Some website projects are especially rewarding to see out in the world, and for us, SoakInWellness is one of them.
We are proud to share that SoakInWellness has been named a finalist in the eCommerce Startup Website of the Year category at the Irish eCommerce Awards 2026. It is lovely recognition for a project that was about far more than giving an existing business a new look.
A complete refresh for SoakInWellness
ITM Digital delivered the new SoakInWellness website in January 2026, following a full revamp of the previous website. The goal was a modern eCommerce platform that reflected the brand more closely while making it easier for customers to browse, shop and find what they need.
SoakInWellness is an Irish wellness brand founded by Karen Kearney in 2021. Its products are handcrafted in small batches in Sligo using Atlantic sea salt, organic herbs and essential oils, and the brand’s story and its connection to the Wild Atlantic Way are a big part of what sets it apart.
That gave us a clear brief. The website had to carry the sense of a luxury, hand-crafted experience and express the ethos behind the products: simplicity, a connection to the Irish landscape, natural resources chosen for skincare and wellbeing, and the ritual of skincare itself. In practice, that meant a website that feels spacious and light, with a calm, intuitive journey from the first page to the checkout.
Making the shopping experience easier
A good eCommerce website should never make customers work to find what they are looking for.
For SoakInWellness, we built a clear content structure and simpler navigation, so visitors can move easily from discovering the brand to exploring products and completing a purchase. The website was designed mobile-first, which matters now that so much online shopping happens away from a desktop. A website can look great on a large screen, but if the navigation feels awkward or the checkout is fiddly on a phone, customers notice, and many will leave.
Built around the brand, not just the products
One thing stood out throughout the project: SoakInWellness is not simply a shop selling wellness products.
The brand is rooted in Atlantic sea therapy, organic herbs and the landscape around Sligo, with products made in small batches along the Wild Atlantic Way using vegan and coeliac-friendly ingredients. A product catalogue alone was never going to do that justice. The website needed to communicate what SoakInWellness is about.
The finished website gives the brand room to tell that story while keeping the shopping journey straightforward. Product information, collections, customer reviews, the brand story and practical details all have a place within one considered experience. That balance matters for any eCommerce business: people need enough information to feel confident about what they are buying, and a clear path to buy it without unnecessary steps.
Performance, accessibility and flexibility
Behind the visual side of the project, there was a good deal of work focused on how the website actually performs.
The new platform was built to improve performance and accessibility while supporting multi-currency functionality. These are not always the parts of a website a customer notices, and that is the point. A customer should never have to think about whether a website has been built responsively or accessibly. They should simply be able to use it. Accessibility and performance are fundamental to a good website, not features to bolt on at the end.
A project we are proud to see recognised
The Irish eCommerce Awards recognise businesses and teams working across Ireland’s eCommerce sector, with the 2026 awards taking place in September.
Being shortlisted in the eCommerce Startup Website of the Year category is especially encouraging, because it recognises the work that goes into building an eCommerce website for a growing business. We did not build the SoakInWellness brand. That credit belongs to the people behind it. Our role was to bring that brand to life online and create a website ready to support wherever the business goes next. Seeing the finished website recognised alongside other Irish eCommerce businesses makes us very proud of what our team delivered.
See the SoakInWellness website
If you would like to see the finished project for yourself, you can visit the SoakInWellness website and explore it. You will also find it featured in the ITM Digital portfolio alongside other recent work, and the full shortlist is published by the Irish eCommerce Awards.
It has been a genuine pleasure to work with SoakInWellness on this project, and we are grateful to have played a part in building the next chapter of such a brilliant Irish brand online. We will be cheering the team on, and we wish everyone at SoakInWellness the very best of luck on the awards night in September.
