PROBLEM STATEMENT
Reimagining e-commerce for
the next 100mn users in India
PROJECT TIMELINE
December 2023 - January 2024
ROLE
Sr. Product Designer, Visual Design
PROJECT TIMELINE
December 2023 - January 2024
ROLE
Sr. Product Designer, Visual Design
PROJECT TIMELINE
Jan 2020 - Jun 2020
ROLE
UX, Product Thinking, Visual Design
3x
Conversion increase
2X
Daily active users
53%
Repeat users
2GUD is a value-conscious marketplace, launched by Flipkart in 2019, with the vision of making the “bazaars of India”, digital. This translates to providing a great unbranded selection that you would typically find in local markets, at value.
I led the design strategy and execution of this project along with three designers. I did user research to unearth what our users need, conducted workshops to bring a shared understanding of the problem space, and called out the need to change our strategy.
Through the facilitation of design workshops, I played a pivotal role in enabling solution discovery and revamping our product. This project did not start with the intent of building an experience vision but evolved organically to a complete redesign of the platform.
The problem
The engagement & conversion rate were low
Description of the problem
After 6 months of launch, engagement and conversion were highly unsatisfactory. We saw good traffic on the platform but users were not engaged much and were not converting as buyers.
Why is the problem significant?
As the engagement and conversion rates were low, there was a dip in sales. As an e-commerce platform, the business team couldn’t get their monthly numbers right and it was important to address this problem and bring the engagement and conversion rates better.
Understanding the problem
In order to address the problem, the product team was seeking ideas on how to increase user engagement on the app. I proposed that we immerse ourselves in User Research to understand the shopping behaviour of our users – Specifically, I mentioned that we needed to understand what is it that makes people go to our competitor stores (AliExpress, Shein, Clubfactory, Wish).
This is a great starting point when you are in the discovery phase of a product. Because, ideally, if you want your product to replace one of your competitors – you need to understand what the competition is offering to the users, in the first place.
Home page
Home page
Cat navigation
Product details page
Understanding competition & user motivation
Primary Research
We interviewed users in the age group of 18-30 years. The interviewees were from Jeeves (a partner org. of Flipkart that takes care of customer support). We chose this group because we wanted to understand the motivations of people from different socio-economic backgrounds and also because of easier access.
While the user research team on Flipkart was conducting an in-depth study on the next 100 million users, we felt that it primarily covered people’s barriers to entry to online shopping and did not really talk about what makes them shop.
Empathy map
Thinks
Says
Does
💬 Looks at competitor’s products
💬 Keeps the product in cart and has a doubt to buy
Thinks
💬 E-Commerce is not safe
💬 Store shopping is better and gets the exact feel of the product
Feels
💬 I was expecting something better
💬 I did not get the same product as seen on the app
💬 Wants to wear stylish cloths at affordable budget
💬 These products are not for them
Synthesizing research
There are 3 types of goals that are relevant for designers & product makers.
🥅 Visceral goals
🥅 Behavioural goals
🥅 Reflective goals
I used this lens to look at the research findings to uncover the core needs of the users.
How the user
wants to feel
Experience Goals
(Visceral Goals)
Eg: I Feel bored. I want to get entertained etc.
What causes behaviour?
Needs/Wants/Goals
What the user
wants to do
End Goals
(Behavioural Goals)
Eg: I want to find crop tops.
Who the user
wants to be
Life Goals
(Reflective Goals)
Eg: I want people to appreciate when dressed up.
Core needs
Synthesizing the research enabled me to discover the core needs of people interacting with these various e-commerce stores.
The need to keep up with the times - #BeTrendy
The need to stand out from the crowd - #BeUnique
The need to become better - #BeBetter
If people were to engage with 2GUD, we have to address these core needs.
Ideation workshop
Building a shared understanding
Armed with the knowledge of our user’s needs and the barriers to entry for e-commerce in tier 2, 3 & 4 towns, it was important for all the key stakeholders to be on the same page in order for us to decide on what we should be doing.
I conducted a workshop in order to bring shared understanding among the various stakeholders in the team.
Creative Ideation
Having done the homework earlier, each of our sprints started with a How Might We statement. We focused on the following questions to be addressed as part of our workshops.
HMW enable our users to become trendy/unique/better as they interact with 2GUD?
HMW inculcate trust as they browse 2GUD?
The strategy
Influencer-based commerce
The idea from the design sprint was a stepping stone for formulating our strategy.
The concept was that we’d have a person talking about the product in the form of a video. This product could be something that is trendy/unique. This person would talk about how they’d use this product to style themselves better or do things in a better way.
The important aspect here is: People trust a person that they know or relate to, rather than a system. The person in the video would be an influencer, but who is known in the community. 2GUD would sample some selections and send them to make videos.
Our product team spent some time ideating on the supply side of things and had come up with a plan. The initial strategy was to find people who are already influencers on Tiktok and Instagram and use some of their content and combine it with our selection. Later, we would nurture people within the community to become influencers.
Our hypothesis
Influencer-based commerce works better than traditional e-commerce for the next 100mn users
The designs
While we would have influencer content that would showcase trendy selections - not every product would have a video associated with it and not every video would be watched. It was important to showcase the diverse selection that we have on 2GUD. So, selection discovery is definitely an important goal we had in mind when designing.
Video Commerce Home Page
The home page having a full screen video running with influencers along with product cards in reference to the video.
Home page
Search bar
Search bar for the user to explore their needs
Explore
Users can choose between their following influencers or explore new influencers
Full video
Full screen Video
for better engagement
Product cards
Product cards where the items will be displayed from the video played
Influencer profile
Profile icon for the user to discover from the influencer’s store
Home page
Product details inlay
Product details cards referenced in the influencer video on the homepage
Merchandising + Influencer Exploration Page
Users will also have a choice to explore the e-commerce format but the page will be integrated with an influencer angle.
Rewards Zone
Master widget
The master merchandising banner with an influencer integration
Influencer navigation
Top trending influencers where the users can browse via influencer channel
Influencer collection
Influencers show their suggestions and collection to showcase aspirational choice
Deal cards
A section to explore selections and deals
Budget shopping
A quick navigation to shop under every budget
Explore page
Influencer Store
A page for the influencers to showcase their collections, deals and suggestions.
Influencer store page
Influencer store page
Prototyping & testing
While our team was creating great designs, I proceeded to prototype the experience as close to the real thing as possible.
This prototype was used in all major presentations with stakeholders. I ensured that people experience this on their mobile phones, to experience the product as intended by the designers. I also created a detailed prototype for the team to use for usability testing sessions.
Impact and learnings
The revamp of the product was ready and we had our internal dogfooding with the Flipkart employees. This set of users found the strategy a very unique and interesting one. Some of them even gave the name “Social Commerce”. After the internal dogfooding, we ran an A/B test with the new influencer-led commerce and traditional e-commerce for five weeks. It was found that influencer-led commerce had a better engagement rate and the user spent more time on the app.
After three months of the launch, there was a significant increase in engagement and a nearly 3x increase in conversion.
Conversion rate
3x
Avg. time spent
18 mins
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