MooreCo Outlet
Quality Furniture For Less…
MooreCo is a B2B furniture manufacturing company that primarily focuses on creating educational furniture for K-12 schools and universities.
I led the B2C market expansion to help MooreCo find a new revenue stream while schools shut down due to the pandemic.
Highlights
Created an e-commerce platform with fully customizable furniture pieces
Re-branded the B2C experience as an outlet store to avoid B2B customer conflict
Situation
Due to the 2020 pandemic, MooreCo faced a dramatic revenue loss since school contracts represented more than 90% of their total sales. School furniture upgrades were put on hold indefinitely and new contracts were canceled because of the uncertainty.
Competitor Research
I researched companies similar to MooreCo to discover which alternative revenue paths they were taking.
Overstock reported more than a 100% increase in home office furniture sales since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Havenly announced home office furniture sales increased 20% in 2020.
After reviewing these statistics, it reinforced the necessity to break into the B2C market with a focus on the home office category.
User Research
I asked 5 customers what frustrated them as they navigated suddenly having to work remotely as the aftermath of the pandemic.
I discovered that they found their current home furniture too uncomfortable to use for their entire shift, some users even lacked a desk so they had to work from their couch resulting in lower back pain and asleep legs.
We had to make sure that our offerings provided ergonomic furniture to help support customer's bodies and diminish their physical pain. We also had to offer compact pieces as the users I talked to mentioned having limited space for furniture at their homes.
Initial Ideation
I started sketching essential screens needed for the mobile experience such as the Home page, Product Search page and the Product page.
A real-time customization feature for products to select the finish, laminate and accent color was very important for our customers so they knew exactly what they were getting.
User Feedback
When I conducted the first Usability Test, customers said they wanted an online shopping experience that looked more like Amazon. I edited the Product page to better resemble Amazon’s.
Users wanted an easier way to access their shopping cart and search for products. On the Search page I added product category tokens as well as sorting and filtering options
Hi-Fi Wireframes
During the second Usability Test I conducted I learned that I missed one important thing: users want to be able to add or remove item quantities directly at checkout.
Multiple Sign Up Options
By offering Gmail and Facebook login it saved users time so they could start browsing right away.
Product Pricing In Search Results
By being transparent about product pricing directly on the search results I streamlined the product browsing and saved users time.
Saving Product Customization
Allowing the user to save their customized choice was very important so if the customer wasn’t ready to make a purchase, they could quickly go back to where they left off by adding the customized product to their favorites.
Results
The final solution was an E-Commerce platform that was easy to use, and similar to major E-Commerce platforms. I also designed the platform to allow returning customers to experience a faster checkout by saving the billing information and shipping address to their account.
I learned the importance of prioritizing Usability Testing early on the Product Development Process so I could maximize time and avoid wasting resources building something that customers don’t want to use.