Polaris Checkout Redesign

Challenge

The checkout funnel at Polaris needed a lot of help, particularly on mobile. Not only was the user journey not adequately optimized for touch-screen devices. Beyond this, form validation was a mess, shipping costs were not communicated well and there was great confusion between the US and the Canadian sites, which could only fulfill orders within their respective frontiers, but which attracted users of all nationalities who were misled into drilling down the wrong funnels due to lack of effective system feedback.

Approach

First I had the business partners gather existing internal data to evaluate user pain points and reveal where we were falling short. An in-depth site audit and a quick online competitive analysis helped complete the picture and outline some initial working hypotheses. These were then materialized in a couple of prototypes, which we tested and iterated upon. In a single sprint our assumptions were validated for mvp and the redesigned experience was broken up into technical user stories for a gradual implementation without disrupting day-to-day ecommerce.

Results

Within three months of implementing the first MVP changes, We observed a reduction of checkout abandonment on mobile of -22% and mobile conversion increased +19%. Overall conversion rate was +92% and revenue +76% over the previous year. This brand-agnostic, simplified design was also very easy to apply to the different Polaris sites, which helped accelerate cross-platform implementation.

WHAT
Checkout funnel redesign.
(I was sole UX resource, supported by 1 visual designer)

WHO
Polaris Industries

WHEN
2017-2018

behind the scenes

There was a lot more to this initiative which was broken into several sprints—from MVP to complete redesign—spread out through a few months. The thumbnails below capture some of the work performed analyzing the previous order management experience and the checkout funnel as it existed then. This, along with extensive work to improve system feedback, came together to create a much improved final product.

Try the working prototypes:

Mobile Desktop

People at Polaris said

I worked with Alfonso on an ecommerce team for a little over a year. From the moment he joined the team, Alfonso was ready to take on any challenge that came his way. He is a true leader in a business and user experience sense. Alfonso doesn't let tools define him, but he instead uses tools in innovative ways to solve problems for users. He mentored me for over a year and truly shaped the designer I am today. I would work with him again in a heartbeat. I would recommend him to anyone who wants to think in new ways, and create effective experiences for all users.
Barb Krueger Ux & Visual Designer
Alfonso is one of the most talented user experience professionals that I've had the opportunity to work with. He truly understands UX is not just about shiny designs, but more about taking the time to have customer empathy, solve their pain points and deliver compelling experiences. Alfonso was also instrumental in helping push the team toward a true agile framework by supporting the team through user validation research, guerrilla testing and driving lean UX practices. He is a product managers best friend.
Robert Mews E-Commerce Product Manager