Ecommerce UX Strategy Ecommerce UX Strategy: A framework to deliver a better ecommerce experience. Posted on 9th October, 2022 Ecommerce UX Strategy is the process of using customer-centred research to identify points of leverage, in order for UX design to achieve the best possible results. An initial problem in doing this is that few words in the English dictionary are used more liberally (and irresponsibly) than the word “Strategy”. Strategy is a sexy word. It sounds smart, and because it’s free to use, people use it. A lot. To mean wildly different things. In the book Good and Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt argues that much of the time, when people talk about a “strategy”, they mean something else. Pay attention next time someone discusses their strategy, you might notice this. Some examples are: Strategy as objectives. “Our strategy is to acquire X new customers” Strategy as fluff. “Our strategy is to become the most liked brand in the world” Strategy as tactics. “Our strategy is to become headless” Sounds familiar? Let’s move on from bad strategy to good strategy! What is an Ecommerce UX Strategy? Ecommerce UX Strategy is a broad direction to guide the implementation of ecommerce experience design. This direction comes from a variety of sources of user/customer and business insight. A UX strategy doesn’t tell us how exactly to design a checkout, or how to style a button. That will come later with subsequent UX work. But it tells us the broad direction of travel, and how to think about the whole user experience. Benefits of Ecommerce UX Strategy Benefits of putting time and energy into strategy work before the design work starts. An Ecommerce UX Strategy sets the right tone for the project and delivers positive outcomes for the design of the experience. This is how: Influences leadership teams and achieves senior buy-in. A succinct vision for the future creates influence at every level of the organisation in a way that more granular and incremental refinements can’t. Because a UX strategy integrates business objectives and measurable outcomes into this vision, senior leaders of the organisation can buy into it and support it. For example, a UX strategy with a comprehensive vision for the customer experience can influence the operations, fulfilment and buying process for the company, as well as key design decisions on crucial components such as homepages and checkout flows. It puts customers at the centre. It’s common for ecommerce companies to make UX decisions based on stakeholders’ opinions. Many other times, designers make assumptions about customers’ needs that go untested. A UX Strategy is built from a variety of consumer insight sources, making the design and implementation of solutions targeted at improving customer problems or meeting their needs. Therefore more effective at delivering results. Brings design into close contact with measurable objectives. A good UX strategy not only suggests a way forward and a way of thinking, but it also explains how executing the strategy delivers on specific goals and KPIs for the business. In this way, the process of building a strategy ensures that the implementation is commercially aware as well as user-centred. Delivers consistency Because the broad principles in the UX Strategy guide the thinking and implementation of design, consistency is achieved. Design consistency will increase the usability of the site, and it also helps the brand in giving a memorable impression to the audience. A framework for Ecommerce UX Strategy A framework is a basic structure that contains and supports a process, such as in this case the process of arriving at a UX strategy (that guides the implementation and measurement of the design). The way we do Ecommerce UX Strategy at GENE is based on five steps: business objectives, situation analysis, ambition and guiding principles, goals and finally, a plan. Business objectives An ecommerce business might start a new planning period with a business objective, typically with a commercial focus. At this point, UX can get involved. From a UX Strategy point of view, the objective must be both achievable and measurable. To understand how achievable the objective is, we can break down that number into smaller KPIs. If for example, the objective is an increase of revenue of £500,000, we check what should be the increase in conversion rate and average order value that allows delivering this. This makes it easier to spot if business objectives are unrealistic. Let’s see a simplified fictional example with rounded numbers: Users User conversion rate TransactionsAOVRevenueCurrent 12-m performance 1,000,0002%20,000£50£1,000,000Forecast 12-m1,000,0002.5%25,000£60£1,500,000An example of how incremental £500,000 can result from improvements to the ecommerce experience, all other things being equal (such as traffic) Now we know that delivering a 25% increase in user conversion rate (for transactions), and a 20% increase in Average Order Value suffice to deliver this. Those are no small increments, but if heuristic reviews find opportunities to improve those metrics, and if we can keep breaking down goals into smaller achievements, it should be possible. The beauty of this way of thinking is that it allows the budget holders to justify the budget going into Ecommerce UX and development based on the revenue forecast and an agreement from the UX team that this forecast is achievable. Nothing will ruin a project faster than an unachievable objective set by the client or product owner that