UX Designer/Lead Designer.
Role
Design Thinking, Design System, Personas, Prototyping.
Skills
Figma, React, HTML5, Tableau.
Tools Used
Summary
Imagine: You've finally saved up for that brand new sweater you've been eyeing. You make the purchase, but then the dreaded realization hits - you've picked the wrong size. Frustration sets in as you face the daunting process of submitting a support request, waiting for a response, and possibly being transferred to another department. It's a nightmare scenario for any shopper.
Introducing Editfy: A smart solution designed to empower customers to edit their orders seamlessly, eliminating the need for cumbersome support tickets and streamlining the shopping experience for all.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is one the leading E-commerce all in one platforms within North America. Merchants are able to build, manage and grow their business all from one platform!
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Problem space
Our team found that the largest issue among merchants was the amount of time spent on changing and correcting orders.
Shopify wants to provide a solution that allows customers to take order capabilities into their own hands. While reducing the load on merchants and further enhancing the merchant business.
We focused on these themes as our final product needed to hit all three of these points.
How Might We Question
How might we create a customer account app that enhances merchant productivity and revenue, yet ensures security of customer data?
What kind of app experiences could you create that enable merchants to offer self-service options to their customers that reduce support requests or boost sales?
Our team decided to focus our lenses on the question of “How might we create a self-service customer account app that enhances merchant productivity and revenue?"
We felt this was our strongest area to display a solution and had the best data to support our solution.
After defining the problem space and HMW question we then proceed with our research. We concluded that we would need to research the reasons for customers reaching out to merchants for support, and which type of Shopify stores are most popular to maximize our impact.
Research
Research Methods
Our process began with our data scientist researching three vital aspects of the "how might we" problem to develop an effective solution:
Investigating specific issues that prompt customers to seek support.
Analyzing data of the most popular Shopify store categories.
Reviewing order processes and improving checkout flows to benefit both merchants and customers.
Secondary Research
Secondary research helped identify the key issues driving customers to submit support tickets and assisted in highlighting strategies to increase sales for Shopify merchants. We pinpointed the most significant problems, explored methods to enhance sales, and targeted the largest merchant category on Shopify to maximize our impact. By concentrating on these areas, we aimed to achieve the greatest benefit for both customers and merchants.
What Makes Customers Seek Out Merchant Support?
We began to narrow down the reasons in which customers reach out to merchants.
We found these three issues to be the most common reasons for customers reaching out to merchants for support.
Most popular Shopify Store Categories
After understanding what customer issues mainly pertained to, we began to conduct further research to understand which Shopify stores will encounter these issues. This also allowed us to better understand who to target to make the most significant impact. After our research was conducted we found that Apparel, Home/Garden, and Beauty/Fitness made up the majority of Shopify stores.
Our team then discovered this graph from Statista (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1394355/shopify-stores-by-category/) . We utilized this data to understand the industry in which our application would have the most affect.
From our research we decided to focus on Apparel. As this is the category with the most amount of merchants, and where our solution would make the largest impact.
Order Review Issues
After collecting data and understanding why customers reach out to merchants along with apparel being Shopify’s largest shopping category. We further dove into order review and issues within the checkout process.
Largest order review issue, users have to go back in checkout flow to edit.
The second largest issue, edit buttons being separate links and hard to find.
How do Merchants Benefit From Better Order Usability?
With our solution merchants would ultimately be able to look forward to reduced amount of support requests, more focus on shop operations, and increased conversion rates.
Market Significance Of Improved Checkout Usability
Optimizing checkout flow and design for e-commerce sites in the U.S and E.U. could reclaim approximately $260 billion USD in lost orders.
Companies tend to overlook the importance of their checkout flow and how optimizing it can lead to retaining more sales and customers.
After researching which Shopify stores were most popular our team then moved on to synthesize all the given data. We used the data to create two personas and an experience map to understand the needs of both the merchants and clients.
Synthesis
Following the completion of the secondary research, we created two personas. One displayed a merchant selling clothing and the other is a young adult purchasing clothing.
Persona Development
After reviewing the data of Shopify category distribution we focused our scope to be aimed at clothing vendors. Also while making young adults process of buying clothing to be easier, and ensuring the process is smoother and less reliant on merchant intervention.
Merchant Persona
Customer Persona
Experience Map
We crafted a user journey to give shape to our solution, this enabled our team to develop an approach that would assist both the shopper and the merchant simultaneously.
After our experience map and personas were completed we moved into prototyping our final solution. We used Shopify’s assets and UI library to ensure our application was consistent with the company’s style guide and brand guidelines.
Presented Solution
Editfy Merchant Application
Editfy is a third-party application available for download and implementation by Shopify merchants. It empowers shoppers to manage their orders within a specified time frame. Users can make various edits to their orders, with a primary focus on modifying item sizes and quantities.
Hi- Fi Iteration
Crafted as a mobile web experience, the Hi-Fi mockup illustrates a seamless shopping and checkout journey. It empowers users to modify their orders independently. Shoppers can adjust size, colour, and style without having to contact the merchant. This helps make the shopping experience simpler and reduces the reliance on support tickets submitted to the merchant.
First phase of customer editing.
Second step showing edits made to order.
Third screen confirms clients information.
Key Learnings and Next Steps
Design Impact
Throughout the development of our solution, our primary goal was to create a product that benefits all stakeholders involved. We focused on maintaining design coherence and ensuring seamless integration with a company's checkout process, while still highlighting their unique aesthetics.
Next Steps
For the next steps our team would like to develop this into a full fledged application that can be implemented to Shopify merchants to allow for a smoother checkout process and reduction in support requests.
We would also like to incorporate other features of the editing option such as swapping colour or to even a completely different item providing it is still within the time allotted to the customer.
Key learnings
After completing this project there were a few lessons I took from this:
Communication is key when working with a team.
Ensuring everyone’s ideas are heard, no matter how big or small they may be.
Not being afraid to make decisions.
Trusting your own skills and your teammates.
Keeping a positive attitude when features don’t go as planned.
Thank you for reading!
You have made it to the end! I would like to take a moment to personally thank you for taking the time to read my case study.
Thank you again so much for reading, and please send me an email or connect with me on LinkedIn if you have additional questions or would like to chat!
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