Using Design to instruct and guide shoppers to use a new kind of rebate
Buy-More-Save-More rebates had not been done on abt.com prior to this point. Being more complex than a simple instant rebate, additional interface considerations were needed to guide shoppers to their goal
Competitors in the appliance retail space had begun using variable instant rebates based on the number of items purchased. My team was given the task of creating this feature for abt.com.
I was instructed to work with front-end, back-end developers, and the pricing manager to create an intuitive flow and interface for this rebate that would guide shoppers to save more money by purchasing more products.
The Process
Competitor Analysis
We began by looking at examples of competitors already using this kind of rebate and found examples of what they were doing well and areas we could improve on
Ideation
I began sketching and wireframing ideas for how the interface might appear, and tried to uncover which details would help shoppers' understanding.
I used quick guerilla studies on coworkers and friends and family to test my assumptions and made changes based on the results.
MVP
We launched a first version of the promotion and I used session recording software to observe how shoppers behavior changed.
Back to the Drawing Board
Real users quickly changed my assumptions. I believed that when presented with the new promotion, that most users would want to deviate from the usual flow to find more products on a specialized product listing page. This was not the case.
Working with the developers, we designed and built a new display of eligible products that existed in a more typical shopping flow. This resulted in more shoppers seeing and interacting with the UI and exploring the offer.
CUSTOMERS
300
IMPRESSIONS
2500
SALES
2500
STATISTIC
75
What I Learned
I learned more about shopper behavior from this project than any before it. I was mistaken about how much design influence would be needed to change a shoppers behavior. This has changed the way I think about designing for nearly every ecommerce project since.
We also saw that many more people using the rebate appeared to be making purchases they would have made anyway. We did not have the go-ahead to research into why that was. My hypothesis is that most consumers are unlikely to add another big ticket item like an appliance to their purchase spontaneously.
Take aways for next time
I would like to be able to get real feedback from real users. Unfortunately this was not possible for this project. I believe there are more insights to be had about what might entice shoppers to explore the offer and what might convince them to make an additional purchase.