Users at the board table
KIKA case study
Increase in revenue 48.8%
KIKA is the most popular pet goods chain in Lithuania, with 75 shops here and 35 shops in Estonia. Some KIKA large shops also offer pet grooming, veterinary, and pharmaceutical services. In addition to brick and mortar, customers can order their goods from the e-shop.
The only uncertainty is certain.
Can you imagine your customers sitting at the board meeting and passionately representing their pains and jobs to be done? Yes, it sounds a little bit naive. But maybe that is exactly what is needed? Whose task is to integrate and unify those views as everyone from marketing to logistics plays a part in the customer’s journey? It is hard, though an essential, question to ask
When seeking a better User Experience of e-commerce, we are sure about two things: we are stepping into a gray zone. Uncertainty should not be avoided. We even have to praise it, especially when a website has not seen significant changes for years. We can solve lots of business and user challenges through UX. Even those that would be considered a UX challenge.
We can solve lots of business and user challenges through UX. Even those that would be considered a UX challenge.
Let‘s take a look at the example: the end-user is unaware of logistical challenges, and the business thinks that they are too hard to solve on their website. How can we solve this quest using UX.
Houston, we have a multicart problem.
When website visitors collect their carts and order goods, they do not know where these products physically exist because KIKA offers both warehoused and stored items on their website to achieve greater variety and higher availability of goods for online shoppers.
When businesses like KIKA combine in-store and online shopping, they face a serious logistical challenge.
The worst-case scenario is when the website user can not complete the purchase because of it. Even worse is when they are not being informed about the why. The truth is, that KIKA could not deliver a mixed cart to the user because it would drastically increase logistical costs and make the cart more expensive, and therefore deter website visitors from completing their order.
Numbers are not universal. Talk with customers.
We prepared a set of research tactics that included Google Analytics data, qualitative Hotjar data analysis, Heuristic Funnel Walkthrough, User Interviews, and Usability testing. This holistic approach to deep analysis gave us valuable insights. Remember – Google Analytics is not the holy grail. Live user testing is inevitable to go beyond the surface and reveal the core issues.
We conducted interviews with real KIKA customers. During the 40-minute conversations and observations, they completed the tasks within the website while commenting on how they felt and what they thought.
During our research, we realized that there are serious pick-up in-store issues. While observing customers, we noticed that an error message appears when the user has some products in the cart and tries to add one available only for the in-store pick-up. The system does not allow add-to-cart action if, for example, two products are picked up only, and both are in different locations.
This held users back from placing an order. Also, users got to know which store would have their desired item only during the Checkout Delivery stage. Sometimes, these available stores appeared to be located far away from the residential city of the user. The inconvenience resulted in a high drop-off rate (38.66%).
Furthermore, messaging for and notifying customers about products available only for pick up in stores or same-day delivery was very unclear and unpleasant.
Unconventional methods bring great results.
Research and analysis helped define the end goal – improving the user experience by making the purchase faster and more straightforward. We recommended reviewing all delivery and pick-up options and deciding which options should go and which should stay.
We chose a scenario in which customers would go through the checkout only once:
- In the Cart Step: several carts would be created automatically. The customer would be informed about the possible delivery methods for each cart.
- Customers would select delivery methods and times for each cart separately in the Delivery Step but do everything within the same step (same screen).
- In the Payment Step: customers would see the total but would have to pay for each cart separately (after each payment, a customer would be brought right back where they left off).
Yes, we know that this solution was not very common in e-commerce, so we understood that clear communication about the multicart order system and different delivery methods before starting the checkout process is the key to success.
Without significant risk, there is no significant result, they say. Understanding that many actions and a high volume of information in each checkout step could become a reason for users to drop off at the beginning of the checkout process, we put a well-matched union between copywriting and UI to work to minimize this risk:
- One direct action at a time (customers have to focus only on one job). Accordion design and dropdowns were a huge help.
- A very clear copy explains what has to be done in every step.
- The customer knows what is clickable and what is not, which tasks are active currently and which ones will become active after a current task is completed.
After the updates to the website were made, the results were talking for themselves:
- 48.8% increase in revenue
- 15.6% increase in Conversion Rate
- 39.2% increase in Transaction
- 6.9% increase in average order value compared to the previous period.
Can you do this all on your own? Sure! Though, there is a catch. We have gathered insights from tons of websites and applied this knowledge throughout the process.
An external perspective can do some UI magic even when you have an excellent in-house design and development team. We do not care about office politics or authorities. Still, we care about higher conversion rates and your business growth through a better user experience.
