Adapting pandemic friendly practices through e-commerce

Project Overview

The pandemic has brought forth many challenges which has pushed companies to invest in their digital infrastructures. Trader Joe’s prides itself on providing positive experiences in store and by designing a mobile app, will provide a safer shopping experience for customers.

Role

User Research, Information Architecture, Interaction design, UI design, Prototyping & Testing

Completed as a student case study for DesignLab’s UX Academy. Imagery and logos are property of Trader Joe’s.

Step 1: Research

In order to better understand the grocery industry and consumers, I identified the following research methods to better understand the problem.

• Secondary research

• Competitive analysis

• User interviews

This project began with secondary research on the market, the grocery industry, which allowed me to better understand how grocery stores are addressing the pandemic. I found that companies have implemented curbside and delivery options to accommodate consumers, while Trader Joe’s (TJ’s) has not made these changes. I wanted to identify why TJ’s has not made these accommodations and to analyze their current digital presence. In addition to that, it allowed me to explore user shopping habits pre pandemic and during the pandemic. With this research, I began to understand that there was a huge uptick in online shopping as users seek safer shopping practices.

I moved on to interviews and to explore users, their needs, pains and shopping habits. In order to get a better understanding customers, I sought out participants who are frequent shoppers of Trader Joe’s to gauge their perspectives within the context of this project.

Understanding the user

I wanted to understand if and how the pandemic had impacted users’ shopping habits and their motivation for shopping at Trader Joe’s. Key questions such as “how would you define the Trader Joe’s environment and shopping experience?” and “what differences have you noticed with shopping online versus in person?” were pivotal to understand the employee’s expectations and needs. I addressed these points in user interviews.

User interviews

Four participants who are frequent shoppers at Trader Joe’s were interviewed. At the beginning of the interview, a usability test of the current Trader Joe’s site was conducted to define users’ goals and pain points. They were asked about motivations for shopping at Trader Joe’s, grocery sites they like and their least favorite part about shopping during the pandemic or otherwise.

The goals for the interview included:

• Identifying customer’s shopping habits during pandemic and prior to it

• Identifying a customer’s priorities when shopping online

• Exploring if customers have expectations when grocery shopping

• Learning pain points and successes for shopping online and in person
  

The key findings for the interview included:

• Users feel anxious shopping in crowded stores during the pandemic. Being in close proximity with others and not being able to socially distance makes the shopping experience unsettling.

• Users shop at Trader Joe’s for the unique product selection and to engage with the friendly staff. The customer service is unmatched and users like making conversation with the employees.

• Users want the ability to easily find products online and purchase these items. Users found difficulty locating products on TJ’s website and would like this process to be more efficient.

• They would like an experience online that is as delightful as shopping in store. Users appreciate wandering around the store and admire the unique and eclectic branding.

Empathy map

Once the interviews were completed, an empathy map was produced to find commonalities from the users’ answers. This empathy map shows that interview participants are not particularly fond of the current Trader Joe’s website, its lack of product information and inability to purchase items.

Persona

Data from user interviews and the empathy map influenced the making of this persona. The persona enjoys a diverse palette of food and is frequently looking for new things to try. This persona feels overwhelmed shopping in store during the pandemic and wants to buy healthy products.

Users and the market

Once I understood the user, it became clearer what their needs were, and that includes wanting to feel safe while shopping and to have access to new and exciting products. I sought to understand the relationship between the customer and the grocery industry.

Trader Joe’s highly values the in store experience and the local mom and pop shop feeling. Shopping in store is deemed to be part of the brand and the company would rather invest resources in their physical stores. While the company has followed CDC protocol in store, they are missing a large consumer base with the lack of a comprehensive digital presence. Presently, their website does not allow users to save, checkout or find a majority of their products online and the lack of an app means users have less options to shop.

According to the Global Data, consumer shopping habits have shifted dramatically during the pandemic. E commerce now accounts for up to 16% of all US sales and online shopping increased by 53%. Consumers are opting to shop at stores which offer “multi channel” options such as online purchasing and in store pick up services. Companies which opted to employ multi channel services saw an increase of customers using their websites.

Competitive analysis

To further analyze the market, a competitive analysis was completed between grocery stores. Trader Joe’s is a leader in the industry, defined by its weekly new products and customer service. Yet, other grocery stores have made the effort to include online, curbside and delivery options on an app are more convenient for a user’s needs during the pandemic and beyond.

Step 2: Ideate

Based on my conversations with users, and an understanding of the market, I was at a point to begin developing the information architecture. I completed a card sorting activity to understand how users categorize grocery items, developed a roadmap to prioritize features and user flows to plan how a user would navigate the app to complete specific tasks.

Card sorting

Four participants were asked to sort and group a series of items found at grocery stores, such as, yogurt, rice and hand soap. Once users grouped items, they were asked to give these items a category name. Trends in category names and grouped items influenced the information architecture shown in the user flow.

Feature Roadmap

User interviews and market research influenced many of the “must have” features to allow for easy product browsing. Navigation with clear language was deemed as an important feature by all user interview participants.

User flows

The feature roadmap, along with secondary research of the market and Trader Joe’s current website influenced this user flow and its navigation. The current navigation on the Trader Joe’s site was confusing to users as they could not locate products or understand what the links meant. This user flow seeks to include clear language and navigation for a user and showcases how a user would sign up on an app, elect a product and checkout.