Tagline

"Making Your Shopping Experience a Reality"

Overall Goals

Enhance user's shopping experience

User Research

Primary research:

As the pandemic continues to drive shoppers online, more online shopping features will be needed to overcome online shopping hurdles. Augmented Reality (AR) has been listed as one of the top e-commerce features that shoppers want to see. More than half of respondents (54%) said they want to use AR to see items in their real life environments (Martechseries, 2020). Furthermore, according to Juniper Research, online sellers will spend $7.3 billion on AI by 2022 and more than 120,000 stores will be using AR technologies to offer customers a rich buying experience by 2022. This shows that AI and AR will enhance the Ecommerce experience. By implementing AI and AR in your ecommerce store, we will likely see an increase in conversions and a decrease in the return rate.

Secondary research:

We conducted a survey among 80 individuals aged 18 - 35 years old to better understand their preferences and pain points when using E-commerce Mobile Applications. We wanted to find out if there were any new features that can be added that can give Shopee the competitive advantage in the E-commerce scene.

48.1% of respondents chose Shopee as their most frequently used E-commerce Mobile Application. On average, individuals spend less than $50 a month on E-commerce Mobile Applications. 59.5% of the respondents indicated that they preferred shopping online than shopping in physical stores, which is still a relatively high percentage of people. A recurring reason why the respondents preferred shopping in physical stores was that many still preferred being able to try on clothing in retail stores as they are unsure if they will look good in clothes bought online or not.

We also seek their feedback on the problems they faced while shopping on e-commerce. From their response, we cleaned up the data and analysed it to brainstorm on possible ideas in coming up with new features. Some notable suggestions given by respondents include incorporating cutting-edge technology such as Augmented Reality (AR) to help users better visualise how products sold online will look and make better purchase decisions. This caught our attention as it relates to our online research and we thought it could be the next thing to engage e-commerce shoppers and for Shopee to stay competitive.

Persona

Using the results I got from the User Surveys & Interviews I created User Personas to represent the common needs and wants of the audience. This is something I will then be able to keep referring to throughout the design phase.

Solutions

Wireframes & Prototype

Low Fidelity:

High Fidelity:

Based on all the feedback, amendments were made to the design taking into account accessibility, I therefore created a style guide so any future changes that may need to be made can follow these guidelines and keep consistency in the design.

Product Specification

These new features aim to implement it gradually as it would require time for the tech department to model products from shopee sellers who wish to increase conversions and decrease the return rate of buyers . Using 3D modelling of the product will allow users to be able to have a feel and look at how the product will look like on them before purchasing it. Another way to get product modelled will be to engage with 3D product model company such as Style.me, NBYIT.

In addition, with the avatar details such as height, weight, and size of the body, there will be an automatic recommendation for sizing which will aid users in selecting the size that will mostly suit them. The recommendation of the size is purely based on the history of buyers with the same avatar details. For instance, for a clothes of size M fits users with the avatar weight ranging from 60 - 65 kilograms, height ranging from 170 - 175 centimeters, average body size and average body shape. This feature was further improved from ASOS fit assistant 4 .

Lastly, we also incorporate the idea of having Augmented Reality cameras for users to place virtual objects in any specific area they wish to see how the product can fit in the space. We also implemented screenshot capability for users to share or save the image compare it with other alternative products they intend to purchase. This allows users to be able to plan their purchase well as the size of the product is exactly the same.

Business Model

What Shopee does: Marketplace for regional sellers and buyers

As the target audience is the layman, it would be helpful having more visual elements rather than specifications. Taking clothings for example, having models wearing the clothes, alongside clothing specification, is insufficient for consumers to visualise themselves in the same clothes. Similarly, furniture are larger items around the house, making it difficult to visualise how the new furniture could complement the existing ones. Noting the competitive landscape, AR technology is not widely used in the market currently.

Although some applications have this feature already, such as IKEA Place, by implementing the use of AR, this allows Shopee to be one step ahead of their competitors as consumers would feel more secure about how they look like in the clothes of their choice, or how the furniture would fit in their houses. With a further customization of an avatar, this allows consumers to feel more connected and that the app is personalised.

By adding the AR feature with a personalised touch, this would help Shopee become a one-stop solution , increasing customer retention rate and help Shopee grow and stay relevant.

Limitations and Constraints

Due to Covid-19, we no longer conduct face to face interview. Nevertheless, it was a fresh experience to online interviewing doing for user testing. Thanks to Figma, interviewees are allowed to access to our prototype with the given link. We also managed to video record their use of the application throughout the testing.

Learnings & Future Plans

Even though AI/AR is the next new features for E-commerce, it may require the company to hire people which these skills which might incur a high cost to come up with another developer team. I learned that I should also consider the feasibility of the project based on the company current ability and not to go too far stretch. I should also take into account of their company's finances so that they would not need to incur too much cost.

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App Link (Prototyping)