Making The Marlowes a must-visit, online and in person

The Marlowes is one of Hertfordshire's best-known shopping centres, sitting at the heart of Hemel Hempstead and home to over 60 retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues. It is managed by Maritime Capital, a long-standing Ascensor client.

The brief came from a clear ambition: The Marlowes had outgrown its old website. Built on Umbraco, the previous site was difficult to update, which meant store listings had fallen behind and key visitor information was hard to find. 

Events were buried, new openings went unannounced and pop-ups came and went without a digital presence to match.

The team at Maritime Capital wanted a shift in how the centre came across online. The Marlowes has real energy, with new tenants arriving, a packed events calendar and a genuine community feel.

The website needed to reflect that, positioning the centre as a destination worth seeking out rather than somewhere you just happen to pass through.

There were practical challenges, too. Visitors arriving at the old site had to work to find basic information: car park opening times, the postcode for sat nav, which stores were trading and when. Getting those basics right was just as important as the visual overhaul.

UX and site structure

We reworked the site structure around the journeys that matter most to visitors, giving clearer priority to stores, events, offers and practical visiting information. Key areas including the floor plan, opening hours, parking details, customer care and getting there all needed to be easier to reach, with navigation that felt intuitive from the first click.

The goal was to surface the details people actively look for when planning a trip, so visitors could get to the answers they needed quickly without digging through the site.

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Design and development

Ascensor designed and built the new website in Webflow, replacing the Umbraco setup with a platform the team can manage confidently without developer support. The new design moves away from a static listing and towards a more vibrant, destination-led presence, supported by stronger imagery and video content.

The homepage sets the tone immediately. We produced video footage of the centre and its surroundings, giving visitors a genuine feel for The Marlowes before they've even stepped through the door. The result is engaging and immediate, far closer to how the centre actually feels on a busy day.

Webflow gave the project the flexibility to create a polished front-end experience while keeping the back end straightforward to manage, with a CMS structure suited to regular updates across stores, offers, news, events and visitor information.

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Content, functionality and ongoing usability

We migrated and refreshed key content, introduced clearer calls to action and made important information easier to access across the site. Practical visitor content, from sat nav and parking details to accessibility and centre support information, sits alongside promotional content for new openings, events and centre activity.

Alongside the main website, we built a brand asset hub as part of the same Webflow project. This gives partner businesses and third-party suppliers, such as social media agencies and print suppliers, a single place to access The Marlowes' logos, colour palette and brand guidelines. Maritime Capital can now point any new partner directly to the site rather than managing individual asset requests manually.

We also integrated HubSpot and built in newsletter and enquiry journeys, giving the team a solid foundation for ongoing marketing activity and helping the website work as an active platform rather than a static brochure.

The Marlowes now has a website that genuinely reflects the centre it represents: contemporary, easy to navigate and built around the things visitors actually want to know.

Visitors can move quickly between stores, the floor plan, offers, events and essential visit information. The Webflow CMS has made a real difference to how the team manages the site day to day, with new store arrivals, events and seasonal offers publishable quickly and without any technical friction. The brand asset hub has already reduced admin time, giving partners one reliable place to find what they need.

The client was delighted with both the finished product and the process, and the relationship with Maritime Capital has since grown. 

Ascensor now handles digital marketing for The Marlowes, building on the foundation the new site provides. With events, pop-ups and community content now given proper visibility, the site can support destination-led campaigns as the centre continues to evolve.

It’s a project that began with a website build and has developed into an ongoing partnership, with more still to come.