eCommerce Platform
An eCommerce experience to accomodate users
looking for
a natural alternative to cemeteries.
The problem
End-of-life planning is daunting. It is a difficult topic to discuss with loved ones. During the peak of COVID, visiting forests became a problem. The available forests were shut down and customers were not able to go visit their tree and have a more in-person experience.
Better Place Forests was lacking how to solve for those users who prefer to move forward and make decisions on their own without speaking to an expert guide.
The timeline
This continues to be an ongoing project, but to built it from end to end took approximately
8 sprints (4 months). This timeline is accounting for the following phases:
— Lean UX Canvas
— Business goals
— User needs
— Use cases
— The solution
Research & Analysis
Ideation
— Challenges & Requirements
— Design principles
— Current journey
— Reimagined journey
— User narrative
— UX flow
Design & Feedback
— Lo-fidelity wireframes
— Hi-fidelity wireframes
— Prototypes
— Stakeholder reviews
Impact & Next steps
— Measurable & achievable
— Learning & next steps
Research & Analysis
Lean UX Canvas | Business goals | User needs | Use cases | The solution
Business Goals
Increase business growth (sales and profitability) by:
— High customer satisfaction (NPS Score)
— Conduct full end-to-end transactions via website
— Enable users to search for, order and pay for products
— Allow users to contact during or after a sale
User needs
— Having clear ways of filter by species, size, price range
— Ability to support a single page for each product
— Steering customers towards popular products
— Having an efficient means of favoriting one or more products
Use Cases
“
I had someone recently pass
and it is making me think more about end of life
“
I want to decide which tree to purchase
“
I live 30 minutes away from Lake Arrowhead, CA
“
I am ready to look for a natural alternative option for end of life
To help cope with this issue and consider ways for this business to grow long-term,
Better Place Forests wanted to launch an eCommerce platform that allows users to navigate through and browse different forests and trees that offer this beautiful alternative to cemeteries. It promotes chatting with an expert (if needed) but giving users the ability to navigate through the purchase without the need of speaking to an expert guide.
The Solution
Ideation
Challenges & Requirements | Design Principles | Current & Reimagined journey | User narrative | UX flow
Challenges & Requirements
1) A highly accessible platform to our audience (age 40+)
2) Sell trees in an engaging and thoughtful way
3) Emulate the experience of visiting a forest (‘outs’ to talk to expert guide)
4) Address some issues we heard from customers:
a) Customers are not understanding the extent of their purchase and what it means to buy a tree
b) Potential customers often suffer from analysis/paralysis when it came down to picking the final tree
Design principles
*
Our designs should provide clarity, simplicity and user friendliness to allow users to feel comfortable and build trust with our service.
*
The experience we create should include reference/testimonials from customers and companies to provide more insights to our product.
Our designs should provide clarity, simplicity and user friendliness to allow users to feel comfortable and build trust with our service.
*
Current Journey
Reimagined Journey
User Narrative
To create an eCommerce platform experience that allows users to
purchase a tree within a specific forest, the key phases through the flow are:
FOREST WELCOME PAGE
First glance into the eCommerce experience. Upon opening the browser, users will be brought into the nearest forest based on their geo location.
FOREST SECTION PAGE
As the user navigates, they will be brought into the forest section page, where they will have a eye’s bird view of the array of sections within the forest.
ALL TREES PAGE
If user selects a specific section within the forest they are brought into a tree page. They are able to select/filter by species, size and accessibility.
TREE DETAILS PAGE
Once user filtered their options, is taken into the tree details page. Here you can see what’s included, read more about the species, location.
SPECIES DETAIL PAGE
If user decides to read more about the species, we dedicated a separate page for this purpose, which could be enter throughout the flow.
CHECKOUT PAGE
Once user proceed to checkout, they can see price breakdown, add a discount code and also customize the amount of pet/people spreadings.
FAVORITES PAGE
This page is ideal when you aren’t ready to proceed to checkout but interested in some trees, this allows to continue browsing options.
UX Flow
Design & Feedback
Lo-fidelity wireframes | Hi-fidelity wireframes | Prototypes | Stakeholder reviews
LO-FIDELITY Wireframes
FINAL PRODUCT: Mobile
FINAL PRODUCT: Desktop
Impact & Next Steps
Measurable & achievable | Learnings & next steps
Conversion Rate
Number of users who purchase their tree through eCommerce increased 12%
Customer Acquisition Cost
While users were purchasing their tree through eCommerce, some still had a first expert call, which allowed them to dive into a more concrete understanding of our product. This reduces our CAC 10% by reducing the time experts spend over the phone with customers to convert.
Average Order Value
By giving users the right information as of why each tree cost differently, our AOV increased 18% (users where considering more expensive trees)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) + Referral
Number of users who would refer our product to a friend/loved one increased 8%
NPS score went from 7 to 9 (marketing metric)
Cancellation Rate
Launching the eCommerce during COVID reduced the cancellation rate by 5%
Page View & Shopping Cart Abandonment
With the launch of a Favorites Page, this page view increased a 25% and reduce the shopping cart abandonment to a 8% (this makes us assume that giving users the ability to compare and see their favorite options will help them checkout and purchase more securely).
Learnings & Next steps
Users who where open to talk about their death with their loved ones were eager to dive more in detail of their purchase and learn how to start planning for end of life.
Later we launched
a tool called “My Wishes”
For users who purchasing was the biggest step, they felt they wanted to be more informed on the eCommerce flow, without the necessity of reaching out for help.
Later we launched
“Prepared to Buy”
We learned that users would like to compare payment methods before diving into checkout, this could help them decide what level of affordance to cater.