UX Spotlight: Removing Obstacles To Conversion, One Throw Pillow At A Time – gb
In the UX Spotlight series, we post about UX features that impressed us online, and are great examples and inspiration for anyone looking to enhance their digital user experience.
Picking throw pillows for the ContentSquare sofa can quickly turn into a diplomatic quandary, with twenty people arguing their taste and preference. Staff shopping trips in the past have resulted in some… interesting additions to the office space, including everything from hourglasses to bronze snakes.
So how do you know which cushion will look best on the communal sofa, and whose interior decoration choices should be added to cart? Much like behavioral analytics remove the guesswork from digital experience optimization, Target’s See It In Your Space feature removes the guesswork from home (or in our case, office) décor.
PERSONALIZING THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
It’s not a brand new feature of the Target website, but it was new to us! The advent of virtual assistants means consumers are getting used to inviting technology into their home, but inviting your office into the technology is still a pretty rare concept.
CONSUMERS ARE GETTING USED TO INVITING TECHNOLOGY INTO THEIR HOME, BUT INVITING YOUR OFFICE INTO THE TECHNOLOGY IS A PRETTY RARE CONCEPT.
To narrow down suggestions and get an evidence-based answer to bad taste, we simply clicked the See It In Your Space option under a cushion and uploaded a picture of our sofa area. The item can then be moved around, and shrunk or expanded as required.
There are many ways to personalize the digital experience, but bridging the divide between the digital and personal space is truly a great one. The photo element means this feature is particularly suited to mobile user behavior, too.
CREATING SEAMLESS DIGITAL PATHS TO CART
When we’re not adding pillows to the sofa, we’re sourcing shoes for the kinder weather. One link that’s been forwarded through the office is the Bandier website, where hovering over a product image will bring up all available sizes. Clicking on your size automatically adds the shoes to your cart. If you’re logged in and don’t want to commit to an add-to-cart, you can also just favorite an item.
The “pick your size” step is traditionally associated with the product page, which also contains all the product info and the option to select an item for purchase. What’s interesting with this feature is it reinvents the function of the category page, successfully migrating information you usually need one more click to access.
Removing this step speeds up the journey to checkout and allows the visitor to not leave a category page, removing the back and forth – from category to product and back – we’ve come to expect with online shopping.
Both the Target and Bandier features are discreetly groundbreaking, since they both mark a shift in how people shop online – in one, by personalizing the experience visually, and in the other, by adding a time saving, near-invisible shortcut to the cart.
The idea of a successful digital experience today is indissociable from the concept of digital convenience, and a big part of brand-to-audience connection hinges on seamlessness. Consumers want quick and inspiring paths to conversion, and brands that can deliver on both these fronts will be able to cultivate digital loyalty.
