discovery & customization for an interactive e-commerce experience

overview:

how can we make buying socks a fun, interactive experience?

• As sneaker head culture and the hyped sneakers market continues to grow and expand, why does buying socks still feel like a chore?

Project Details

who are sneaker heads?

A sneaker head is a person who collects, trades, or admires sneakers as a hobby- wikipedia

• Street and sneaker head culture has grown tremendously in the last couple of years

• Sneaker heads share photos of their looks across social media platforms

• Copping sneakers is a game, users spend hours online or use bots in order to buy a pair of limited edition shoes online

You know what sneaker heads also love? SOCKS!

because if your shoes look good, your socks have to too

PROBLEM:

• Buying socks is still boring. Why can’t buying socks be as fun and creative as buying sneakers?

• Socks are equally shared every time a sneaker head posts their shoes, so let’s take advantage of this huge opportunity and make it fun

what are user e-commerce needs today?

After conducting user interviews, and secondary research, I found three points crucial to e-commerce sales:

1. Users don’t want to feel forced to buy anything

2. Users want to purchase items that make them feel special, unique and different

3. Users want to stay on top of trends and be able to browse and discover, similar to social media apps like Instagram

5 E-commerce Trends of 2019

1. Personalization and Customer Engagement.

   Much like personalized emails generate 6x higher transaction rates and convert better than cold emails, consumers spend 48% more when their experience is personalized.

2. AI, Assistants, and Chatbots.

   AI and chatbots also learn from customer conversations and evolve to better assist in a user’s personalized e-commerce experience.

3. B2B E-commerce personalization

   E-commerce personalization works wonders for B2B shoppers as well. Research found that 50 percent of B2B buyers desired personalization when searching for online suppliers with whom to build relationships.

4. Interactive Product Visualization

   Interactive product visualization technology seeks to bring the tangible in-store experience to online consumers and alleviate their hesitation prior to purchasing.

5. More Custom Retail Experiences

With plenty of hosting providers to choose from and e-commerce platforms on the rise, companies are creating e-commerce experiences within a retail store via digital kiosks. As a user engages with the kiosk, it can perform a number of functions including providing personalized product suggestions or displaying interactive information about the product at hand.

* https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/5-future-ecommerce-trends-of-2019

discovery, trend news, and customization

• The top apps of 2019 include discovery and news feeds

• Instagram and Youtube learn from every interaction with the user to curate the feed

• Stock X and Nike Snkrs constantly updates sneaker enthusiasts on new drops, upcoming, and special offers

• Brands like Nike and Converse that allow for customization make their users feel special and individual

• The user instead becomes not only a consumer on the app, but also a designer that other users can discover

disguising chaussettes as an inspiration/ discovery source

• The goal for the business is to sell product, but consumers don’t want to feel forced to purchase

• By making the app centered around a trend source with customization, the user has the opportunity to discover and be creative

• By allowing save, share and favorite features, the items the user designs and likes have a higher chance of converting to sales

user journey

Regardless of if the user discovers or customizes in the interface, they will have the option to buy, share, like, or save. If the interaction does not end in a sale, the data from the user’s activity will help curate discovery content.

organizing key insights for user interaction:

discovery & customization

After mapping out the user journey, it was important to sketch out the key components into wireframes.

1. As discovery was one of the users’ most loved experience, I created a daily feed for the homepage. The more the user likes, creates and makes purchases in the app, the more curated the discovery news would become by capturing data.

2. The customization page is the central interaction that allows the user to design, share, and/or purchases their creations.

3. As the user flow becomes a loop where the business captures data, if the interaction doesn’t end with a sale, Chaussettes learns from each experience, saves the user’s likes, offers deals and sends curated messages on their profile page.

• The first section of customization allows the user to choose the style of sock they’d like to customize

• Suggestions are included to inspire the user, but also to save to their favorites for possible future purchase

• The second section of customization is choosing colors, stripes, print and script

• The user is able to preview their design before moving on to the next customization tool

• As the user completes their creation, they are able to save, share, or purchase

saving your creations, inspirations & special unlocks

• As the user creates new designs and browses through inspiration, their favorites will be stored

• Chaussettes will also allow for special perks as the user continues to use the app, contribute designs, and purchase products

• An inbox can allow for notifications from Chaussettes for exclusive product, discounts, and promotions

next steps

• Continue usability testing to gather user rich data to curate newsfeed specifically for user base

• With continued testing, strategically limit or add number of styles to the app that will create a profit for the business and neither underwhelm nor overwhelm the user

To interact with the prototype, enter here

CHAUSSETTES PROTOTYPE