Optimizing a checkout flow to address a low conversion rate

A prominent fashion retailer approached our studio to optimize the checkout on their e-commerce platform. The goal was a seamless, efficient, and visually appealing experience that would raise satisfaction and conversion, with a focus on mobile users.

This case study covers the approach, the challenges, and the solutions I used to transform the checkout and improve the overall shopping experience.

I used Lean UX because it lets you test ideas quickly and refine them, which suits an assumption-based project with limited data at hand. It breaks the work into small, manageable pieces; I used the Lean UX Canvas to guide the process, and the sections below follow its steps: problems, outcomes, users, solutions, hypotheses, assumptions, and an MVP to test.

After discussions and data analysis with the client, we identified three core problems with the existing checkout.

The metrics for success were set with the client's managers and sales team, who identified the areas needing improvement and agreed specific targets.

The personas came from the client, already well-established in their organisation and based on extensive research. Designing against them kept our decisions aligned with the needs, motivations, and pain points of the target audience.

We then outlined the concrete benefits each persona should get from the new flow, so the solutions served users as well as the business.

With the problems, outcomes, and users defined, the goal was to generate as many ideas as possible, quantity over quality at this stage.

Competitor analysis

We analysed popular fashion and apparel sites to find best practices and market gaps.

The current flow

We mapped the existing checkout journey to separate concerns and consider each step's gaps and opportunities on its own.

Then, at every stage, we pinpointed the reasons a user might abandon the process.

Brainstorming

Using those reasons, we ran a brainstorm around one question: how can we address why a user might abandon their cart? The result was a list of ideas balancing the innovative with the conventional.

Putting the pieces together, we arrived at a main hypothesis.

Lean UX asks: what is the most important thing to learn first? So we listed the riskiest assumptions behind the hypothesis, the ones to verify next.

I sketched to explore the flow, then built a high-fidelity prototype to present to the client and test with users.

We recommended research methods matched to the proposed solutions.

We ran the usability testing on the prototype ourselves; the rest were handed to the client to run once the design was implemented.