Examine Pier 1 Web Imports’s UX Experience
Congratulations! You have moved into a new apartment. You are excited and cannot wait to ask your friends to come over for a housewarming party to share the happiness. Before that, you need to get furniture and decorate your new home. While you are thinking about which store to go to, can I suggest Pier 1 Imports?
Pier 1 Imports started in California, in 1962. They are dedicated to offering customers distinct home furnishings and décor at a good value. Their merchandise assortment ranges from home accessories such as candles, vases, and picture frames to full-sized, upholstered furniture, hand-carved armoires, large-scale vases, and eclectic wall decor. By shopping in one place, you will be able to get everything you need to fill up your new home.
You are too tired to visit the store? Who said that shopping has to be physically visiting the store? According to Statista, in 2020, a total of 85% of consumers across the globe shopped online, while in North America, a total of 78% of consumers shopped online. Pier 1 Imports launched its online store on pier1.com in 2000. In 2012, Pier 1 Imports unveiled the newly redesigned e-Commerce-enabled website. Is it easy to use? Well, let’s take a look.
Get your attention
Similar to other websites, as soon as the web page is loaded, a pop-up is displayed asking for your email. Consumers will be offered a $15 discount in return once they sign up for the newsletter. After the pop-up is closed, another offer is shown in the upper part of the web page. The designer understands that the information that users concern about the most or are interested in the most should be shown as soon as they visit the website.
Well-organized Information
The navigation tabs are well-organized. Users can find the products they want by category. At the center of the web page, information on their promotions is listed with clickable links in the banner which bring users to the page right away.
As the users scroll down, they will be able to see the featured collections and best sellers. meanwhile, although you know what you need for your home, you may have no idea how to decorate. Pier 1 Imports also has a blog that teaches you to design your home. As a furnishing retail store, they are not only list the items they have but also providing a guide to furnish one’s home.
Is the design responsive to the mobile version?
Pier 1’s website can also be browsed on a mobile device comfortably. The same information is shown on a mobile device as those users can see on the desktop version. Instead of having all the categories squeezed on a small screen, the mobile version has “the hamburger” on the top left corner to include all the categories. The categories will be expanded once users click on “the hamburger”.
My experience on Pier 1’s website
1)Comfortable design
Be sure that your customers feel comfortable when looking around on your website. Rather than using a thousand types of colors, Pier 1’s website is mainly composed of white and grey. It is clean and comfortable to look at. Since light color is used for the background, the font is in black and navy. Also, to separate different sessions, an italic type of font is used for the title of a new session, which is easy for customers to realize that they are now looking at a new session.
2)Easy conversion
The major reason that people shop online is that it is more convenient than traveling to shop in-store. Immediate access to the product is important in order to secure sales. The banner with clickable links changes based on the season. This helps customers to know what they need to decorate their homes for the season. Instead of having customers look up the items they want by themselves, the clickable links provide an advantage for the customers to access the product page right away which is convenient.
3)Get ready for an AI
We can see more retailers are using chatbots on their websites to help improving customers service. A lot of consumers have positive feedback towards chatbots. According to Statista, 72% of the interviewees stated that their experience with chatbots was helpful and informative. Although chatbot is the trend, it appears that Pier 1 is not ready for a chatbot. In the chat window, rather than providing a response right away, customers are asked to leave their equations with an email address for the staff of Pier 1 to follow up later.
My final thought to Pier 1 Imports
Pier 1 Imports has become an online-only store, which means their website is their only way for sales and revenue. A good design of their website is the most important. I like the design of their website both the desktop version and mobile version. It is easy to look at and simple. The categorization on the navigation tab allows customers to find what they want easily. However, since customers always their questions to be answered right away, adding a chatbot to respond to customers’ inquiries right away will help to improve the UX experience.
