Making POPULAR popular again

Rethinking my approach to learning UX

Doren Ho
Doren Ho
Jul 22, 2017 · 5 min read
POPULAR Online. Image courtesy of https://www.popular.com.sg/.

Being the largest bookstore chain in Singapore, POPULAR’s history in Singapore can be traced back to 1924. With the increasing online demands of book lovers, POPULAR is redefining itself in response to threats from online bookstores by offering customers full convenience in purchasing books with the click of the mouse.

POPULAR Central @ Bras Basah Complex, Singapore

However, POPULAR’s branding and digital presence in Singapore alone are not enough to drive traffic and sales on its web store. In comparison with Singapore Kinokuniya online, its biggest competitor in the bookstore industry in Singapore, POPULAR Online falls behind in terms of web store traffic for the past 3 months.

Web store traffic on POPULAR Online VS Singapore Kinokuniya Online. Data gathered from SimilarWeb.

Our target audience are existing POPULAR retail customers who buy books often and have visited POPULAR Online before because they already have the motivation and spending power for buying books from POPULAR. We observed how they use the current web store to get feedback on the website functionality and gain insights into their motivations and satisfaction. In short, we want to know their pain points that are deterring them from buying books from the web store, so as to convert them into online customers as well.

My teammate and I adopted a user-centric problem-solving process to help POPULAR Online increase their sales and traffic:

Research

Competitive analyses + Contextual inquiry + User research

Solution

Strategy + Service redesign + Web store interface and features redesign

We made a responsive prototype for two personas. Darren, a 32 year-old journalist and book enthusiast, and Alice, a 21 year-old undergraduate on a budget.

Persona, Darren
Persona, Alice

View our pitch deck for more details of our research and proposed solution.

Interact with our prototype made responsive for desktop and mobile users.

How can we get Darren to buy books from POPULAR Online?

We introduced a book preview feature for Darren to know what the books he is viewing at are about before buying. In addition, the new store stock status feature would allow him to know the store locations that carry the books he want so he can choose to drop by the store and take a look at the books in person.

How can we get Alice to buy books from POPULAR Online?

Alice’s need to browse and buy bestsellers for cheaper prices can be met not only with the existing 10% discount on her first online order, but also by encouraging her to leave review for her online purchase on the web store and earn online points that can be accumulated and go toward offsetting the prices of her future online orders.

How can we help Darren and Alice to find the books they want more easily?

As a start, we allow a display of greater minimum number of book title characters for more efficient browsing of books. Previously, the number of book title characters displayed was so limited that it was virtually useless for viewing.

The addition of advanced search button would allow them to find the books they want more easily. Gift recommendations and curated lists would help them to discover more variety of books easily.

Book recommendations can be provided based on the book they are currently viewing, helping them discover more variety of related genre books as well.

Display of book titles (web store)
Display of book titles (prototype)
Home page of prototype, with added advanced search button, gift guides, and curated reading lists
Advanced search field of prototype
Product page of prototype, with added stock stock status, related genre recommendations, and helpful reviews
Book preview on prototype

Elevating the book buying experience can be done by focusing on all touch points that make the entire experience and identifying digital and service opportunities in the entire system. Therefore, we detail each aspect of the service in our service design blueprint so as to inform implementation plan for our proposed new services.

For example, keeping store stock status up-to-date would require the backend to update and maintain store stock status on the web store constantly. Allowing users to suggest new books for POPULAR on web store would require the relevant backend team to review and analyse these suggestions to decide whether to bring in new book collection, when, how much and how often to do so. For effective customer engagement online, encouraging users to leave reviews on web store goes hand-in-hand with responding to user feedback as appropriate, and would require a dedicated team to monitor the reviews to look for areas for improvement.

Service Design Blueprint

Rethinking my approach to learning UX

Service design is not only concerned with what benefits users, but also how to create these benefits. Therefore, changes in the services can have profound implications for operations.

For example, maintaining store stock status up-to-date and analysing book suggestions by users, involve various decisions at the interface of operations management and business analyses.

I learnt the importance of seeing the overall picture in solution design as the whole point is to ensure the process is appropriate for whatever objectives I am trying to achieve.

If I could expose myself more to quantitative management science and operations research, I could understand how to design services better.

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