Design checkout screens for e-commerce app to help people recycle the goods they buy
Problem
The fact is as much as 80% of the things we throw away could be recycled. People are buying too many disposable items. Whether it’s fast fashion or take aways meals, we really need to make consumers aware of the possibility of a product’s second life once they have finished with it.
Origins
Plastic waste is one of the most pressing environmental issues the world is facing. But as the pandemic pushes on, people are more focused on their health and hygiene — at the expense of the environment. With most of the world in lockdown, and people being stuck at home, there has been a major surge in online retail. With the convenience of shopping and the ease in digital payment, people are buying things without thinking twice about the environment.
My task is to make sure consumers become more aware of how to take their next steps with the product they are buying.
User research
I set myself some goals for the research to help me understand more about the problem:
- What users existing recycling habits and knowledge are
- What are the pain points of the current recycling process
- How different countries tackle recycling
- How retailers and manufacturers tackle recycling
Qualitative research
For the first part of the research, I surveyed 12 people who lived in the UK, US, Hong Kong and Japan to understand what their knowledge, awareness and pain points of recycling were.
Identify primary user
• Those who live as a family unit and
• Those who are responsible for sorting out the trash and recycling
• Those who care about the environment and wish to reduce their carbon footprint
Identify gaps
• How the supermarkets are promoting their attitude towards sustainability
• How do people know what to recycle or throw away
• Do people have alternatives to throwing things away if they don’t know what to do with the item eg. upcycle
• Is there a platform or channel to identify what to do with things that they feel could be recycled
• Do consumers get swayed by facts which could motivate users to recycle more?
Understanding user needs
• Are consumers being notified of how recyclable their products are?
• Are consumers buying products because of their sustainability?
• What are users’ frustrations when it comes to recycling?
Secondary research
Market research
I searched online to understand how other countries were motivating their citizens to do their bit to reduce their carbon footprint.
Competitive analysis
I identified how some existing e-commerce apps and websites are tackling recycling
Primary research findings
• Most of those who participated had a regular habit of recycling cardboard/paper, plastics, cans and glass.
•Some countries such as Lithuania have financial incentives encouraging people to bring back items such as glass bottles. In Korea, if you are caught not recycling correctly, you will be fined.
• Half of the participants had upcycled in some form such as for arts and crafts, planting and furniture
• Much of the recycling knowledge was obtained from leaflets, posters and websites from the local council but it seems there are still information gaps because over half the candidates expressed that they were unsure what could or could not be recycled
“Recycling is very expensive, reducing is the best way to protect our environment”
Secondary research
Supermarkets were the focus of recycling for this challenge, given that they are where most people shop for online and without being able to physically look at the packaging before they pay for the item, consumers must rely on what they see on their app or online store.
These are the following findings from several UK supermarket sites:
Sustainability pledges
Tesco (UK)
One of the more forward thinking leaders in recycling, Tescos have taken their 4Rs plan: Remove, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle programme one step further by promoting a partnership program with Loop. Using Loop for delivery, consumers get the option of choosing from a range of products where the containers can be returned emptied. They will then be cleaned and refilled.
Marks and Spencers (UK)
M&S have been evolving their Little Shop collections since 2019. Mini collectables’ packaging claim to have been made out of recycled or sustainable materials such as broken washing machines and old fridges.
Iceland
Iceland’s Doing it Right campaign has big claims. It claims it will ‘commit to eliminating plastic packaging from our own label food range by 2023’. But they still have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to their recycling labelling because they are at the bottom of the list out of eleven supermarkets.
Waitrose
Waitrose have a huge commitment to sustainability and are continually sourcing widely-recycled, reusable or home compostable packaging for their own brand goods. With 85% of their own brand goods using this type of packaging already, Waitrose are so confident that all their packaging will be this way, that they brought their initial target forward two years to 2023.
Checkout pages
Given that UK retailers bracing themselves with a new plastic packaging tax which is going to take affect from April 2022, many of them have already made drastic changes in-store. But when it comes to their online stores and checkouts, I discovered that there are many areas which could be improved.
The best checkout journeys based on this audit in my opinion seemed to be Asda’s which works hard to include various product tips and upselling and I liked the fact that they made the experience very clear to the consumer what options they have when it comes to being more green conscious.
Sainsbury’s checkout highlighted more greener delivery timeslots which was one step more than what other supermarkets were offering.
But overall, I felt that the majority of the checkouts didn’t work hard enough to encourage consumers to recycle more. They lacked information on how and where there might be and alternative ways to recycling.
User persona
Insights gained from the survey and secondary research, our target audiences’ attitudes and behaviours were identified. On the basis of patterns observed from their personalities, I came up with a primary user persona:
Affinity map
I took the highlights of the data from both primary and secondary research and grouped them into thematic questions.
Research summary
Consumers are willing to recycle given they are provided with the facilities offered by their local councils. The majority recycled card, paper, plastics and glass - usually at home, in the office or in public places. And the main pain point that many people come across is not knowing whether something is actually recyclable. This I feel is actually up to the manufacturer and retailers responsibility to educate the public.
