Expose Skroutz services

Promote services earlier in the funnel

Overview

Promoting the Skroutz services is a major feature which I contributed as a product designer. It's a project that we dropped very quickly, but I consider it as successful, since its goal was to validate whether the users are looking for our services in the cart or not, and we accomplish that. We also wanted to gain insights on what services contribute to cart conversions and use the data in future iterations.

From a personal standpoint, this project posed significant challenges for me. This was primarily because the proposed solutions did not follow common standards about cart design. Consequently, extensive UX research became crucial to explore alternative paths that would yield optimal outcomes.

Description

Problem

The issue at hand is that users lack visibility regarding the availability of the desired service on the marketplace. Moreover, if the service is available but not offered by all the shops they have added to their cart, they are unable to identify which specific item (shop) is preventing them from making the purchase with the desired service.

Goal

The main goal of this feature was to collect data on whether the users are willing to filter their cart according to their desired service and if yes, which services do they need. Also, one of the main goals was to promote our services at an early stage in the user journey, that means earlier than checkout. Also, we wanted to help the users build a cart accordingly based on their specific needs.

Challenge

One big challenge we faced in this project was getting the team on board with a solution we knew wouldn't work well but would give us the data we needed. Adding filters to the cart isn't a usual thing, and I personally didn't think it was the best solution for users. However, it served our purpose and was a starting point toward our goal. I consider it a success because we collected valuable data and gained knowledge that helped us find a better solution later on.

Current state

% of users that had the option % of users that ordered with the service % of merchants that offer the service
Skroutz point 43% 10% 51%
Cash on delivery 56% 18.9% 63%
Invoice 97% 7% 60%
Gift wraps - 1.6% 22%

User feedback

Feedback from previous surveys and user interviews

1. I believe that by buying from the Skroutz marketplace, I can’t pay with cash on delivery

15% of the users did not complete the purchase of the mobile phone from the Skroutz cart because, as they stated, it does not have the payment method they wanted, with cash on delivery winning first place with 88%.

2. Skroutz cart doesn’t offer the option to buy with invoice.

8% of the users did not complete the purchase of the mobile phone from the Skroutz cart because, as they stated, they wanted an invoice. 16% of these, would like to pay for their order by invoice at the original price (including VAT).

29% of the users believe that in the Skroutz basket there is no option for a 39A invoice at all and 40% consider the purchase process with a 39A invoice easier in the store than in Skroutz.

3. I would like to be able to see which stores deliver to Skroutz Point from the SKU page

4. Skroutz Points are the reason I prefer shopping from the Skroutz cart

Validate on current state

In that way, we measured how many users wanted the service but couldn’t have it. The results are:

  • 7.7% clicked on invoice option
  • 4% clicked on gift wrap option
  • 7% clicked on cash on delivery option

The above percentages refer to the user’s action (click) and not intention to buy. We don’t know if the fact that we don’t offer the service, stopped them from buying. It is a safe assumption to say that they are interested in the service, though.

We know that the average order value of orders with invoice is ~110€, while orders without it have an average order value of ~60€, so we need to take that into account.

Define the MVP and iterations

1st iteration: Validate on current state

2nd iteration: Add extra services in product page

3rd iteration: Rethink the buying options in product page

Run usability tests on wireframes

In order to take quick user feedback on the filtering in cart, we created a figma prototype and we ran internal usability tests.

The feedback we got summarizes in the following:

  • They want to do the filtering in SKU, so that they have the minimum changes in the cart page
  • It seems a bit weird to have the option of invoice in the SKU - Usually it is found in the checkout steps
  • The majority of users understood how the filters work and they used them to compare the different prices.
  • The majority of the users didn’t like the fact that, by adding a service, the shop changed. Some of them said that they choose the merchant and they don’t want this to change.
  • Most of the users expected that the same shop would offer the services.
  • Some users said that they don’t like the concept of “filtering” the services. They said that it’s an add-on in the same sub-order.
  • When the user got a “no-results” page:
    • They said that they would remove filters in order to see what works
    • They said that they would like to be told which service is unavailable
  • Gift wrap and cash on delivery was expected in checkout, as in real life
  • Not all services have the same importance for the users - Some consider the gift wrap really important and some of them the cash on delivery option.

MVP design

Even if the user feedback indicated to us that the filtering in cart is confusing and leads to changes in price and merchants, which the users find surprising and sometimes frustrating, we decided to implement it in cart - as we initially planned- as it was the quickest solution.

Decisions

We decided that, as a MVP:

  • There could be more than one filters available - if none is available, the whole block is hidden
  • Ineligible filters would not be shown
  • We will start with invoice and gift wrap
  • All filters are joined with AND
  • If at least one line item does not have at least one shop that covers all selected filters
    • Cart would not have any proposals, thus cannot proceed to checkout
    • There would be a plain line items view with indications about "missing services" on the relevant line items
Suggested solution design

Heuristic evaluation

At this point, we have come to the conclusion that the design we have developed deviates from the anticipated behavior as indicated by our research findings. Despite our initial conviction to pursue this approach, I made the decision to conduct a heuristic evaluation of the proposed solution in order to address the most critical issues. To achieve this, I enlisted the assistance of three other product designers, and together we performed the evaluation, uncovering several significant concerns that needed to be addressed.

I won't post the heuristic evaluation here in order to keep it short, but I'm willing to share with anyone who will ask it.

These included:

  • The user don’t know why the "proceed to checkout" button is disabled
  • When the proceed to checkout button is disabled, a solution is not suggested
  • Choices are made earlier or later in the process (pay in cart, gift wrap at the end, get a package from pick-up point). In the real world, a cart doesn’t change during basket building

Quantitative data

The first two services that we decided to add as filters in cart were invoice and gift wrap. Our objective was to assess the impact on checkout conversion rates and determine whether the utilization of these services increased. The resulting data we obtained are as follows:

  • 0.29% of the orders were with filters enabled
    • 46.97% of them were done with invoice filter enabled
    • 50.58% of them were done with gift wrap filter enabled
  • 32.87% of carts with filters enabled showed no results at least once
  • Half of the users that resulted in a cart with no results, proceeded to a successful order

Conclusion

To summarize, the project did not yield a significant influence on checkout conversion rates, nor did it generate the expected promotion of the services. However, it provided valuable insights into user intentions and offered a clearer direction for our next steps.

From a personal perspective, I gained considerable benefits from this project, considering its intricate nature that demanded proficient communication skills and extensive UX research.

Read more about the second iteration in my blogpost promote Skroutz services in checkout.