36% Increase in Sales with the Aid of Enhanced Shopability Features
Project: Eu Natural
Project context
Founded in 2013, Eu Natural is an online D2C company that specializes in creating “powerful blends of herbs, vitamins, and minerals, each formulated to promote optimal health.” With products designed for beauty, respiratory function, mobility, prenatal care, fertility, and conception, Eu Natural offers a comprehensive range of offerings for both men and women.
Credit where credit is due:
• One project lead
• One project manager
• Two UI/UX designers
• Four developers
• The Eu Natural team
My role & contributions:
• Competitive analysis
• User research
• Usability heuristics review
• User experience design
• Visual design
• Microcopy
• Information architecture
The challenge
From the outset, Eu Natural identified several areas of their site that they felt needed improvement, as well as their overall objectives with the redesign. The crux of it included:
• Boost AOV and LTV with upsells & subscriptions
• Increase conversion rates
User research findings
Considering the constraints of time and budget, conducting a user survey was the most suitable method for quickly collecting valuable feedback from users. The survey findings unveiled several prominent themes, which included:
Disjointed and inconsistent branding
Users expressed confusion arising from inconsistent visual elements and branding across the website. The lack of visual cohesion contributed to a fragmented experience, making it difficult for users to trust the overall integrity of the site, which is particularly crucial for a supplement company.
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Uncertainty regarding available products and accessibility
Participants reported difficulties in understanding the full range of available products and effectively navigating to them. This indicated the need for improved product discovery and navigation features to ensure that users could easily explore and find their desired offerings.
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Inadequate product information
Users expressed a desire for clearer and more comprehensive product information. They felt that crucial details about the products were lacking, which hindered their ability to make informed decisions.
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The original experience
Home page and collection pages.
Original navigation menu.
Original experience of the product description page.
Heuristic analysis
To further empathize with users, a site audit and heuristic analysis was conducted revealing multiple critical issues.
Visibility of system status: Lack of product pricing
Users may face difficulties in making well-informed purchasing decisions due to the absence of prices on the home and collection page product cards. This could force them to take extra steps, such as navigating to the product page to gather necessary information.
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Consistency and standards: Inconsistent navigation and menu items
Counter-intuitive navigation and menu information as well as inconsistent placement of the navigation elements across different pages can cause confusion and impede user decisions.
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Match between system and the real world: Lack of product sorting
Users' expectations may not be met due to the absence of sorting functionality on the collection page. This limitation can make it more challenging for users to find and organize products according to their preferences.
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User control and freedom: Lack of product filtering
The absence of filtering options restricts users' control and freedom in narrowing down their product search based on specific criteria. As a result, users may find it difficult to locate desired products.
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An abstract of the site audit focused on keeping usability, usefulness, effectiveness, and enjoyability at the forefront.
Optimizing the product taxonomy
The user research and heuristic analysis were instrumental in concretely identifying areas that required attention, but determining the precise approach for addressing them proved challenging. There appeared to be something afoot; some disconnect in the navigation and methods of product discovery. It was around this time that I recalled a dedicated section in the Eu Natural brand book focused on customer data. I turned to it, hoping to find insights that could unveil the underlying issue.
A reconstruction of one of Eu Natural’s six personas as identified in their brand book.
The customer data identified six primary audience segments for both male and female customers seeking solutions for fertility, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, gout, and menopause. However, upon reviewing the collection pages, it became clear that Eu Natural's product range extends well beyond these segments, encompassing beauty, detox, sleep, mental cognition, mobility, vision, immune system, and respiratory function.
The original site navigation had this information accounted for, but it was disjunct and not obvious nor was it accurate. The 'Categories' dropdown included product families that were not present in the 'Shop All' dropdown. And the ‘Shop All” menu accounted for only a select amount of Eu Natural’s product offerings. Unsure of what was correct, I audited the collection pages, listing every product that Eu Natural had for sale. I then had Eu Natural’s DTC director assign a “segment” label to every product.
From there we were able to develop a main product taxonomy as a baseline for our navigation menu and collection filtering.
The organizational logic governing the top-level of the product taxonomy.
Interestingly enough, it was through this process that I discovered that certain products served singular functions, while others technically belonged to multiple product families due to their multifunctionality. Moreover, many products were suitable for both men and women. Recognizing the dynamic nature of the product range, I collaborated further with the DTC Director to map products to a sub-taxonomy—one that would offer filtering on the collection page for a more granular shopping experience.
With both taxonomies, we could provide a simple entry point for users to begin shopping paired with a more detailed means of product discovery.
The finalized aggregate of both top-level and sub-level product taxonomies. Both would influence the navigation menu and product segments on the home page, as well as the collection page and its filtering.
Updated navigation information architecture.
The updated experience
With a firm foundation on improving the shop-ability of the site, we could move forward. The Eu Natural brand book established the north star of our visual design direction, outlining a myriad of treatments to uphold, including colors, fonts, and various other visual design elements. It emphasized three unifying and defining truths essential to the Eu Natural brand: "Purposefully optimistic, lighthearted, on point."
From there, my colleague and I proceeded to interpret the visual design implementation, each offering distinct perspectives while strictly adhering to newly developed information architecture. Our goal was to embody the three pillars of Eu Natural's branding by juxtaposing minimalistic elements with bold statements of color.
Wireframes showing the new layout for the most transactional pages (home, collection, product description).
Newly styled homepage that showcases their branding more intentionally, an updated navigational structure, products with clearly marked pricing, and clearly defined entry points into Eu Natural’s six main shopping segments.
Mobile home page with similar updates.
Updated menu featuring consolidated navigation items and shopping segments that align with the revised product top-level taxonomy.
Because multiple products have both single and overlapping functions, filter presets are employed when users click any of the six shopping segments.
Once users are in the top-level segment collection, they can continue to filter products on a more granular basis and sort products alphabetically, by price, and more.
Product description page with updated styling, as well as a more prominent and immediate space for product upsells.
Impact & takeaways
Working on this project was both challenging and enjoyable, providing valuable opportunities for learning and growth not only as a designer but also as a leader, team member, and collaborator. Here are a few things I’m proud of:
The product taxonomy:
This was an interesting knot to untie and very much felt like a puzzle that needed to be solved. Making sense of it took time but in the end I, as well as the Eu Natural team felt confident in the advancements made.
Teamwork:
Communication and collaboration between myself and other members of my team as well as the stakeholders of Eu Natural was essential and I learned yet again, how important it is to be inquisitive, ask questions, and over communicate whenever possible.
Personal growth:
This project was fun to work on and it offered me the opportunities to refine my processes, demonstrate my leadership skills, and work more collaboratively with my team and external stakeholders.
That being said, the development and release of this product were not without issues, experiencing nearly a six-month pause due to contributing factors beyond my and my team's control. In the end, some visual design deviations were made as the Eu Natural team incorporated elements from my colleagues' design renditions, effectively creating a hybrid design. That being said, the overarching effort I led in addressing the information architecture, general heuristics, and product taxonomy remained intact.
While several factors contribute to sales, I feel that we effectively addressed all of Eu Natural's goals, helping them achieve a 36% increase in Q2 sales compared to the same period the previous year, before the site's update.