IBM Project Whitespace
Same-Day Delivery Application
In 2018, our team of PMs, Designers and Developers set out to improve the experience of ecommerce shopping and same-day delivery. We conducted user research, designed, prototyped and ran usability tests with hundreds of shoppers. We coded a live solution and launched with a complete business plan in fall of 2018 on the Google Chrome Store.
Users
Who we designed for
Shoppers who were looking for convenience in a busy schedule (ex. parents, working-adults)
Shoppers with urgency and limited mobility (ex. lack of transportation, family to watch, work travel)
Retailers with less capital to invest in digital transformations (med-large big-box retailers)
What were the problems:
We visited several retailers and spoke with store employees about ecommerce fulfillment. We interviewed shoppers and learned about their behaviors.
Shoppers:
- Worried about package theft when ordering online
- Shoppers wait at home for long delivery windows, unable to leave
- Difficult to understand how to use same-day delivery and which products were available for delivery
- Inconsistent experience across retail brands
- Lack of transparency into delivery process
- Inaccurate ETAs
- Distributed support system
Retailers:
- Costly investment to launch a same-day delivery program
- Couriers require contracts. If you are operating in multiple cities then multiple couriers and contracts to manage
- Several months to develop changes on website and connect inventory to courier's systems
- Unsure if shoppers have the appetite for delivery
Solution
How we solved the problem
Understanding that retailers had difficult integrating directly on their platform, we decided to make a consumer facing application (B2C) that transforms any store with in-store pickup, into a same-day delivery store.
We did this by using browser plug-in technology and overlaying our delivery experience onto every ecommerce site. We added simple, constant steps so that it was easy to order delivery.
For the shopper it appears as if the store now offers same-day delivery. On the backend, the orders are processed for "in-store pickup". Our service matches the order with a delivery courier and arranges the pickup--creating a seamless experience for the customer.
Other plugins experience audit
Honey Chrome Extension
Amazon Assistant plugin
Sketches and wireframes
By mapping existing ecommerce flows we were able to create the seamless experience for the shopper. We experimented with the amount of data to show, where to show it, and what to remove. The technology gave us a lot of flexibility so we used usability testing to determine the best flow for our shopper persona.
We ran over 200 usability tests over several months and learned from the valuable feedback.
Final solution
Onboarding walkthrough
I created this on-boarding walkthrough animations to demonstrate how to use Gofleetly. It play when you first install the plugin.
Final takeaways
What did I learn?
With this project I learned that you need to identify and really understand your target user. Our app is not for any shopper and I especially noticed that during usability testing. I had to design for the busy shopper looking to save time. Once I narrowed down the scope I was able to refine the solution and it tested with greater success.
I also learned the importance of on-boarding experiences and timely demonstrations. For everyone designing new experiences, you must provide clear instructions, not only before but also in the moment.
Lastly, every ecommerce website is different. We had to build something that universally accounted for these variables. It was challenging but helped constrain/focus my design decisions.