New feature adding: Bulk buy

Integrating a Bulk Purchase Option into the Entire E-commerce Shopping Experience

Role

Product Designer

Industry

E-commerce

Duration

2 months

Overview

By adding a "Bulk Buy" option to our purchase experience, we aimed to reduce plan-switching calls by 40% and encourage larger orders through effortless plan-switching and flexible buying options.

Because Market, an e-commerce company specializing in discreet incontinence products, introduced a "Bulk Buy" option to simplify selection, offer flexible shipping, and provide discounts. User testing ensured the feature was intuitive, seamless, and enhanced with FAQs and dedicated support.

Role

🎨 Product Designer / ✍️ Product Manager / 💻 Engineer/ 📊 Data / ☎️ Customer Service

As the sole product designer, I was responsible for leading all design initiatives and collaborating closely with the product manager, customer service, data, and engineering teams.

Problem

To identify customer pain points for Q3 2023, I created a customer journey map highlighting key touchpoints in the subscription process. Once the map was reviewed by all team members, I led a brainstorming session to explore solutions for the high-priority problems.
Customer Problem

Customers struggle to upgrade subscriptions or adjust delivery frequency, leading to frustration and increased support calls.

Business Problem:

High support call volumes strain resources.

Goal

✨Business Goal
  • Reduce plan-switching calls by over 40% to alleviate traffic for the customer support team.

  • Encourage subscribers to place larger orders.

✨Customer Needs
  • Effortless switching between purchase plans.

  • Greater flexibility in buying options.


Strategy

Facilitated user testing with a diverse group of app users, gathering insightful feedback on the redesign. This phase was crucial in identifying unforeseen usability issues and validating the effectiveness of the new design elements. Iterative refinements were made based on this feedback, fine-tuning the app's interface to maximize user satisfaction and engagement.


Old version

Overview

By adding a "Bulk Buy" option to our purchase experience, we aimed to reduce plan-switching calls by 40% and encourage larger orders through effortless plan-switching and flexible buying options.

Because Market, an e-commerce company specializing in discreet incontinence products, introduced a "Bulk Buy" option to simplify selection, offer flexible shipping, and provide discounts. User testing ensured the feature was intuitive, seamless, and enhanced with FAQs and dedicated support.

Role

🎨 Product Designer / ✍️ Product Manager / 💻 Engineer/ 📊 Data / ☎️ Customer Service

As the sole product designer, I was responsible for leading all design initiatives and collaborating closely with the product manager, customer service, data, and engineering teams.

Problem

To identify customer pain points for Q3 2023, I created a customer journey map highlighting key touchpoints in the subscription process. Once the map was reviewed by all team members, I led a brainstorming session to explore solutions for the high-priority problems.
Customer Problem

Customers struggle to upgrade subscriptions or adjust delivery frequency, leading to frustration and increased support calls.

Business Problem:

High support call volumes strain resources.

Goal

✨Business Goal
  • Reduce plan-switching calls by over 40% to alleviate traffic for the customer support team.

  • Encourage subscribers to place larger orders.

✨Customer Needs
  • Effortless switching between purchase plans.

  • Greater flexibility in buying options.


Strategy

Facilitated user testing with a diverse group of app users, gathering insightful feedback on the redesign. This phase was crucial in identifying unforeseen usability issues and validating the effectiveness of the new design elements. Iterative refinements were made based on this feedback, fine-tuning the app's interface to maximize user satisfaction and engagement.


Old version

Solutions

Cart

After meeting with the marketing team, we prioritized "Monthly Subscription" and "Bulk Buy" as our main focus. However, to maintain our cart abandonment rate, we kept the "Buy Once" button as a secondary option, ensuring all customers have the flexibility to switch between purchase options.

PDP

Heatmaps revealed that 80% of users stayed within the top half of the Product Detail Page (PDP) without scrolling further. To address this, I designed a horizontal card layout that ensured key information was immediately visible and easily accessible at a glance.


Test Results

Cart
  • The "Buy Once" option appears somewhat inconspicuous, which may not contribute effectively to our goal of reducing the abandonment rate.

  • Half of the users from usertesting.com switched to “Buy once,” and most ignored “Bulk buy.”

  • Customers are still a bit confused.

PDP
  • Customers clearly understand the plans, and some are willing to switch their monthly plans to Bulk Buy.

  • Without scrolling down to read more, customers say they get most of the information that they want.


New Version

Cart

The dropdown menu reduced confusion among customers, leading to a 40% decrease in calls to modify delivery plans for 3 months.

  • I created a dropdown button to provide customers with a comprehensive overview of all options and to explain which plan they are currently selecting.

  • Customers can compare discount differences by selecting different plans.

  • Made the plan/discount descriptions shorter and simpler.


PDP

We got feedback from our CEO and COO:

"Why do we need the underwear picture there?"

"Can we remove it?"

So we created a new version of the cards, and did an A/B test for the 2 versions collaborated with our engineering team to launch two versions of the feature, targeting two distinct groups of customers. After the launch, I worked with the Data team to gather insights from Mixpanel to analyze the results.

Both designs performed similarly, so we opted for the simpler, no-image version to save space and reduce clutter.


What’s next?

While the introduction of 3 months-plan Bulk Buy successfully met our KPIs’ directions, further improvements were identified:

Customer Feedback: Some users expressed concerns about forgetting their plans and being charged unexpectedly.

Upcoming Enhancements: Offering new subscription options (e.g., every 15 days, every 2 months) to better match customer preferences.


Data

From our Customer support team and Data team’s summary, those are the most popular options:

  • Every 15 days

  • Every 1 month

  • Every 2 months

  • 3 months supply

  • 4 months supply

  • 6 months supply


Final Design

To simplify the learning process, we've decided to use a dropdown box to ensure alignment between the Product Details Page, the Cart page, and the Customer Portal.

🤝 Handover the new components to our Eng team

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Copyright 2024 by Callum Hayes

Copyright 2024 by Callum Hayes

Copyright 2024 by Callum Hayes