Case Study: Ecommerce Checkout
Drove a $10.5M (5%) surge in sales and improved conversion 9.1% by spearheading design process and advocacy campaign.
Industries: Ecommerce, Retail and Gourmet Food
Platforms: Web, iOS and Android
Competencies: Design strategy and process, team and project management, advocacy, influence, research and data analysis, mentorship, presentation and collaboration
Team: Design Manager, Senior UX Designer, Junior UX Designer, Development Manager and 4 Developers
As the Lead UX Designer, I orchestrated strategy, research, design and management of new features and improvements for ecommerce web sites and mobile apps at B2C gift retailer founded in 1910 with $439M annual revenue.
Harry & David (H&D) was acquired by 1-800 Flowers in 2017 and their customers were moved to a floral-focused checkout process. This checkout negatively impacted H&D’s web and mobile revenue.
Image 1: Redesigned Shopping Cart screen for harryanddavid.com.
Task
Redesign the checkout for H&D’s customers while gaining approval from 1-800 Flowers' product management, development teams and leadership, overcoming roadblocks on the path to delivery before the 2018 holiday season.
Actions
I approached this challenge in two parallel tracks: leading a design process focused on evidence and validation at every step and an advocacy campaign to build support for the project to get it approved and delivered. Selected actions:
Design Process
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Synthesized previous research findings to pinpoint sources of friction and address significant issues.
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Aligned design process steps with research insights and project timeline.
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Managed the end-to-end redesign and development efforts.
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Mentored a direct report in advanced prototyping and user testing techniques.
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Successfully coordinated with a third-party vendor to replicate the redesign on the company's mobile application.
Advocacy and Influence
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Crafted a compelling proposal, emphasizing the project's critical business impact.
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Promoted the project company-wide, garnering support from customer service and other brands.
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Actively collaborated with the development team, ensuring clear communication of requirements and cooperative problem-solving for technical challenges.
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Presented regular progress and validation results to stakeholders, CEOs and CTOs, maintaining project momentum and support.
Results
The new checkout experience went live in November 2018. The trust and confidence that I had inspired over the course of the project overcame any remaining hesitancy to present it to 100% of H&D's customers just before Black Friday.
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$10.5 million (5%) in increased holiday sales directly attributed to this redesign
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Increased conversion by 9.1% and reduced abandonment by 9.7%
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Expanded awareness and credibility of the UX design group
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Addressed 100% of friction sources, 75% of the major problems and 70% of the minor problems identified in the research
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Increased customer satisfaction and reduced customer support chat and call volume
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Both the desktop and mobile versions of the checkout were in use from 2018-2022