Manufacturers
There are several ways to deal with this:
1) For all packaging that can or cannot be recycled, they should source more lightweight materials because the lighter the packaging weighs the less plastic packaging tax they need to pay
2) The recycling label on the packaging should be made very clear
3) Educate the public from a younger age about the benefits of reducing waste
Retailers
They must work harder to integrate the existing sustainable facilities and partnerships they have put in place and integrate it more into the whole shopping experience.
1)For example, given that some supermarkets already have facilities for recycling, and often encourage customers to remove excess packaging, so they don’t take home unnecessary waste before leaving the store or bring back packaging that is hard to recycle so they can be created into other items. This is not being made clear upfront on their website — or at least not at the checkout stage.
2) Those supermarkets who are trialling their ‘bring your own containers’ anti-plastic scheme in a few more stores so for some products such as pasta, wine and frozen fruit, this could be further explored in the purchase and/or checkout journey.
Given now that more and more people are getting online deliveries, because of the covid situation, retail checkouts definitely need to work harder to encourage recycling before or even at the time of delivery.
Design and deliver
Based on my research findings, I have come up with a couple of solutions which could be explored:
1) Recycle points scheme — create a new recycle points scheme which encourages users to buy products which have Recycle Points. Customers will have further incentive to take back the item to recycle in store as they will be rewarded with double the Recycle Points.
These products will be recyclable in store so consumers will pay a bit more for the item (eg. 1%) as it includes a refundable deposit. Consumers are encouraged to bring the item back in store to recycle in the reverse vending machine. If they do not bring back the item, they will not only lose out on getting back their deposit, they will also be rewarded with double the Recycle Points.
With these Recycle Points, the more they collect, the more money off they will get for buying the same recyclable products.
2) Refillable — encourage people to bring their own container or ‘borrow’ a box to buy refillable produce such as pasta, cereal and nuts.
This is feature is likely to be an attractive option given they are already trialling this in selected store throughout the UK. They not only save 15% of the original packaged version, they are also saving plastics by opting to bring your own container.
Prototypes
And for my prototype designs, I decided to take on both concepts and user test it to get further feedback.
I chose to adapt the Waitrose checkout journey on their app to help promote their ‘bring your own’ container initiative which they call ‘Waitrose Unpacked’. Their trial run got positive feedback when it started the initiative back in April 2019 and so it’s now rolling out to a further three stores around the country. Another reason why I chose the Waitrose app is because I feel that because they are one of the first of major UK supermarkets to roll out this scheme offline, it needs to catch up with the initiative online as well. And having previously been partnering with Ocado for home delivery service, Waitrose is now going it alone after an 18 year partnership.
First round of user-testing
Prototype 1 — Recycle Points
During the first round of user testing for Recycle Points, this concept was well received although there was confusion on:
a) How the Recycle Points would be used
b) How extra Recycle Points would be collected
c) What is the conversion rate for Recycle Points to real money
d) How the Recycle Points are deducted — if the concept of deducting the points is actually clear in the final order summary
e) Whether it is better to deduct the points from the whole bill rather than just ‘recyclable items’
f) Is it necessary to apply for a Waitrose card in order to get the points? It might be preferable to just go to their Profile section on the Waitrose app where they can access a barcode and see a record of their points balance there
g) Revise the Recycle Points name as it could be confused with an actual recycling point where users can go to physically recycle products
Prototype 2 — Refillable
Users were all attracted to the 15% discount on refillable goods but there were still some questions which remained to be answered:
a) How are the logistics of ‘borrow-a-box’ going to work:
• Could they bring in their own container?
• The £5 price tag was a bit on the steep side for one tester.
• One tester felt that the price of the goods should include the packaging itself.
b) More effort could be done in the messaging to promote how much you have saved the planet by not using more plastic packaging.
c) What are the hygienic conditions of the goods being handled at the refill stations compared with the packaged goods?
d) The shelf life of the goods will be reduced
Although the concept of reuse over recycle was a good consideration, out of the users who tested both concepts, a majority preferred the Recycle Points concept as it was simpler to grasp and implement.
Final Product
After consolidating feedback from user testing, I have made some modifications to the Recycle Points prototype:
- At the trolley — I revised the copy so it’s easier for users to understand how the loyalty points programme works. I also added in the conversion rate at the bottom.
2. At the checkout — I made it easier for users:
• to view and the entry point to redeem their Recycle Points balance
• to increase or decrease the number of Recycle Points they want to redeem
• to understand the conversion rate
3. At the bottom of the checkout — I detailed out:
(1) Recycle Points the user has chosen to redeem for this order
(2) Recycle Points the user will gain once they have completed this order
(3) Recycle Points the user will gain when they return the product to recycle in store
Insights
Had I allowed more time to conduct user testing, I would have liked to have found out if my modified changes would have made a difference to how users viewed the Recycle Points concept. And I also would have liked to have found out if more users preferred this concept over the Refill one.
For me personally, I would prefer to try and reduce or eliminate packaging to zero. I know it can ultimately be difficult given that many people who make purchases are not always in store and may not carry containers everywhere they go. But given time, I hope consumers do manage to work out a solution. I hope they become accustomed to carrying around boxes like they do their own recyclable shopping bags.