goes uncontested by a UX team that is either not bothering to analyse its feasibility, or politically unable to challenge it! We will discuss measurement in Goals and KPIs, section 4. Situation analysis. The purpose of the situation analysis is to understand “what is going on”. In situation analysis, we explore different sources of insight, such as: Heuristic reviews, including competitors Web analytics and heatmaps Audience measurement databases Unmoderated tests User in-depth interviews and other qualitative primary research Surveys and other forms of quantitative primary research By the end of this (often chaotic) process of research, there will be some key insights, problem statements and other themes that help define a vision for the desired end state of the user experience: a broad, starry-eyed ambition that is full of inspiring optimism and practical application. Ambition (and guiding principles) The “Ambition” is the big pay-off of the strategy. It’s a key thought that everything must come back to (in one way or another) This ambition comprehensively offers a way of thinking that solves a majority of users’ problems while aiming to achieve a strategic point of difference or superiority in the competitor landscape. For example: Motivating playfulness, experimentation and delight Demonstrating product superiority To guide customer decisions at every step Being impossibly helpful Ambitions can be supported by guiding principles that add a little more substance to the ambition and hints at how it can be achieved. For example, let’s say that a predominantly B2B ecommmerce site selling timber and construction materials wants to start supporting a growing segment of personal users. Having done the research, they’ve learned that these personal users are coming to the site but are failing at finding what they want or having the confidence to order it online. The ambition is to “be impossibly helpful” to give confidence to users that they’re ordering the right item. To support an ambition to “be impossibly helpful”, guiding principles give more colour to the vision and serve as a launching pad for ideation sessions: Supporting decisions with accessible content Explain what things are and why they matter Give examples of usageOffer automated + human help before purchase Offer guidance after purchase Goals and KPIs The Ecommerce UX Strategy must argue that following the strategy helps achieve the business objective. To do this, the bigger top-line objectives (eg, an incremental £1m revenue) need to be broken down into smaller, actionable goals. Similarly to how we did it when we first analysed the objective for its feasibility, but with a lot more thoroughness. If we go back to our current example, the Strategy is based on the idea of reassuring the customer during the purchase journey and increasing their satisfaction after purchase. If this sounds touchy-feely (“reassuring customers”, “increase satisfaction”), it’s because it is. But how customers feel before, during and after the purchase has commercial consequences too. GoalKPIsWhere to execute?Incremental RevenueForecastPersonal customers find the right products for them.Increase 20% on Product ViewsHomepageSearchPLP£250,000Personal customers understand better what products are for and how to use them.Increase Add-to-Baskets by 35%PDP £400,000Personal customers have a higher rate of success after purchase. Increase NPS to 50Increase lifetimes value by 1.7xCustomer serviceEmail £350,000A measurement plan keeps the work on the course and ensures the work is commercially focused Please note that at this point, we have some specific ideas and objectives of what we need to design and why, and a clear idea of who we’re doing it for (personal users). However, the scope of solutions is still vast, allowing for innovative and diverse solutions across the whole customer experience. UX Plan This last phase takes the ambition, principles and goals to define a more specific series of steps. In our example of helping personal users buy timber, we might conclude that the priority is to: Redesign the homepage to offer bespoke journeys to personal users that mirrors their language, for example, “timber by job”, “timber by room”, or even “guide to timber”. Review the PLPs to offer guidance to the user on each product category. Review the PDP for complete guidance on each product including how-to-use. Consider up-selling flows that complete people’s purchases and ensure they buy everything they need for the job at hand. Help users make the most of the product they have bought, making them more likely to recommend us and come back to buy more. Of course, how we do each of those elements will need more research, ideation, prototyping, validation and testing. But it has narrowed down the work very usefully. “When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost – and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl.”TS Elliot. Here’s the whole strategy again A timber business wants to grow by £1m in revenue in the next 12 months. Situation analysis reveals the biggest opportunity is the growing segment of personal users who struggle to buy timber online. The ambition becomes to “be impossible helpful”The principles supporting the ambition revolve around supporting decisions, offering information and helping to complete the job at homeThe goals focus the mind on product views, add-to-baskets, NPS and lifetime value The plan offers some streams of research and implementation, balancing guidance and flexibility in the solution design.
