ReturnQueen Story
Overview
ReturnQueen is a subscription-based return service through which you can return all your goods, purchased online without the hassle of printing, boxing, and delivering them to the courier service.
RQ PROCESS
RQ process starts from the bag that the fleet picks from the doorstep of the subscriber. It became very popular due to Covid and its related restrictions. Our fleet brings the bag to our warehouse, where we box it along with the return label that we received linking our app with member's email. Then it is taken to the courier service through which it originally came from. Finally, the refund is processed.
The Problem
When I joined RQ the subscription was decreasing. Despite being the pioneer and major market shareholder- the conversion was low. The bounce-off ratio was rapidly increasing. We didn't know whether we were lagging in the app functionality, lack of geographical presence, and/or just missing out somewhere in policy or promotion.
My Role
With the decreasing growth and subscription cancelation on the rise- the team couldn't figure out the area where the adjustment was needed.
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It's always my practice to do some independent research besides the brief. As I skimmed through App and Playstore- we found out that not only did our market share decrease but our competitors were offering cellphone signups.
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Additionally, upon installing many apps- I found that we were offering to link up the payment mode way too early for the user to decide whether they want to avail the free trial or not.
In the new user flow, we pushed the payment option right before the user placed the first trial order.
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On the right is the new user flow of the new checkout that we finally delivered.
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The Comp Research
I conducted a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis as to dive deep into where the problem existed. During the process, I started Googling other similar services and apps. The gap existed, where we were aware of the services with strong online presence but we didn't audit the App & Playstore. Those with strong online presence were not offering significantly different. Till then I did not go on the App or Playstore. The ReturnQueen app was the market leader and but our website was not processing anything. So the main revenue earner was the app which we overlooking.
The Solution
I decided to conduct an audit, to find out where the problem existed so that it can be fixed in a timely manner. There were new competitors in the market but none big enough to become a significant threat to RQ. I started digging from UX/UI front independently. Only to find out through the process that our adoption process had a major glitch that many other market players had already overcome and were staying away from.
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We were offering the payment linking way too early and that was scaring many users. Later at usability study, we also found that it deterred the users' confidence in trusting RQ as a company that has the prime motive of capturing credit cards and not customer satisfaction.
Linking Amazon
The Process
First of all, I had to illustrate that not only this new user flow will remove the current discrepancy but it will also enhance the conversion. I had to re-route a few screens and had to introduce an additional sign-in option that was missing.
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As I went on App Store and downloaded many competitor apps- I found out that they were offering code-based sign-in without the requirement of formal or previous sign-up. Most of the potential users were also falling off because the free trial subscription asked for the mode of payment upfront. It was deterring many to quit the app.
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So I went ahead and designed these additional screens without the approval of the VPs. I told them that when I will present it- the whole process with making more sense.
The Obstacle
The key barrier was the change in policy. The revenue stream that was working in past was under scrutiny and a business decision couldn't be revised based on the UX team's suggestion.
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When I presented the new user flow- the logical flow of closing a sale made sense to the whole team. It was obvious that although in both cases we were linking the mode of payment in the cart, however in my recommendation it was made right towards the end where the order for free trial was placed.
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Another challenge was to synchronize the new payment option with the
other sections of the app.
Wireframe New Checkout
Mockup New Checkout
The Outcome
Our design decision impacted not only the conversion which came to almost 1.5x but the change also impacted the main sales pitch. We were unaware that many other competitors had entered the marketplace.​
As we adopted the new user flow the operations team also felt the impact on the website. Later through our usability study, we found out that even more people were searching for their zip code in the areas where RQ was servicing.
Clickable Prototype
Usability Study
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