“I’m more intrigued and inspired by pictures, photos and visual displays. This is why Pinterest and Instagram are so fun to browse and shop. It’s like peering through a magazine that takes you directly to the items that you’re interested in learning more about.”
Overview
The problem
Over the years, Amazon has perfected the end of the shopping funnel. Inventory, reviews, purchasing, shipping — it’s a work of art. The top of the funnel, however, remains to be a frontier of opportunity. Customers who know what they’re shopping for can rely on Amazon’s robust search engine, suggestion algorithms, and side-by-side comparisons. But for customers just getting into a new hobby or wanting to browse the latest trends in fashion, Amazon is lacking experiences that facilitate shopping when customers don’t know exactly what they’re looking for.
The solution
In 2016, Amazon sought to create a highly engaging, social shopping experience for customers. As more and more customers relied on social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to discover great products related to their interests, there was still a disconnect between discovery and the rest of the shopping experience. Our mission was to create an experience within Amazon for customers to shop like they wanted.
Amazon app, 2016
The Amazon app home screen back in 2016
UI improvements
Initial prototype, July 2016
UI audit
I captured the entire experience and identified opportunities to simplify the UI
Pattern library and content anatomy
Text styles, color palette and anatomy of a post
Before and after
Updated prototype, November 2016
“I go to Amazon to find great deals on products. It’s hard to wrap my mind around why Amazon would do this feed unless it was related to a product I was purchasing.”
Making the feed helpful
The UI was ready to show to customers… but the content was not. Early research studies revealed customers were rightfully confused as to why Amazon would create a social media experience. Much of the content that had been created was topical, but not shoppable. The content also just wasn’t very good or interesting. And in a marketplace of strangers… who can be trusted?
Goals
Encourage the creation of more quality content
Encourage the creation of more shoppable content
Cultivate trust between customers
Goal 1: Encouraging more quality content
Profile improvements
Badging and achievements
Enthusiast program
Goal 2: More shoppable content
Saving products
Shoppable photos
In the first 72 hours
330 customers hearted 1,083 products — 108 of them were limited access
On average, customers hearted 3 products
A top contributor in fashion received 113 hearts
In the first 6 weeks
Heart became the second most popular action in terms of unique contributors
Customers hearted over 16K products, driving over 15K notifications
Weekly % of contributors increased from 16% to 33%
Customers who hearted a product in Spark had a higher 7 day revisit rate (Full Access Customers: 31% vs 16%; Limited Access Customers: 22% vs 13%)
