*All client names and logos have been changed or removed for client confidentiality

Objective

As one of the top wholesalers in the United States who was still stuck in the past in regards to their digital experiences as well as the in store customer journey our client was looking for strategic direction on how to re-invent themselves. Our team’s strategy was to start with the biggest customer pain point, returns. Being a wholesaler, with a warehouse operating model our client found it difficult to leave behind their current in person only return experience for items purchased at their warehouse. However because of this delayed response to process changes their customers were beginning to shop at places like Amazon, or Sam’s Club, deeply affecting our client’s bottom line. Our team conducted in person user research to understand the various pain points of the return process at our client’s stores. Some of the key things our team noted during their research were the long return lines they had to file into, which after a long period of waiting plants seeds of doubt about the discoveries you will make while shopping at the store. Not only was this a long and frustrating experience, there was also no way the customer could easily prepare for a return in advance or be notified of their return once the process was over, leading to further confusion and frustration.

SOlution

We saw an opportunity to breathe new life into our client’s current return strategies as well as their current mobile app experience. We developed a future vision journey map, that focused on the client’s mobile device as a tool to speed up the return process. Instead of having to wait in a long line to return their items while a customer support team member scans each persons receipt and needs to process the customer’s return, the customer could do all of this work in the app in the comfort of their own home before returning the item in store. This not only saves the customer time, but it greatly cuts down on staff needed to complete a return, all a staff member needs to do now is scan the customer’s pre-populated return bar code and the customer is on their way to look around the store.

Role

Lead UX/UI designer