Sep 6, 2020
UX Case Study and Redesigning of the website of — Forever 21
UX Case Study and Redesigning of the website of — Forever 21
Disclaimer: This project was in collaboration with Unnati Kaushal for a college assignment and is not made, owned, or affiliated directly to Forever 21.
Brand Study
The Forever 21 brand and their associated lines operates over 790 stores selling men’s and women’s clothing throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Europe, Africa, Oceania and across Asia. For Forever 21’s founder, Do Won (Don) Chang and his wife Jin Sook Chang, Forever 21 is about more than selling clothing, but the personification of achieving the American dream.
The story of how Forever 21 started goes like this: Two poor Korean immigrants, Do Won Chang and his wife, Jin Sook Chang, founded the first Forever 21 store in Los Angeles, California, in 1984 as a true family run operation after they arrived to the US in 1981. Before opening their first store, Do Won Chang worked hard to make ends meet — he did janitorial work and worked at a gas station and a coffee shop.
In July 2016, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited acquired the exclusive online and offline rights to the India network of California-based fast fashion brand Forever 21. The partnership between Forever 21 and ABFRL marks a milestone in the creation of ABFRL as the largest integrated branded fashion player in India, with a strong foothold in the women’s wear segment, given the growing popularity of fast fashion and the young demographics of the country.
Target Market
Forever 21 mostly targets females who are:
-Young adults(17–24), teenagers(13–16), fashion directed/models.
CEO- RAHUL JHAMB — Business Head (India)- Forever 21 — Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd.
Strategizing
1.Stakeholders
- Customers
- Employees/Brand
- Retail/franchisee
- Warehouse
2.Stakeholder mapping
1: Customers: good quality products, finding the desired product, on time delivery, easy payment, affordable price, offers/discounts, reviews, varieties in products.
2: Employees/Brand: revenue, income
3: Warehouse: storage of the products, payment, good communication with the company.
4: Retail/franchisee: timely payment, good communication with company and customers, safe work environment.
3.Competitors
Main competitors for Forever 21 are H&M and ZARA.
H&M is one of Forever 21’s top rivals. H&M is a Public company that was founded in 1947 in Stockholm, Stockholms län. Like Forever 21, H&M also works within the Retail Distributors industry. Compared to Forever 21, H&M has 93,576 more employees.H&M targets younger generation women who prefers cheap but high fashion goods which it will be further discussed below.
ZARA is seen as one of Forever 21’s biggest rivals. ZARA was founded in 1974 in A Coruna, Other. Like Forever 21, ZARA also competes in the Apparel Retail sector. However, ZARA targets both women and men which are very interested in high fashion.
Zara and H&M have continued to update their story, their purpose, product selection, quality and overall brand relevance, Forever 21 decided to stay 21, Forever.
BRAND TOTAL REVENUE(crore)
H&M : 1.2k
ZARA : 1570
FOREVER 21 : 262
4.Existing Interface
-Home Page
-Women category view
-Category pop-ups
-Single product view
-Footer
-Cart view
- The colour scheme of the website is very boring.
- The search bar is not looking good on the black header at the top.
- The main page mostly covers the whole area with big pictures and text is written over the image which is not looking good.
- The website uses very big images which cover the entire space of the website.
- No hierarchy is being followed.
- The main page mostly shows products for women, it should also display men products on the main page.
- No grid is followed in the main page.
- There are too many drop-downs and scrollings which makes searching more difficult and boring.
- The red sale box on the top black header looks very odd, also the flashing of the text.
- Navigation elements and structures are not organized.
- The customer support and chat section is not good, also their is no option to chat with the customer service.
- Bad iconography.
- Website has lot of white space. Use of space is not good.
- Irrelevancy
- Browsing is very difficult.
- Very less products for men.
- Footer can be much better.
- Tracking order is difficult for customers.
- Reviews and ratings of the products are missing.
- The payment options should also have a UPI option,mostly people prefer UPI. rework on payment section.
- Sizes category is confusing.
5. Analysing the needs: brand vs customer
Brand needs:
- Dealing properly with indian market
- Gaining trust of their customers
- Increase in Revenue
- Marketing strategies
Customer needs:
- Variety in products
- Good price
- Good material
- Good customer care service
- More payment options
- Interactive website
- Easily finding their desired products
6.SWOT analysis
-Strengths:
- Strong brand awareness
- Lots of location stores worldwide
- Reasonable prices
- Customer savvy
- Association with young celebrities
- Organization of store is customer friendly
- Always trendy
- Something new everyday
-Weaknesses:
- Cookie-cutter styles(same approach in designs)
- Sometimes understaffed
- Does not have reward systems
- Flaws in online shopping system
- Low quality for some products
- It is very narrow in options
- Excessive focus on teens, young adult females and less focus on men.
-Opportunities:
- Emerging internet
- Advancing technology
- Reward system
- Growing need for youngsters to stick to trends.
- Fashion changes
- Personalisation clothing
-Threats:
- Quick rising fashion stores like H&M and ZARA
- Trend in second hand clothing(recycling of unwanted or used clothes)
- Diminishing likeliness to shop from physical stores
7. Mission,Vision and Values of Forever 21
Mission statement: The mission of the company is to provide shoppers with an unprecedented selection of fashion nowadays with affordable prices. They are known as -always changing and always in style.
Vision statement: Forever 21 wants to inspire all customers shopping experience by providing a captivating and exciting store environment with a never ending flow of fun, on trend fashion at a great value.
Values:
- Encourage giving
- To lend a helping hand to those who need it most
- Over the years.
Customer Analysis
The conducted survey has the following results
Main problems areas
- Narrow variety in products
- Trouble while tracking orders
- No good interaction with customer care service
- Products not available
- No review and rating section
- Size and material issue
- Filters
- Bad color scheme
Solutions
- Decrease the size of hero images and add more information about the product.
- Make good use of negative space, use grid where necessary.
- Improve iconography.
- Set a proper tracking system that gives notification to the customer when the product is shipped/dispatched.
- Introduce a live chat section for customers to ask their questions with the customer care service and also get an immediate reply.
- Whenever products come back in stock, notify the customer.
- Add a review and rating section for every product so that customers can check before buying the product.
- Properly simplify the filters and avoid unnecessary scrolling,only add relevant filters for easy browsing.
- Set up proper color scheme for the website, also improve the navigation and layout of the website to make it more user friendly and appealing.
- Improve footer.
- Display men section also in the main page.
Information hierarchy
Products and categories
sales/offers
Price
ratings/reviews
Wishlist
Cart
My account
Coupons
Payment method
Tracking order
help/customer care
About us
Navigation flow
Style Guide
Wireframes(Desktop)
Wireframe(mobile)
Prototype( desktop)
Thank You!
I’m Shishta Vashishthaand this is my first article on Medium and I’m currently third year student of Visual Communication at Unitedworld Institute of Design Ahmedabad, India. We have recently finished a module in UX and had the amazing opportunity to work with briefs like this. I hope you liked it. Thanks!
This was a collaborative project by:
