MACY’S PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS
PROBLEM
Receiving assistance from a stylist in store is great, but having guidance on putting outfits together online from the comfort of your home didn’t exist. In previous research studies, we discovered that users were seeking jewelry, accessories, shoes, and other items to complement dresses or blouses. While Macy’s website offered recommendations for similar dresses or blouses, it lacked suggestions for other products that completed the outfit they were seeking.
DESIGN SOLUTION
Introduce a feature that offers a fresh new way to discover products to complement the item they are considering to complete a look. This feature showcases recommendations immediately in the context of the product while the user is viewing the item. The goal was to provide users relevant product recommendations on the spot and allowing them to add additional items to their bag without losing place of their product discovery.
RESEARCH
A competitive analysis provided insights intow how others are tackling the same problem. We examined Amazon, Nordstrom and Wayfair. Amazon stands out for the variety and volume of products it offers. Nordstrom serves as our aspirational competitor with a lot of similar product categories. Wayfair is the leader in the home department, one of which we were losing marketshare. Our solution had to work for a diverse range of product categories we sell and anticipate selling in the future. None of the companies we studied had perfected this approach.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Planning out the information architecture required clarity to prevent users from getting stuck in loops. We had to ensure products had a clear path to move forward and also go back to the original product. Given the extensive range of products, it was essential to keep product recommendations in places it was only relevant to the user’s purchase journey.
DESIGN & TESTING
After numerous sketched concepts, I was able to narrow it down to two designs for testing. I created prototypes for the mobile device to be tested in context. One design emerged as a clear winner among users due to its ease of viewing recommendations. Users preferred to stay within context of the original product and appreciated having just enough information to decide whether or not to add to bag or continue discovering other items.
OVERALL OUTCOME
The launch proved successful as we found users clicking through the recommendations and adding them to bag.
LOOKING FORWARD
The study showed the advantages of offering users recommendations in context. By tracking metrics tied to purchases from the recommendations along with the original product they were viewing we can gain valuable insights for future iterations and actual necessity of this feature.
Future features:
- Share outfits with friends
- Enable friends to vote on outfits
- Save outfits
- Display similar products of the current look
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