Problem

Base variants are all of the iterations of a product, including color, size, flavor, platform.

Previously Walmart.com has an inconsistent experience when it comes to how base variants are set up and displayed throughout the shopping journey. There is no guiding principle for merchants as they setup variants, we suffer from poor data, and different teams are pulling and using data differently throughout the journey.

The business is motivated to resolve the inconsistencies across the site and product is looking for customer insight to help develop the strategy.

Discover

Research Goals:
Understand how customers think about the organization and flow of variants throughout the shopping journey.

Research Questions:
What is the right level of variant aggregation for customers?

• •How does the level of aggregation change throughout the shopping journey (e.g. shelf vs. item)?
• •How does the level of aggregation change depending on the customers’ intention?
• •How do customers think differently about variants depending on product category?

Method:
Qualitative research survey (Blind survey)

• •500 walmart.com customers
• •18 products across 6 categories

Shelf page versions

Item page versions

Key insights:

1. Customers want to see variants consolidated differently depending where they are in the shopping journey. Customers want to see products organized on the shelf page, but they want to see all possible product variations consolidated on a single item page.
2. In general, customer preferences were similar regardless of the shopping intent; however preferences differed on the health & beauty shelf pages and the household essentials item pages.
3. Customers wanted to see similar levels of consolidation regardless of category; however the UI may be adjusted to facilitate shopping on differentiated experiences.

Define

What
We are designing the shopping experience from search results to item details page.

Vision
The goal is to offer a better base variants system to all categories beyond Diapers for our customers to shop more efficiently on Walmart.com

Who
For busy parents who need to balance price and convenience. How might we bring simplicity and efficiency or even time and savings to their shopping experience.

Current behaviors within this experience
Lack the ability to compare prices
Time consuming
Confusion on what is in stock vs. OOS

Success metrics
Our customers can easily discover all her shopping options and compare prices as fast as possible.
GMV moves, LTV moves, NPS moves.

Solution

View prototype here

High aggregation example: Diapers, Apparels

Medium aggregation example: Grocery/Food (Consumables)

Low aggregation example: Electronics

Shelf page recommendation (Consumables)

• •Medium aggregation
• •Display the different flavors, scents, style to help customers efficiently get a sense of our assortment, maintain their ability to visually scan the products, and facilitate comparisons.

Item page recommendation:

• •Consolidated all variants on item, having all available options ensured that they could make an informed purchase decision.
• •Clear pricing and PPU to facilitate comparisons
• •One-directional, filter 2nd set of variants
• •Highlight variants that are Best Value with label

Scaling the system

Variants system

Role

Design Lead

Partnered with user research and product team to look for customer insight to help develop the strategy for the Base Variants project. Integrated learnings from the qualitative research survey which was to understand customers’ preferences for how variants are consolidated (or not) on the search and item pages, as well as making recommendations and design decisions.

Identified the customer goals for 3 very different categories groups in order to effectively dive deep into creating customer solution for each of the groups. Managed the project timelines by proactively sharing relevant information and timely updates with leadership, engineers and merchants. Presented and articulated the design system to different cross functional teams for adoption.

Designed, user-tested and built the Diaper category UX as the baseline within 3 months and continue to develop the design into a scalable design system that would work for all other categories. Delivered successful design of the shelf aggregation and variants system for responsive web, iOS and Android.