands each open a panel with one paragraph and one link.

Shopping Experience

Shop sits inside a charity site. The shop is the last item in a main menu otherwise made of Explore the Forest, About, Ways to support, Grants and advice and What’s new, with a separate Donate button in the header.

A single flat product list. All eight items appear in one grid, each card carrying a category label above the title, a price and a View details link. Delivery is stated on the card itself, so entries read £12.99 (free delivery) or £15.00 (+ delivery).

Price shown as a floor, not a fixed figure. Several lines are priced From £15.00, From £30.00 or From £500, because the buyer chooses a species, a certificate design or a planting event before a total is set.

Order flow rather than add to cart. Dedication products open with a Start Order button that runs a sequence of choices, while the basket drawer confirms an addition and offers Go to basket or Continue shopping above a You might also like rail.

Brand Storytelling

Every purchase tied to an outcome. The shop introduction frames the range as items that help fund the work, and the tree dedication page states sapling height, the 1 January to 1 April planting window and a follow-up email confirming the woodland location.

Questions answered on the buying page. The dedication page carries its own FAQ on posting certificates, planting dates and passing a certificate to someone else.

Notable Features

Downloadable certificates instead of despatch. The gift is a PDF available immediately at the end of the order, which removes fulfilment from the transaction entirely.

Partner products sold under the charity’s name. Two categories are labelled Partner, separating third party clothing and drink from the charity’s own books and tree schemes.

The whole sequence shown before payment. The dedication page sets out choose species, choose certificate, personalise, pay, print, then plant, so nothing about the process is discovered mid-order.

The National Forest Shop page example

The National Forest Product page example

The National Forest Checkout page example

The National Forest footer example