Crossword Bookstore Redesign|| UX Study

This is a conceptual redesigning of the crossword bookstore website to make it easy, simple, and modern.

About Crossword

Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is a revolutionary Indian chain of bookstores in Mumbai. The first bookstore was established on October 15, 1992 in Kemps Corner, Mumbai. In 2005, Crossword became a wholly owned subsidiary of Shoppers Stop Ltd. It has now spread across 12 cities with 80 outlets.

CEO-Kinjal Shah

Est. Annual Revenue- ₹111.8Cr (2018)

Est. Employees- 260,000

Mission

The establishment of a nation-wide chain of large format department stores in India. Crossword has the customer as the center of all its decisions. It was a call to move away from the usual, dusty, and cramped stores to spacious and open retail spaces which meant innovation in terms of design and layout with clear signage and fixtures. Adding to the experience, it pioneered the concept of an in-house cafe at few of its stores.

Vision

Crossword aims to be a point of cultural and social interaction where authors and poets hold court, where children are regaled, where people gravitate to be informed, to be entertained, and even enlightened. The name embodies the vision of Crossword as a place and space for people who seek information, knowledge or just the pleasure of reading. Crossword aims to be at the top of the book market online and offline within the time frame of 5–7 years.

Operational cities

Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Mangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Mumbai Airport, Navi Mumbai, Goa, Gandhinagar, Gurgaon, Surat, Nagpur, Nasik, Pune, Siliguri, Raipur, Udaipur, Noida, Vadodara.

Unique Selling Point

The whole dynamic of Crossword is to allow people to sit and read with no compulsion. At a time when as we go to a clothes store, we have their employees hovering around us trying to actually sweet talk or manipulate us to buy the goods there. We feel mentally guilty because we are checking or trying out clothes in a clothes store and have somebody hovering us pursuing us to buy the goods .

Crossword does exactly the opposite: nobody hovers around you . You are welcome and made to feel comfortable to go around and spend time reading whatever you wish to and sit there for hours browsing with no questions asked. Read whatever catches your fancy. Spend time around books and just read.

This in itself gives one their freedom and when any book catches his/her attention, no bibliophile will walk away without buying it . In fact, most people end up buying more than intended as it catches their attention while browsing. Much like that of a hypermarket where you end up always buying more than what you need for your kitchen or home. This USP in fact attracts the buyers to spend time in turn making them loyal customers. This increases the profit for the organisation.

Client base

Crossword has targeted a wider audience with its unique product portfolio. It is undoubtedly a great bookstore with a wide range of books and magazines for every age-group. They not only sell books and magazines but also games for kids and accessories for all.

Consumer segmentation

1. Children(5–15): accompanied with parent(s). Only interested in the children’s section and the toys. Needs: attractive display
2. Young browsers(16–25): frequent visits with friends to pass the time. Don’t care about the variety of books. Needs: attractive display
3. Family shoppers(26–40): come with family, look for a variety of categories and books. Needs: good ambience
4. Book lovers(teens and adults): usually visit alone, high book purchase intention, frequent visits. Needs: the variety of books/ vast collection, good ambience, seating arrangements, no disturbances.
5. Most customers are from tier 1 cities because the stores are mainly based there, though they have claimed that they will be expanding to tier 2 and 3 cities.

Needs of the customers VS the brand

Customers’ needs:

1. Wide range of products and categories
2. Quality of books/ toys/accessories (not damaged during shipping)
3. Affordable prices
4. Genuine products (not second hand or fake)
5. Timely delivery
6. Good return policies
7. Friendly and easily accessible customer care service

Brand’s needs

1. Increased brand recognition
2. Good yearly revenue
3. Increased market share
4. Increased trust from customers’ end/ and increased client experience
5. Having a smooth flow of all supply chain channels

Products

1. Books- autobiographies, biography, political science, religion, art
2. Baby products and Toys kids- cradles, games, diapers, bags
3. Computers & Accessories- router, data card, mouse, keyboard, laptop bag, adapters
4. Kitchen and Home Appliances- iron, vacuum cleaner
5. Entertainment and Cameras- gaming consoles, gaming headsets, binoculars, lens cleaners
6. Tablets and Mobiles- chargers, screen protectors, headsets
7. Furnishings and Home décor- cleaning products, CFL lights, emergency lights
8. Auto Accessories- amplifiers, car-CD player, mats
9. Travel accessories and bags- school bags, sling bags, neck pillow, ear plug
10. Office and school supply- folders, files, notebooks, diaries, pencils, pen.

Competitors

1. Amazon
2. Flipkart
3. Barnes & Noble
4. Odyssey
5. Landmark

Flipkart is the most preferred online bookstore because of convenience, discounts, and cash on delivery. The average online purchase amount is higher than the average in-store purchase amount. Other competitors include B&N, Landmark and Odyssey, all of which operate mainly through physical stores. They are positioned as a leisure store, with books not being the only main selling point. Stores such as Barnes & Noble, Landmark, and Odyssey also sell video games and movie CDs, which Crossword does not.

