Role
- UX Research
- Visual Design
- Web Design
Duration
APR – AUG 2020 (5 months)
Tools
- Adobe XD
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
The Problem
- The business had to shut down for almost three months in the year 2020 when the pandemic hit
- After 23 days of lockdown, there were consistent periodic lockdowns due to surges into Covid cases.
- Lockdowns heavily impacted the business as there was no possibility to do any kind of sale over-the-counter as all the stores were shut down.
- This impacted a lot as the business could not sustain itself as there were salary dues and business loans that had to be paid.
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The Goal
- The goal was to identify different channels to reach customers.
- To find avenues to run the business in lockdown.
Business Flow
Stakeholder Research
To understand and empathize with the problem better I have conducted multiple rounds of interviews. The goal here was clearly knowing their pains and possible gains. Â
Stakeholder Interviews
- The goal was to identify different channels to reach customers.
- To find avenues to run the business in lockdown.
Can you describe the current situation of your business?
How did this shutdown impact you?
Do your customers contact you? Can you not reach your customers?
Could you please explain the type of your business?
How much inventory do you hold as of now?
Do you have any solution in your mind?
Stakeholder Empathy Maps
Key Findings
- Lot of inventory was available for newborn babies and kids products.
- Online business for essential products is allowed even during the lockdown.
- The business needs an inexpensive yet quick and workable digital solution.
User Research
- User research is equally important in such case study as ultimately customer will the primary user of the solution.
- I’ve conducted 10 user interviews with existing customers to understand and empathize with their pain points.Â
- Created empathy map of the diverse user base from the inputs from user interviews.
- Generated personas out of it and created a user journey map for the same.
User Interviews
Firstly, I wanted to understand our target users —their goals, perceptions, and experiences. So, we interviewed both male and female parents, new and old parents, working professionals, and homemakers to gain deeper insights through these questions.
I conducted 5 user interviews with the goal to discover user behaviors when ordering kids essentials for the first time and what would be the most essential features for them.
Diving into the mindset of the participants, it was clear that the users would have specific needs and wants.Â
Here are a couple of quotes from the interviews that stood out for me and changed the way I thought about designing MyChampsKart.
Empathy Maps
- It was imperative to me to find who my audience is and how to cater to them.
- Empathy mapping my interviews response helped me separate all things that are important to the user and how they feel would help them including pain points and gains, and what the user thinks should be a special feature.
User Personas
User Journey Map
Key Findings
- Lack of personalised options such as curated checklist based on age, gender, skin type criteria.
- Cash on delivery is trusted mode of payment for new websites.
- Use of payment wallets like : Paytm, Phonepe etc
- Users want to see real picture reviews from others’ orders.
- Need of stamps/badges about trusted buyers, ISI approved products.
- Users want coupon suggestions code based on cart value.
Competitor Analysis
Prototyping
Solution
- Based on all the above studies, we decided to build an e-commerce website.
- Mobile App will be considered in 2nd phase based on the feedback.
- We chose WooCommerce as a platform since it is free & open source.
- We chose Razorpay as a payment gateway since it provides a wide range of payment options.
- Shipping aggregator as Shiprocket which provides shipping across the country and provides COD.
Home Page
Impact
- A kid’s store from a small town like Karad could reach hundreds of new customers across. This helped the business sustain during the pandemic.
- Going digital helped increase the brand value of the store multi-folds. Thus,opening up new business avenues.
Lessons Learned
- There were so many solutions we wanted to implement. However, we ultimately had to tell ourselves to stop working and set a cutoff period; otherwise, this project would go on forever.
- Performing more interviews to gather more extensive qualitative data.
- Conducting user testing sessions early on to ensure the design is still viable.
- Try to not strive for perfection, but strive to grow and learn because no project is flawless.