Discovery Lead (My role)
-Plan, Outline, & Run discovery kickoff
-Run stakeholder interviews
-Draft initial research plan & questions
-Create visuals for user interviews & take notes
-Collaborate with supporting UXR Lead on analyzing feedback & putting together a
readout of the findings.
readout of the findings.
Supporting Roles:
-UX Research Lead: refined research plan, sourced participants, moderated interviews & supported analysis and readout
-Product Manager: assisted in sourcing stakeholders for interviews & sharing out findings with out business partners specifically
The Challenge
Digital Merchandising approached our team with a request for a discovery on random weight items. They were struggling to understand why sales were so low on ecomm in comparison to how they are advertised and how well sales performed in store. Their assumption was that because we display the "each" price instead of the "price per unit" as the dominant price display on the product cards, we were potentially causing additional friction for our online shoppers.
Discovery
Previous research from Supply Chain team and 84.51 indicated a slight customer preference for items sold by weight, but our team felt there might be some additional insights missing in terms of what customers say they want vs what they actually want when actively navigating our site. Random weight items continue to be a pain point for our online shoppers and for our digital merchandising business partners, so our team took the time to take a more wholistic look at product cards & product details pages with a special focus on random weight items.
Stakeholder Interviews
Supply Chain & 84.51 Research
Problem Tree Analysis Workshop (Item Display & Merch)
Goals & Anti Goals with Item Display Team & Merch
Assumptions, Questions, & Research Plan
-What mental models exist for the way people shop for weighted items today?
-Can images play a role in providing more clarity? (ex- for produce or for meat)
-Might it be possible to run a small test on some changes to images on the live site?
-Could the stepper be more dynamic depending on the item being sold? (this might be difficult to do)
Overarching Theme
Customer comprehension of product card information is directly impacted by how cohesive the information is presented on product cards.
There are also major differences between the way that customers shop for produce in comparison to meat and seafood.
Customers also pointed out inconsistencies in the experience (ex- similar looking seafood items are sold by the each instead of the pound) as another reason why they would question themselves when attempting to buy meat or seafood for a pickup or delivery order.
When customers are not able to feel confident in their selection, many will often to choose to buy the item in-store (with us or with a competitor) to eliminate the risk of ordering or paying too much.
When shown examples of switching the price per pound as the main display, the majority of customers found the display personally confusing, or called out that others might get confused if they're not paying attention and doing the math. This sentiment was especially true for meat & seafood items.
This was a big difference in sentiment in comparison to the previous research we (and other teams) had previously done which had shown a slight preference for price per pound.
Recommendations & Key Takeaways
Our main recommendation for next steps was for us and merchandising to take a closer look at how all of the elements work together on the cards to provide customers with the content they need in a clear and concise way.
Product images do play a crucial role in that list of elements and should reflect how the item is being sold.
If/when we have the opportunity to be more precise in the increments that customers are allowed to select for their quantity (ex- 1/2 lb), we also believe that will help customers feel much more confident in what they are purchasing.
As an additional enhancement, perhaps the PDP could provide more details to customers on how and item is sold & expected serving sizes if there's not enough space on the cards for that amount of detail.