New Tomorrow

A case study in five days

The problem
A brand dedicated to the production of bags using 100% recyclable materials wants to enter the e-Commerce model and open a multi-device online shop, with the aim of increasing sales in the national territory (Spain).

Research
Two main variables of sustainable brands have been found from the earliest stages of the Research process:

1. Brands whose products are made from plastics recovered from the oceans. These brands stand out for their social involvement, focused on environmental cleanliness.

2. Brands that trade in products made from recycled materials, such as leather, suede, old clothing, carpets or even fruit peels and skins.

Benchmark

Benchmark

Comparative table
After an initial assessment of the characteristics and particularities of each brand, a table was drawn up with comparisons of those characteristics most closely related to the nature of our project.

Conclusions
With the comparative table created, we can see the different functionalities that our competitors have. It is worth noting that 5 out of 6 brands do not offer the possibility of customising their products, and that the brand that does (Labienhecha) has not designed a specific tool, but rather customisation consists of the purchase of elements added to the product.

On the other hand, although most of them emphasise the durability of their products, only one brand has a guarantee of up to two years. While durability is not a factor that has to be linked to the guarantee, the latter will be a positive point to take into account when your customers compare your products with your competitors.

Finally, it should be pointed out that user registration to make a purchase is not necessary in 5 out of 6 of the brands investigated, Ecoalf being the only one that forces its users to register in order to complete the order.

User persona
At this point in the Research process, many of the original questions are beginning to be answered, but the specifics of our target customers still need to be uncovered.

To answer these questions, the following User Personas are developed.

User journey
The elaboration of the User Journey puts us in the context of two potential consumers and how they go through the various phases of pre-sale, sale and post-sale. This User Journey is based on the possible behaviour of the User Persona, which according to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the intention to buy a product, in this case a recyclable product, derives from the interaction of three subjective constructs: attitude, subjective norms and behavioural control.

In our case, the User Journey will help us to assess opportunities or pain points from the time the target customer has the attitude of purchase (first construct) of a recycled product, which will lead to a positive or negative evaluation (second construct) by the customer regarding the purchase of this product and as such is a direct antecedent of the purchase intention (third construct). Therefore, as a brand we have two major opportunities to impact the customer prior to the purchase of the product, influencing the customer's view of the purchase of recycled products, thus establishing a positive valuation of the product and therefore the brand.

But as not everything is black and white, it has also been decided to add another type of User Journey, referring to a possible consumer different from the previous one, in which the second User persona (Amanda) will play the role of a customer who, without a direct motivation to buy a bag made from recycled materials, is able to fit into the User Target, showing possible opportunities and pain points that otherwise would not be valued.

Summary
We started working with Abstract to share and manage the library in an efficient and fast way. This helped us to find possible duplicate components and to be more collaborative. By including more designers in the team, it made this task less painful and less time consuming to have direct contact with the library. It also helps everyone learn from problems that other designers run into.

MVP

Constrains
Like any project in the real world, it is decided to make an assessment of the possible Constrains that we may face when building the website, in order to have an objective view of the Must-have that it should have.

1. Construction of the Happy Path only
In this first phase, only the Happy Path is considered, i.e. from the moment the user enters the website until the end of the payment process, without taking into account possible failures such as 404 or 500 errors.

2. Payment gateway integration
This will depend on the time and equipment we'll have, and can be built from scratch or we can seek help from third parties such as Shopify.

3. Customiser tool
One of the key parts of the website will be the personaliser. It will be very important to carry out A/B tests with users to check its usability.

4. Presence of features such as 360º view or Videos
The 360º view or gallery with videos can be an attraction for many users. As for the 360º view, it will be key when building the customiser.

Must-have and nice-to-have
According to Nielsen and Norman Group, there are a series of Must-Have and Nice-To-Have that an e-Commerce should have.

Based on what NNGroup has proposed, a list has been drawn up with characteristics that the Web (Must-Have) and a Nice-To-Have will have, in order to have an added value that can delight our customers.

Must-have:
Descriptive product name
Recognisable images
Price (including possible extra charges)
Clear product options: Colour, size...
Availability or Stock
Clear way to Add a product to basket & Feedback that it has been added
Concise and informative product description
Customisation tool (in our case it is a fundamental part of the Briefing)

Nice-to-have:
Reviews:
From the list that NNGroup proposes (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ecommerce-product-pages/), we have chosen to add Reviews on the Website, as they can be an opportunity to highlight the brand values, as well as a key indicator for a customer's purchasing decision.
According to a compilation of trends from BrightLocal, prospective buyers ignore comments older than three months.
Are they important? Yes. According to the Baymard Institute, 95% of users rely on other users' reviews to learn more about a product or to evaluate a product in a decisive way.

Special features
To the previously mentioned generic list, we have added a series of qualities and properties to highlight that will increase not only the brand value that we want to transmit but also the positioning and a positive rating with respect to the competition.

Highlight the durability and guarantee
The materials of which the bags are made, such as rubber and plastic fibre, are highly durable and resistant to external influences.
According to the European Union's 2018 Behavioural Study on Consumers' Engagement in the Circular Economy, which surveyed a diverse group of people between the ages of 25 and 60, the durability and repairability of a product were found to be features of high interest and they would like to see them on the product label or warranty. They conclude that these factors are effective in encouraging purchase and justifying the possible higher price of a product over one without these outstanding features.

Shipment
The fact that deliveries are free of charge or that in-store pick-up is available can be decisive for a quick purchase decision.

Purchase flow strategy
In the Benchmark phase, not only verticalised brands in the handbag trade were compared, but also how other e-commerce market leaders in the clothing trade implement the shopping flow strategy. In this type of retailer, the strategy is aimed at consumer engagement, i.e. the flow strategy seeks continuous and prolonged browsing in the catalogue, taking into account that the consumer's use cases will be to get ideas/inspiration and to make a multiple purchase in most cases. However, in the handbag retail vertical, user behaviour tends to be different. In this case, the user will be looking to make a direct purchase of one or a few units of the product, so the strategy to follow will be the one that involves the least interaction in the purchase flow.

Registration
The Log in / Sign up process for users does not have to be mandatory for a user to be able to track their shipment. It may cause unnecessary friction.

Information architecture
The information architecture of the website will help us to gather all the necessary information to then start designing the MVP.

Prototype

Desktop

Mobile

Success measure

KPIs

To measure user behaviour on the website, a series of metrics will be needed at several key points in the sales funnel. The main intention is that this funnel is as narrow as possible at the end of the checkout flow and that the majority of users with purchase intent complete their session with a transaction.

The conversion rate and bounce rate should be taken into consideration as sales indicators, as well as indicators that both the user experience and the user's understanding of the product have been favourable.

It is also worth noting the balance of the abandonment rate of the custom screen, which will indicate if there is something wrong with the process in order to address the problem as soon as possible.

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