Website Redesign

Increasing customer conversion rates by streamlining access to product information

Redesign of ReCo’s landing, catalogue and product page to improve the customer journey, address customer inquiries and ultimately increase conversion rates.

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Timeline

Team

Role

3 Week Sprint

Dotti L

Ashley S

James T

UX / UI Designer

UX Researcher

THE CLIENT

ReCo is a zero-waste, refill delivery service based in Sydney. They partner with eco-friendly brands, package their all-natural cleaning products in reusable glass jars and deliver them to customers' doorsteps. After use, ReCo collects and sanitizes the empty jars at their local facility, ensuring a closed-loop system that minimizes waste and promotes a circular economy.

THE PROBLEM/S

High drop-off rate: users were not moving from the home page to the product page.
Low conversion rate: users were hesitant to finalise their purchases

ReCo theorised that this stemmed from the lack of information on the product pages, as supported by an influx of customer inquiries regarding the products. We later validated this assumption by conducting user testing on the existing website.

THE SOLUTION

A redesigned landing & product page to reduce customer drop-off rates and increase conversion rates.

The revamped landing page featured an interactive slider to showcase the product benefits upfront, thereby driving more visits to the product pages.

Additionally, to address the increasing customer inquiries, we implemented an accordion menu on the product page, allowing customers to access all the necessary information at a glance.

We also made small changes to the product catalogue, including pricing details and clear call-to-action buttons that direct customers to relevant product pages for seamless purchasing.

OUR RESEARCH AND DESIGN PROCESS

MARKET TRENDS

Australian plastic consumption has doubled in two decades, averaging 130kg per person annually.

According to WWF this staggering amount encompasses around 1 billion disposable coffee cups, 10 million plastic bags, 3.5 billion plastic straws, and 15 million plastic bottles per year.
Unfortunately, only 12% of the plastic waste generated in Australia is recycled.
Between 2018 and 2019, the country produced a total of 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste, with only 9% recycled.

Luckily, there is a growing demand for refillable products

This market expansion encompasses a wide range of refillable products, including hand wash, cleaning products, shampoos, conditioners, and even certain food items.
Retailers like Coles and Woolworths are also currently trialling in-store refillable stations to help shoppers save money and reduce waste.
According to Smithers, the value for re-use and refill packaging is forecast to grow 5% annually across 2022-27 to $53.5 billion.

ACADEMIC STUDIES

Consumers will avoid purchasing green products if they are perceived to be too:

Novelty and perceived risk also deter first-time green buyers

Hence, “green” should be the sole complementary feature of the product.

FEATURE INVENTORY

ReCo highlights the affordability of its product but fails to distinguish it from non-eco-friendly alternatives

Our competitor analysis revealed that brands like Hudstone and Resparkle not only meet customer needs by detailing cost per wash and product longevity but also benchmark their effectiveness against conventional counterparts. Moreover, brands provide usage instructions for new users. Currently, ReCo fulfils only 2/5 of these features.

This offered insights into e-commerce features required in the refill market.

TESTING THE CURRENT SOLUTION

ReCo's website currently does not display its products front and centre. While users skimmed over lengthy text, they were drawn to infographics, particularly those highlighting cost savings.

ReCo reported a high drop-off rate on the home page as well as customers coming back with an influx of questions about the products. To validate this, we conducted 12 usability tests of the current site. Here are our key findings:

10/12 users were confused by the "Get Your Refill" button as items were added to their cart automatically without confirmation.
- 8/12 users found it tiresome to find the products as they had to scroll through the business model
- 9/12 users skimmed over long excerpts and focused on highlighted text and images.
  - 5/9 of those users users skimmed the "how it works" section without gaining a clear understanding of the service.
5/12 users struggled with finding products as they were presented with a large banner instead of the product listings.
- 9/12 users paid attention to the amount and cost per load but didn’t know what it was or what to compare it to
- 5/12 Users skimmed through the product benefits text and paid attention to the infographics at bottom of the page

Landing page (click to enlarge gifs)

Shop all page

Product page

USER INTERVIEWS

ReCo's users value eco-friendliness without sacrificing product performance.

What they’re doing

Uses ReCo’s dishwashing and laundry powder for their high-performing cleaning powder and longevity
Refills every 3 months
Picks up their refills as they live or work nearby
Picks the sustainable option if the prices are comparable to the conventional option
Takes part in other sustainable practices such as recycling, refilling and conscientious shopping

Interviewing 42 shoppers and 8 bulk refill store staff instore and online

To ground our secondary research, we interviewed consumers to better understand their purchasing motivations and sustainability choices for household and cleaning products, asking questions such as:

“Tell me about the last time you purchased a household product”
“Could you walk me through the last time you purchased a cleaning product?”
“When was the last time sustainability has affected your purchasing decisions and why?

We then synthesized our insights through affinity mapping and highlighted the key needs, wants and frustrations consumers experienced.

