Intro
Jane was a privately owned e-commerce marketplace where customers could find discounts on products curated from small businesses around the United States. Jane provided the platform, marketing, and exposure for the products that they sold in exchange for a percentage of products’ sales value.
Opportunity
In a large research study of ~700 Jane visitors and customers, an outstanding pain point was shipping costs. When customers were adding products to their carts, they didn’t realize their shipping costs were stacking up. By the time they opened their cart, shipping cost slapped them in the face with sticker shock.
Jane customers were abandoning their carts due to silently stacking shipping costs during the shopping experience.
Shipping costs generally were showing up for new and returning customers alike as a top complaint.
Competitive analysis
We validated industry standards for add to cart experiences with Baymard Institute, a library of ux research. We then compared the guidelines from Baymard with direct competitors and other top e-commerce experiences. We identified that cart previews are almost ubiquitously present in e-commerce and generally include the same content across competitive experiences.
Competitive analysis of add to cart experiences in top e-commerce sites.
Research made it clear that add to bag was table stakes for e-commerce and the standards for content generally included were well established in industry.
Initial designs
We designed out 3 iterations of the cart preview experience following a similar pattern as used on ASOS, Home Depot, and Target.
The 3 variations included:
Variant 1 - Place order
Variant 2 - Added item selection details
Variant 3 - Added item no selection details
We were not confident to what degree customers would be receptive to information and actions in this new popover so we tested a range of inclusions.
(Left) Variant 1, (Middle) Variant 2, (Right) Variant 3
Usability testing
We performed usability testing with 5 customers on each of the 3 variants in random order. The results were all positive in terms of usability. Users found all 3 variants to be intuitive and clear. So, we needed to A/B test these variants to get real performance data to determine the value of an add to cart preview and which elements to include or exclude.
Prototype for Variant 1 for usability testing
All variants performed well in usability testing with insufficient degree of difference to determine a confident strategy.
A/B testing
V1 - Simple item, detailed summary (left), V2 - simple item, simple summary (middle), V3 - detailed item, simple summary (right)
V4 - Detailed item, detailed summary (left), V5 - simple item, simple summary, place order (middle), V6 - detailed item, simple summary, place order (right).
Variant 6 out performed the other variants in testing.
Outcome
The new "add to cart" experience increased GMV as well as smoothed the transition of shoppers from the consideration to the decision phase of shopping. In the same vein, it eased the blow of shipping costs accruing in the cart.
Though it was a minor feature, I believe it had a great qualitative impact in the shopping experience, and we know it had a good quantitative impact in the site's performance.
Prototype of final winning iteration for add to cart preview.