Interviews and Co-creation Activities for an E-commerce

A home improvement retailer ready to start selling online needed to figure out how to move their niche in-store clients to an e-commerce platform. In order to understand why their customers were loyal to them, how to imprint the in-person charm of the store into an e-commerce, pain points in their current customer service, and what would make them switch to online purchasing, interviews and co-creations of their customer journey map were conducted.

I worked as a UX researcher in a team of 3. I helped in designing and planning the study, moderating sessions and and worked collaboratively on the deliverables.

Outcomes

The client was able to idenfity key points in their in-store selling process and how to improve the experience in their e-commerce, evaluating with their IT team if desired features could be included in the new platform.

After the presentation, the client decided to continue working with us on a second phase in which their website was redesigned.

Users

3 types of customers of the physical stores:

• furniture makers

• small-size resellers

• purchasing managers at construction companies

Methodology

• Group interviews were conducted for each type of user.

• Participants were also involved in a co-creation activity, in which together they crafted a journey map of their current customer experience, from deciding to go to the store until their products were delivered.

  • They discussed their needs and pain points of every step of their journey.

  • They suggested ways in which the experience could be improved in an e-commerce platform.

Challenges

• Recruiting was challenging since the location of the activity was far from the city, so the activities involved less participants than originally planned.

• The client was comfortable with this solution since they understood the difficulties and was happy with the findings of the sessions.

Deliverables

A full report that included:

• Findings of the group interviews with verbatim and actionable recommendations.

  • The client was surprised by the revelation from a participant who knew how to create products in the store internal system and sometimes would help other customers with their purchases.

• Emotion/journey maps communicating how the e-commerce platform needs to address customers’ needs at different points in their journey –from the moment a customer starts looking into buying a product until they received the product at their office/workshop.

  • These maps highlighted areas where the e-commerce experience should mimic the in-store experience and provided opportunities to address pain points associated with the current experience.

• 2 customer personas identifying how the new platform should be customized to meet their specific needs.

Along with another team member, we presented the report to the client.