What they’re saying

“I will stop using a sustainable product if it doesn’t perform well”
“I decided to give ReCo a try because of their waste-free business model”
“I use ReCo to limit my consumption because I care about the environment”
“I don’t have to make frequent visits to the grocer because ReCo lasts a long time”

Our interviews revealed 4 key findings

ARCHETYPE

Meet the Aspiring Sustainable Shopper

Having already embraced some sustainable habits like recycling, they are eager to take it a step further and integrate sustainability into their buying habits.

EMPATHY MAP

Understanding the
Aspiring Sustainable Shopper

We empathy-mapped our insights to help us visually depict and understand our users' needs. By visualizing what they “think, feel and do”, we gained a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of their key motivations when it came to purchasing sustainable cleaning products.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The aspiring sustainable shopper needs to seek cost-effective options to build sustainable shopping habits

JOURNEY MAP

The journey map allowed us to identify the ‘consideration’ phase as the intervention point

REFRAMING THE PROBLEM

How might we…

Reduce product selection friction?

Encourage green shopping habits?
Highlight cost-effectiveness?

To help us generate ideas, we transformed our problem statement into three "How Might We?" statements and found three recurring solutions.

However, ReCo’s high landing page drop-off rate posed an additional hurdle:

User tests revealed difficulties in navigating to product pages due to the focus on the business model over immediately showcasing the products.
Thus we needed to prioritise a solution that quickly communicated product benefits upon website arrival to capture the user’s attention
This could simplify user decision-making during the consideration phase, reduce drop-off and promote product page exploration.

After some debate, we assessed that merging concepts 2 & 3 would be the most feasible and valuable approach for ReCo and it’s customers

Considering feasibility, impact, and value, we evaluated:

Comparison chart: While feasible, it might not solve the homepage drop-off issue. Its detailed cost-effectiveness charts make it more appropriate for product pages.
Annotated product image: Whilst not the ‘flashiest’ idea, it presents essential product details concisely. It’s the most feasible idea as existing copy and images can be leveraged.
Interactive slider: While less feasible, it showcases ReCo's three key products. The interactivity captures users’ attention and adds a delightful element, making it highly desirable.

WINNING IDEA

An annotated interactive slider on the landing page that highlights the cost-effective benefits of ReCo’s main products

We hypothesised: merging concepts 2 and 3 would direct users to ReCo's main products and concisely highlight benefits, aiding their consideration phase Whereas, the interactive nature of the slider would help maintain user engagement. Positioning this feature on the homepage aimed to address the landing page drop-off issue and pique user interest, and ideally encourage them to explore the product pages for more in-depth information.

DEVELOPING THE MVP

A task flow focused on navigation & displaying key information

The flow was straightforward: users would simply hover over the interactive slider, navigate to the product page, and then reach the cart.

However, we wanted our solution to focus on not just navigation, but also on effectively highlighting information for customers. To achieve this, we needed to delve further into what information to present, and where to present it.

Task flow

Prioritising features for user value & feasibility

We determined what features from our task flow to include in our MVP by prioritising them according to what would bring the most value to our aspiring sustainable shopper whilst requiring minimal effort to implement.

Feature prioritisation

Content hierarchy

From our matrix we extracted features from the high-impact, low-effort quadrant and conducted a series of card-sorting exercises with 5 users to determine what kind of information users expected and which page they expected information to go under.

We further refined these card sorting results by aligning them with the existing information available on ReCo’s website.

Card sorting

Content hierarchy

LOW-FI TESTING AND DEVELOPMENT

Testing with 5 users prompted us to condense the slider information, as well as clearly present the business model to reduce user confusion.

Our testing revealed that:

Most users found the flow to be familiar and were able to complete a purchase
However, most still skimmed through much of the slider content, and were puzzled by the repetition of information on the product page
Some users were confused about the refill service that was mentioned in the provided scenario

Adjustments made as we moved into hi-fi:

Displaying the business model beneath the slider to eliminate user confusion regarding the refilling service, as well as maintain consistency with the information presented in the slider
We enhanced the readability of the slider by consolidating certain points like, like ‘super concentrated’ and the refill rate into a single bullet point: ‘long-lasting’
Ensure the product page provides more detailed information about the products

SHIFTING THE FOCUS - PRODUCT PAGE

Using accordions, comparison charts and icons on the product page to simplify the consideration phase and address client questions.

As most users were able to successfully navigate from the sliders to the product page in the previous test, we decided to also redesign the product page to ease product evaluation and reduce inquiries.

To do so, we analysed e-commerce sites for best practices in condensing ReCo's product details and highlighting their cost-effectiveness. We found that:

Content was made digestible through accordions and icons, showing information such as use instructions, shipping, returns and ingredients
Comparison charts highlighted the unique advantages of the product over competitors.

HI-FI TESTING AND DEVELOPMENT

Testing with another 5 users showed successful navigation from landing to product page. Users also felt well informed about the product to proceed with a purchase.