My role:

User research | Design | Design socialization and workshop leader | Alignment with system design teams | Cross-collaboration with Product Management, Engineering, Support, and Research teams

SITUATION:

In 2015 Amazon was expanding its online marketplace in India, Mexico and Brazil. Telemetry showed customers actively searching and browsing, with some entering the purchasing funnel but many abandoning before checkout.

In India, the push to compete with powerful local e-commerce giants and build long-term customer loyalty was central to Amazon’s strategy, aiming to make it the company’s largest market outside the US.

In parallel, Amazon launched full retail operations in Mexico in June 215 with Amazon.com.mx and expanded its footprint in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy. This UX work was pivotal in strengthening customer trust and engagement, fueling growth and market gains across all three regions.

THIS CASE STUDY…

…will include workstream data for all countries, but I’ve decided to limit images and specific content to the India workstream, so this case study isn’t a mile long. 🙂

UX OUTCOME:

“Identify what purchasing decisions are most important to customers in each country, and optimize the product experience to deliver regional-focused searching, browsing, and product purchasing funnels that reflect each market’s user priorities, enabling customer clarity and confidence to make Amazon marketplace purchases.”

PROGRESS METRICS:

• Creating an initial baseline research script that could work as a task list for user’s searching, browsing and purchasing funnels in each country

• Connecting with localized usability experts to administer the baseline research in localized languages and gain insights into users needs in each country, and better understand why this was happening

• Designing tailored browsing and purchasing funnel experiences for each user base that focused on their expectations and preferences

• Utilizing the localized usability experts again to test the designed solutions

• Implementing changes and observing telemetry

PROCESS:

Partnered with Product Management, Support, Engineering, and localized Researchers and led iterative user research studies. I combined qualitative insights with telemetry-driven metrics for a holistic, user-centered perspective, synthesizing findings and socializing them broadly to secure cross-functional stakeholder alignment on what was causing user abandonment.

• Workshopped options to plan for this broad, multi-country, cross-functional initiative, and all its moving parts, defining the UX Outcome above (we called “goals”), and providing introductions to the multi-partner team.

We focused on a mobile-first strategy.

Through this workshop I learned most users across demographics were utilizing Amazon marketplace on mobile devices. After defining the mobile version, I moved on the tablet and desktop designs.

Research across all countries revealed significant regional differences in shopping preferences and priorities that affected user trust, and ultimately Amazon conversion rates.

• Indian customers required the availability of total price clarity, including fees and product selections across marketplace sellers

• Brazilian customers valued options for payment installments

• Mexican customers prioritized product availability

* I passed my baseline usability script to a team that was focused on Chinese users across provinces, but had no more interaction with the workstream outside of understanding that Chinese users highly valued product authenticity.

I designed tailored experiences based on these country-specific priorities, repositioning and adding important information for each demographic throughout the purchasing pipeline (searching, browsing, and the product purchasing funnel).

RESULTS:

Leveraging the cross-country research insights, I designed search, browse, and purchase funnel workflows for each country. Creating the mobile designs first and incorporated into a prototype for the usability research, then adapted the designs for tablet and desktop.

• Throughout each of these workflows, the Import Fees Deposit and price breakdowns are highlighted for customer visibility and clarity

• The additional KYC ID flow is showcased in the mobile comps below.

• Additional pricing options across marketplace sellers are showcased in the desktop workflow. The Bluetooth Smart Wrist Watch is a domestic product and has multiple prices to choose from, each including a total price breakdown.

These mobile, tablet, and desktop change annotations below are a great explanation of the final design, highlighting the important Import Fees Deposit information, with a “Details” link available for a total price breakdown. These annotated comps were utilized in Product Management and Engineering discussions for team transparency (offering insight into team communication).

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