Conversion Rate Optimization and Redesign Homepage for Kohl

Background:

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) research reduces customer acquisition costs by getting more value from visitors. I did this research on an American department store Kohl’s for Retail Ecommerce Ventures. This is a brief version of thorough research.

Timeline: 

One week (2021)

Tools:

Alexa

 

Goals: 

Imagine you’re a product designer for Kohl’s. Your team has noticed customer conversion rates for adding items to the digital shopping cart have fallen to 4.3% compared to the company’s 5% goal. The team is eager to make experience improvements that increase the likelihood a customer selects and adds an item to their shopping cart.

Research:

I have researched through the following steps.

 

  • Site speed analysis
  • Profile analysis
  • Competitor analysis
  • Traffic trends
  • Engagement metrics
  • Keyword analysis
  • Referral sources
  • Social engagement analytics
SITE SPEED ANALYSIS:
Speed Scores:

The analysis is done through Pingdom  only for desktop.

  • Homepage: Performance grade: E 60, Page size: 6.5MB, Load time: 3.29 s, 474 requests
  • Department page: Performance grade: E 60, Page size: 3.8MB, Load time: 4.22 s, 422 requests
Key takeaways:
  • Website loading time needs to be reduced
Opportunities:
  • Avoid URL redirects
  • Reduce DNS lookups

PROFILE ANALYSIS:

Traffic Engagement Ranking:

Alexa Rank is a daily estimate of a website’s popularity. It is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to this site and pageviews on this site over the past 3 months.

Key Takeaways:
  • Rank reduced by 637 in 90 days
  • Missing current niche demands and trends might be the reason

 

 

 

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS:

Key Takeaways:
  • Macy’s and Target have the most overlapping audience and hold better rank than Kohl’s
  • Analyzing their design philosophy to improve Kohl’s profile

 

 

 

 

 

TRAFFIC TRENDS:

Key Takeaways:
  • Macy’s and Target are in better traffic rank compared to Kohl’s. Analyzing their strategies can lead to opportunities.

 

ENGAGEMENT METRICS:

Pageviews Per User:

The estimated daily unique pageviews per user for this site

Key Takeaways:
  • Macy’s unique page views are higher than Kohl’s.
  • The keywords or engagement strategies of Macy’s to get the more diverse interest of the customers are more effective.
Bounce%:

Estimates percentage of daily visits to this site that consist of a single pageview.

Key Takeaways:
  • Macy’s is showing a consistent lower bouncing rate which is an indication that their homepage products are relevant to most of the customer’s interest, regardless of source

 

Time on Site:

The estimated daily time on site in seconds for this site (in seconds)

Key Takeaways:
  • Kohl’s is falling behind Macy’s and Target in holding customer interest. Perhaps focusing on a more timely niche or trend can give customer engagement a boost.

 

 

KEYWORDS ANALYSIS:
Keywords Gap:

Keywords driving traffic to competitors, but not towards this site.

 

Key Takeaways:
  • The gap shows missing keywords which can drive more traffic to Kohl’s
  • Matching the new keywords with the inventory important before adding

 

 

 

Easy to Rank Keywords:

Popular keywords within this site’s competitive power

Key Takeaways:
  • The items that have a high popularity and low competition, definitely demand more attention for increasing conversion rate

 

 

Buyer Keywords:

Keywords that holds purchase intent

Key Takeaways
  • Focusing on the keywords with purchase interest is a direct contribution to increasing conversion.
  • Especially focusing on the targeted competitors’ profile can be beneficiary because of their proven success

 

REFERRAL SOURCES:
Traffic Sources:

Alexa estimates website traffic based on a sample of millions of Internet users.

Key Takeaways:
  • Focusing on the keywords for better search result and increasing referral link can drive more traffic

 

 

Referral Sites:

sites that drive traffic to them

Key Takeaways:
  • Finding the backlink of the targeted competitors and joining the relevant and most popular sites can benefit our traffic in a great number

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT ANALYTICS:
Key Takeaways:
  • For additional traffic, we can analyze the most popular social engagement topics to identify our next trend and niche

Test:

SURVEY:

I have done an online survey on 3 people with ten qualitative and qualitative questions.

Key Takeaways:
  • Customers demand a more visually pleasant experience
  • Product finding experience can be improved
  • Product finding experience can be improved
Opportunities:
  • Redesign based on modern successful design trends
  • Things can be well sorted
  • Departments can me more customer behaviors based organized

 

REMOTE USER TESTING:
Platform:

www.usertesting.com

Participants:

3

Tasks:
  • Task 1.Without leaving the homepage, what are your initial impressions of the website? Explain your answer.
  • Task 2.Try to guest checkout a pair of shoes (do not buy them). Please describe out loud what you expect to happen. When you’ve decided, move on to the next task.
Testing Analysis

 Tester

 First Impression

 Task

 Confidence

 Difficulty 

 Site Overview
Maxporter42

29

Male

$80,000 – $99,999

United States
  • Organized
  • Promotions are good for finding inspiration but not effective for him.
  • Only cares about the navigation tool.
  • Easy to complete.
  • Had little trouble finding shoes for men.
  • Trusts the website. 
  • Comes here for cheaper, authentic products. 
  • Kohl’s cash for the recurring customer is a good plan.
  • Easy
  • Appreciates filters, navigation bar, search bar. 
  • Don’t think design is very special.
  • Don’t think Macy’s or JCPenney is special either.
  • Clean
Takeaways:
  • The website is not a ‘special one. It is average compared to the similar brands
  • Too crowded with promotions, difficult to focus on one
  • Nothing is well structured, no clear space division provided

 

Solution:

HEURISTIC ANALYSIS:

Heuristic means discovery

  • Discover all of the problems that I can perceive on the site
  • Discoveries based on conversion optimization best practices
Homepage Observations:
Findings:
  • Crowded with distracting features
  • Unorganized sections in display
  • No hierarchy and colours are all over the places
Key Takeaways:
  • Add value proposition by prioritizing customer’s Time, Experience, and Services.
  • Focus on support and giving back to keep the trust and reliability from customers
  • Prioritize on seasonal niches. Keep it limited and display in a minimal, organized way with emotional big images

Prototype:

Kohl’s homepage prototype on Figma.

Key Takeaways:
  • I hope too much focus on simplicity would not make the viewer feel underwhelmed by the contents 
  • Focusing on untraditional structure for department store might make them doubt in the beginning
  • It is crucial to make the sections work effectively. There should not be repetition or confusion to find a product or deal