Stakeholders

1. Customer- The people buying the products.
2. Developer- The people who build the website and make it look fresh.
3. Retail suppliers- people supplying the products.
4. Finance- people managing the money.
5. Warehouses- a storage facility storing the products being sold on the site.
6. Social media team- the team promoting the website.
7. Transport suppliers- delivery men shipping the product to the customer’s home.

SWOT analysis

Strengths

1. Well known brand
2. Spread over most metro cities
3. Wide range of categories and wide range of books
4. Wide product portfolio. They sell toys, office supplies, and electronics
5. Products suited for all age groups

Weaknesses

1. No eBooks
2. Expensive books (compared to other online stores)
3. No second hand books
4. The offers are misleading
5. Membership is not fully functional and is misleading
6. Website not segregated well and not designed for the current age
7. They are operating only in major cities and not in tier 2 and 3 cities
8. Predominantly operating through stores. As a result, website is sidelined

Opportunities

1. Clean up the website
2. Add eBooks as an option on the website
3. Book exchange program for members with reward points

Threats

1. Any eBook domain
2. Second hand book selling websites
3. Steady change in customers’ preference of medium

Current website layout

Problems analyzed in website

1. The top most entire bar can be fitted into a tab “My Account”. This is unnecessary and can be added into one drop down box, via “My Account”.
2. Top access bar underneath the search bar has repetitive information. There is a category option which has books, toys, stationery, gifts, and accessories; all of which are shown on the right, again beside the categories tab.
3. Tabs for “New arrivals”, “Bestsellers”, and “Recommended” are unwanted. To look at the bestsellers, just click on the button which will take one to a new page, instead of just showing a couple of them on the homepage itself.
4. There are advertisements both, above and below the “bestsellers” tab. Either of the places would be okay, but not both.
5. Below the “bestsellers” tab, there are 7 ad boxes of varying sizes, out of which only one moves to view more ads. It is unnecessary to show so many varying ad boxes.
6. After scrolling halfway down the page, one finally gets to view the books that keep moving every couple of seconds, which is very distracting.
7. The section header has arrow buttons to swipe between books, which should be placed next to the books.
8. The book covers are of various sizes which changes the alignment of the rows
9. There is less gap between the author’s name and the “Buy Now” button.
10. Due to this the “Buy Now” buttons are not aligned in one single line. Some are placed lower which looks very off.
11. The overuse of logo color on the various elements of the website reduces the focus on the logo and leaves the user confused on the function of the website.
12. The drop boxes have no proper segregation in terms of space.
13. There needs to be more filters when searching for books. For eg. popularity.
14. The bottom of one page has two similar tabs “Write a review” and “Start a discussion.” Only one of them is required.
15. The categories tab for the books has repeated content. 3 non fiction options, 2 children's options etc.
16. The categories tab for the stationery has a single separate tab for “camlin.” That is the only brand featured on the categories tab.

Conducted survey

This is a survey we conducted regarding books in general, people’s experience of navigating the website and also on their opinion on the Book Exchange Service (BES) that we were planning to add as a new membership feature. The following are the questions we asked and their responses we received.

We also asked few aged people to try and use the website and let us know the experience (not included in the survey). They found the text hard to read and found it difficult to keep up with the moving images. It was harder navigate and one common suggestion we got was to make things bigger and more readable.

UX in website (recommendation)

The reach of this brand is very large. The target audience ranges from ages of 3–70. They sell not only books but also toys and accessories.

We conducted a survey for the current crossword website and the points stated below have been concluded from their responses-

1. The customers were confused at the first glance. They did not know what to look at.

2. The customers mostly preferred exchanging their currently read books with unread ones.

3. Generally, they buy books both, online and in offline stores.

4. The present generation prefers eBooks, whereas most of the older generation would not.

5. Almost all of them did not prefer buying any kind of electronic items or accessories from this site, as it is mainly a bookstore. Most of the people didn’t even know that they sold anything other than books.

UX in store(recommendation)

The loyalty program can be worked upon. The display in the kids section can be improved by using cartoon characters and better flooring. A new section for Graphic Novels can be introduced. To encourage impulsive buying, chocolates, blank CDs and pen drives can be displayed next to the cash counter. More advertising media platforms using social media should be created to increase the footfall in the stores and its Book reward member (BES) in and around the mall.

Solutions

After data collection and analysis we started creating various blocks of the website one at a time-

1. Navigation flow
2. Information hierarchy
3. Style guide
4. Wireframes
5. Prototypes

Keeping in mind the user behavior and tendency, we tried to make the navigation clean, easy, and simple. In addition to this, we took into consideration the brand language and visual language of the brand.

Navigation flow & Information hierarchy

Style guide

The style guide we created takes in account the negative space and the colors of the original user interface of the website. Few tints and tones were added to the original color scheme. The rounded edges provide a friendly look to the website. Also keeping in mind the current trend of a dark mode, we added that feature in the website that can be changed in the account settings.

Wireframes (High fidelity)

Prototype

Conclusion

Overall, this was a very challenging project. We found out which design would practically be possible and which would not be. We learnt how hard creating a navigation flow and the User interface for a website actually is. This project was very enriching and now that we look at it after completion, we feel more confident about our work and would like to take up another user experience project again.

This project was done by the both of us:

Bibliography