Redesigning the Checkout Experience at GIR
In March 2020, the world changed for everyone when quarantine forced people to stay at home. As a result, people began cooking at home more than ever before, and baking became a popular outlet for stress and anxiety. This increased activity in home cooking led to an increase in the demand for kitchenware.
Context
When quarantine began in March 2020, people were forced to stay at home, which led to a significant increase in online traffic for GIR's website. However, physical sales dropped to zero.
Problem
Despite the increase in traffic, GIR's sales were not increasing.
Business Goal
To improve the overall conversion rate, with a focus on mobile, as the majority of traffic came from mobile devices.
Understanding the Problem
To gain a deeper understanding of our mobile users' experience, I partnered with the marketing team to generate heatmaps and clickmaps.
Observations
We made several key observations from our analysis:
Most mobile visitors didn't scroll past the "add to cart" button.
Customers were very engaged with swatches.
Users struggled to find relevant product information.
Prototyping
To improve the above-the-fold section, I redesigned it to feature full-width product photography and large color swatches, allowing users to see their product update in real time. To save vertical space, I removed thumbnails for product images and replaced them with a carousel.
The below-the-fold section was designed to be scalable and flexible. It included three photos, each with one paragraph of copy, which allowed GIR to tell quick and compelling stories about their products without overwhelming the user.
Launched Product
After completing internal reviews with stakeholders, the updated redesign launched. The new site included several key features, such as swipable full-width images to increase engagement, as well as interactive product swatches. To save vertical space, we removed thumbnails and replaced them with a carousel indicator. Additionally, the below-the-fold section was revamped to create a scalable, templated information area that helped with storytelling.
Impact
Increased overall conversion.
Average-order-volume increased.
Decrease in abandoned carts.
Increase in returning customers.
Reflections
The team worked together to improve the mobile experience. We moved quickly to launch a redesign with a clear focus and limited scope creep. Team members provided valuable feedback instead of conducting usability studies.
Although metrics show that the redesign improved the purchasing experience, I would have liked to do more user research to validate if the new site provided a better shopping experience for them.
Projects
Seek is an app that allows users to discover recommendations on where to eat, drink, and hang, written by curators with similar taste. However, Seek learned that users were having difficulty navigating the app, trouble using search and filter, and not being able to find useful information in their recs. The goal of this redesign was to learn what the barriers to discovery were, and help users discover relevant recs.
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