Weee! is the largest and fastest-growing ethnic e-grocer in the United States. Weee! is reshaping the grocery business entirely. As Weee! is re-targeting users from Asian Americans to EVERYONE, this design exercise proposes a potential UX update to align with the new business direction.
To narrow down the topic and help define some problems, my first step is using the app and tracking my experience.
● Interesting to see filter by country
-> for me (Asian users)
● Convenient to shop hometown goods
● Explore international products
second thought
-> for general users
● Why search by area?
● What does that mean? grow in the country? imported from the country?
● How should I keep the search?
● Interesting to explore international products. Will I try and purchase?
● Different products show up when different stores chosen
-> for me (Asian users)
● Straight forward, I use Weee! only shop for Chinese grocery
● I only use Chinese stores so I don't care what the other stores look like
second thought
-> for general users
● Are the products limited in this specific store?
● Are they share the same checkout process?
● Curious about other stores, switch back and forth...
The current categorizing and filtering system catches my eyes and brings up my attention.
After analyzing my own experience, I get an idea of how does the app functioning. Keeping in mind that we are now targeting a broader range of users, I take a look into other online grocery shopping app to see how they categorize products.
Yamibuy
● By product type & area
● Especially target to Asia products
Aldi
● By product type
● Do have an international tag, only 3 products under this category
Wholefoods
● Mainly by product type
● No international part
Insights:
● When international products are your sales point (like yamibuy), categorizing by area is an option.
● International grocery stores in the US (like Aldi from Germany), do have an international part but not as the main point.
● Local groceries (like whole foods) don’t categorize by area.
I realize Weee! has its unique categorizing system to help their ethnic users shop more conveniently. However, does this system work for a broader user group? In order to find the answer, I conduct a survey questionnaire and received 9 responses to help me understand general users’ online grocery shopping habits.
Insights:
● Most of the time, people already have their shopping list in mind when shopping for groceries online.
● The search bar is the most helpful tool while shopping, followed by order history and search by category. People are not familiar with shopping by geographic area.
● Huge potential in selling international products!
Based on research and analysis, I find while open to trying new products, general users always shop purposefully. So I decided to improve the user flow of reordering from history by
● make the process more intuitive and seamless
● encourage users to explore more products
1. Search by area seems unnecessary for general users based on the survey. Breaking the boundary also would help promote international products.
2. Different UI layouts and complex flow increase the risk of confusion.
3. Many people feel frustrated when the item they want is sold out. Design opportunity here!
4. Product promotion while checking out can be more considerate.
Home page
Merge “choose store” into categories filter
● Quicker onboarding
● Reduce confusion for general users
Make the process more intuitive and seamless
● Break the boundary of products
● Make every product equal accessibility to customers
Encourage users to explore more products
Add “buy again” section
● Quicker access to reorder
Make the process more intuitive and seamless
Reorder page
Sort items by order history
● Merge multiple user flows to reduce confusion
Make the process more intuitive and seamless
Recommend alternatives when item sold out
● Help user find a replacement
● Promote more products
Encourage users to explore more products
Checkout page
Recommend add-ons
Promote based on
● Customer’s preference
● Trending
● Watchlist
● Always buy together
Encourage users to explore more products
If I have more time (4 days on finishing this exercise) and resources, I would like to:
● Conduct more structured research and gather a larger scale of research objects.
● Do user testing for my design solutions.
● Do several prototype iterations based on user feedback.
● Measure successfulness based on data and make refinements.