Shopping locally shouldn't be the last resort.
Jerry’s Home Improvement Center has been selling products in Oregon for over 60 years. They're known for their excellent customer service and fair pricing. However, their online shopping experience leaves something to be desired.
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Role
Timeframe
Industry
Tools
Jerry’s Home Improvement Center is an employee-owned local business based in Oregon. They have two locations in the cities of Eugene and Springfield. I currently live in Eugene and I am a Jerry’s customer. Jerry’s customer service and in-store shopping experience is one that cannot be matched by the larger competing stores.
Let’s start at the beginning
They don’t put a lot of focus on their online presence and their website doesn’t provide the customer with much information, other than advertising the company.
The problem is...
Jerry's homepage
Jerry's brands page
As an informed customer, I spend time researching items online before making any purchases. Because Jerry's lacks the option to survey their inventory online, I find myself browsing on competitor’s websites even though I would prefer to support a local business.
That got me thinking
I wanted to know how Jerry’s shoppers interacted with the company so that I could re-design a responsive website that aligned with their needs.
Let's get some data
Community
I wanted to make sure I was hearing from the local community, so I went to Reddit for help. Eugene’s local reddit page has over 50,000 users. I created a post and asked for the communities participation.
Qualifying factors
In order to be a participant in the survey, people had to meet two criteria:
1. They must live in Oregon.
2. They must have heard of Jerry’s prior and shopped at least once at the store.
1. They must live in Oregon.
2. They must have heard of Jerry’s prior and shopped at least once at the store.
I asked Jerry’s customers what they thought about the company and what they knew about their website. I also asked about their shopping behaviors and being customers of competing companies.
Overall, I gathered that Jerry’s customers valued the excellent customer service and preferred supporting a local business. However, not being able to view Jerry's inventory and pricing ahead of time was driving customers to Jerry's competitors.
Overall, I gathered that Jerry’s customers valued the excellent customer service and preferred supporting a local business. However, not being able to view Jerry's inventory and pricing ahead of time was driving customers to Jerry's competitors.
Crafting the survey
Would they buy online?
91% of the customers who participated in the survey indicated they had visited Jerry’s website in the past. The primary reasons (65.5%) for visiting the website were to see general store information and to find an item. I then asked participants if they would have purchased items from Jerry’s online if they'd had the option. 61.8% said they would, while 23.5% said they would consider.
After receiving responses to my survey and finding out more about Jerry’s customers, I decided to do some customer interviews to learn more about their Jerry’s experiences.
I wanted to dive deeper
Categorizing the research
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Identifying themes
Outdated website
Customers rarely used Jerry's website and felt that their online presence didn't meet their expectation.
Locally owned
Customers prefer buying items from a locally owned store when they offer a similar selection to larger big-box stores.
Customer service
Jerry's offers customers excellent in-store customer service that's better than their competitors.
Online inventory
Most customers wanted the ability to view their store inventory online and see the pricing.
The age ranges of Jerry’s customers were from 25-60 years old. Based on the research I gathered, I created two personas that portray the target demographic of Jerry’s customer.
Who are Jerry's customers?
After identifying the want from customers for an online inventory, I began doing a competitive analysis to see how other companies offering their online inventory do it. The three primary competitors within the region are Home Depot, Lowes, and True Value.
Standing up to the competition
Based on my research findings, I decided to focus on an online searchable inventory that provided customers with product details, pricing, and availability.
The primary features
Searchable inventory
Product pricing
Product availability
Based on my research findings, I decided to focus on an online searchable inventory that provided customers with product details, pricing, and availability.
User flow
Searchable inventory
I began to sketch ideas for Jerry’s website to be focused on offering an online inventory.
Visualizing the concept
Homepage
Search results
Product listing
Using Jerry's established branding guidelines, I created wireframes for the website redesign.
Creating wireframes
Homepage
Search results
Product listing
Tools Page
After creating the high-fidelity wireframes I built out the prototype. I wanted to see how Jerry’s customers would interact with the redesigned website.
Testing the mockup
Overview
I asked participants to complete two tasks:
1. Find out if Jerry’s sold a BLACK+DECKER drill.
2. Place the item on hold.
1. Find out if Jerry’s sold a BLACK+DECKER drill.
2. Place the item on hold.
Goals
I wanted to determine if the process of finding items on Jerry’s website was user-friendly and learn if customers could easily place an item on hold or if they found value in that feature.
It look an average of 41 seconds to find the BLACK+DECKER drill page. Participants found the hold item button within 6 seconds on average.
Results
Feedback
Prioritization
The most consistent suggestion was to remove the hold item button. I decided to remove the feature completely.
Learning from the feedback
Original
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Iteration
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What I learned
Listen to the customer
Features and user flows should be aligned with customer wants and expectations. Listen to the customer and be willing to make changes based on their feedback.
Shop locally
Local businesses may not have the ability to keep up with large corporations, but they typically provide a more personable experience.
Be flexible
When I began my research I made an assumption that customer’s would want to buy items online. However, after conducting my research I found that having an online inventory was actually more important than the option to purchase.
It's okay to be wrong
Keeping an open mind throughout not only the research phase but the entire process will help make sure you are listening to the wants of the user. At first, I added the hold item feature, but it turned out users didn’t feel the need for the feature.