eCommerce UX Case Study: Icybeaut Magnetic Lashes
Overview
Icybeaut is a beauty eCommerce retail store specialising in cruelty-free, affordable beauty products. The hero product of Icybeaut is the magnetic lash kits, which allows even the most rookie user to easily apply false lashes without the use of glue or going into a salon.
The Team
The project team consisted of three people. My role being to lead research, UX/UI Design & Marketing Activities. Also on the team we had Abrar Anwar, a shopify developer & Mica Chutrau.
UX Techniques Used
Competitive/Comparative Analysis, Mind Mapping, User Personas, Systems Map, User Flows, Customer Journey Mapping, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing
The Challenge
Aside from just building a brand new eCommerce store; as a fresh new brand and a relatively unknown product, we had 3 key challenges to address:
- How do we effectively reach and engage our target audience?
- How do we build trust with our potential customers?
- How do we effectively communicate that this product is different?
Discovery Phase
Competitors Research
“Everything that happens in the first year of business is market research.” — Georgia love
In the initial phase of my design process, I believed it was crucial to first understand the landscape of competitors in the market. This research would help inform design decisions but also help build a strong product strategy for Icybeaut.
Other key objectives for this research were:
- To help define Icybeaut’s point of difference
- To get an idea of who Icybeaut’s potential target market would be
- To discover what competitors are doing right and what they could be doing better
I began by focusing on 3 direct competitors and 3 indirect competitors. My goal was to compare and identify commonalities across their strategy and eCommerce websites and identify opportunities for Icybeaut to differentiate itself.
User Research
Following on from the competitors’ research, I carried out several interviews with people from Icybeauts potential target audience and identified the following:
- When shopping with competitors, customers were overwhelmed with choice of lash styles and product descriptions weren’t enough to help them make a decision causing them to drop off.
- Potential customers were wary of the new concept of magnetic lashes and were unsure if they would actually work
- Some potential customers believed that because they were never able to apply false lashes that this product would be no different
The insights from this research informed the creation of the first persona for Icybeaut.
Ideation
Through research, I discovered 2 huge missed opportunities amongst local competitors in really driving home a sale:
- Poorly designed Product Pages that didn’t inform customers or make them feel confident in a purchase ☹️👎
- Not developing AR Filters for customers to virtually try on lashes before they buy 🤳😍
In every eCommerce project, it is paramount to focus on the journey the customer goes through when preparing for, in the act of and after shopping. Driven by insights from the research, I drafted a funnel of how we were going to target our customers.
Design
2 key pages I focused on nailing first was the homepage and the product page
Outcome
Positive results with much more to do! Extremely proud of the Icybeaut project I lead. Since the redesign of the website, conversion metrics had increased from 1.82% to 3.98% — although it is difficult to solely attribute this to the re-design as other marketing activities were underway. Some further things I would like to work on:
- Increasing the site speed of Icybeaut
- Including a blog on the website to help build trust and improve SEO
- Designing a rewards programs to encourage repeat purchases
- Having the ability to easily change up the hero section of the website
