Mobile Phone Pre-Order

Best Buy Canada offers a one-stop destination for customers to compare prices across all mobile carriers in a pressure-free atmosphere.

Role: User Experience Designer

The Ask

Customers who wish to pre-order newly announced devices, are unable to do so on the web experience. This is a huge customer and business friction point that needed to be resolved.

Constraints in the Design

1. To deliver a functioning product in 3 weeks

2. There cannot be changes made to the Product Detail Page

3. The solution must be flexible for future devices launches

Understanding the Problem

To better understand the usability problem, I audited the existing system and the competitive landscape. I then mapped the usability issues against a criticality scale. This helped identify key areas to focus on and customer expectations in order to make this experience a success.

Usability Testing

A remote, counter-balanced, task-based user test was conducted to evaluate the usability of the proposed feature.

Results:

• Most participants did not notice the difference between ordering colour and carriers

• Participants seemed to understand that carries impact following results and thus should be considered before selecting the phone attributes

• Participants need more information while deciding on what device to purchase

The End-to-End Solution

A phone builder tool was created to help customers pre-order the device they desired. This tool allowed customers to select different product attributes such as device type, carriers, capacity, and colour. Embedded within a centralized landing page, this destination educated customers on the latest features and compared the newly announced mobile phone to other devices.

Additionally, the email strategy was updated to set customer expectations and to drive excitement.

The Result

The feature was completed in two sprints, a huge feat at Best Buy. By being able to pre-order devices online, the experience drove a 296% increase to revenue based on the last launch of the same device and an 1.73% increase to conversion rate. There was a 3% increase to customers completing their order and no impact to the call centre. More importantly, the Mobile Phone Pre-Order tool reduces approximately 200 hours of manual labour annually.

What would I have done Differently?

As my team and I were faced with immense time constraints in creating the Wireless Pre-Order tool, there wasn’t enough time to create a refined store selection capability. If I had more time, I would automatically geolocate the customer and suggest a store for the customer to pickup their device at. Another alternative would be to leverage existing design patterns, and leverage the store selectors present on the website. By doing optimizing the store selection, the tool will be significantly simplified and customer frustrations will be reduced.