Understanding Users Needs: Shopee Checkout Process
Overview
Shopee is an e-commerce platform that serves users in Southeast Asia and Taiwan which enables them to purchase and sell products online through internet-connected computing devices and smartphones.
I love shopping online with Shopee. Both my colleagues and family also love this platform for its promo and cashback. Shopee allows me to enjoy a hassle-free shopping experience combined with safe payment options and trusted delivery services.
But at some point, among overall experience so far, I feel like the checkout process in Shopee is way harder than other e-commerce. I remember the first time I check out before placing an order, I need to verify my account using a code sent through SMS. But after several minutes, there was no response whatsoever. So I tried using my home telephone number to verify and just expect it will work. Finally, it does.
And that was one of many cases occurs during the checkout process.
Goals
In this research, I’d like to figure out what users of Shopee find useful or frustrating on its checkout. With the scoping of this observation would be the overall end-to-end checkout process by using the overarching question* as a guideline, then break it down to construct specific core questions.
*Overarching Question: The big question we are trying to answer in this research.
Overarching Question
“What are users of Shopee find useful or frustrating about its checkout process, specifically from choosing item to what they do after they place order?”
Core Questions
I always keep the overarching question in mind during the interview, while asking these core questions:
1. Recent use of Shopee
“I’d like you to think back to the most recent time when you used Shopee for online shopping. Can you tell me a bit about what items did you purchase and how did it go until you place an order?”
2. Smoothness in Checkout Experience
“Did you have a smooth checkout process without any trouble, if so, when and how often was that?”
3. Problems in the Checkout Process
“What kind of problems have you faced during the checkout process?”
4. Checkout Feature
“What did you find useful and frustrating in all checkout feature? (e.g., review shopping bag, choose shipping address from maps, insurance, etc.)”
5. Unusual Checkout Experience
“Have you ever been into unusual checkout experience that caused you trouble? For example, when you purchase a heavy-weighted item, or imported product that you need to pre-order.”
Note: on each question, I asked follow-up questions on each point so that the interview can be more flowing and relaxed. I also voice record and document important points as well as quotations.
Methods
Before started the interview, I defined Shopee’s user's profile based on expertise, characteristics, behavior, and attitude. After that, I used a convenience sampling to choose two people that represent the target population with the following profiles:
Participant 1 (P1)
Participant 2 (P2)
Affinity Wall
One method to analyze research findings, as well as ideas from the observation, is affinity wall. Which refers to organizing related facts into distinct clusters. Also known as an affinity diagram, affinity mapping, collaborative sorting, snowballing, or even card sorting (However, at UX, ‘card sorting’ refers to a very specific research method for determining the information architecture of a site or application. Users sort index cards with the name of the category and commands written on them).
In UX context, affinity wall used to quickly organize:
- observations or ideas from a research study;
- ideas that surface in design-ideation meetings; and
- ideas about UX strategy and vision.
Steps
1 — Gather all insights from interview results
This covers important notes or quotations. Write down each note to the sticky notes along with the participant code (P1 or P2).
2 — Choose a room that has a wall on which sticky notes can be attached (e.g., glass or whiteboard)
Alternatively, tape flip-chart paper on the wall and stick the notes on top, or use easels if walls are not tape-friendly.
3 — Put all notes randomly on the wall in no order
Don’t quickly group notes right after sticking each of the notes. Take your time by putting all notes straight to the wall one by one.
4 — Start grouping the notes with similar responses to get the sorting started
Once it’s started, there should be patterns in which some notes have similar responses. Hence, these responses should be in one cluster.
5 — If the note doesn’t fit under any cluster, then make a new one
When the note doesn’t belong to any existing cluster, put the note on empty space. Try finding other notes with similar responses and make a new cluster. Repeat this step until no sticky notes left.
6 — Create Subcategories that represent the cluster
After finished grouping all sticky notes into one cluster. Write the name of the subcategory on sticky notes which represent what the cluster is all about. When finished, look at another cluster and label them the same way as previous subcategories. Use different colors to easily differentiate subcategories with the cluster.
7 — Add Top-Level Category that represents the Subcategories with similarities
If some subcategories have the similar labels (e.g., about the payment process, technical issues, etc.), then put them side-by-side along with the whole cluster. After that, label them with a different color to represent what these subcategories are all about. Repeat the same step to other subcategories.
Key Findings
Here are the key findings with high severity that I and participants think imperative to fix:
1. Overall process and problems during the checkout process
Both participants behave differently toward the checkout process system. Participant 1 (P1) slightly confused with the interface especially to find buttons and menus. However, both participants use the same step when checkout, from putting an address first, then choose a shipping option, adds an additional message if there’s any special request for delivery, then finally chooses a payment method before they place an order.
Other findings are related to problems encountered during the checkout process. In general, participants have barely faced fatal problems during the process, such as encounter errors on different devices, or comes to confusion when shopping multiple items at a time.
2. Technical issues and its feedback and experience
Accessing Shopee in many different devices means that Shopee needs to make sure that the system works well in all devices. Based on the findings, both participants were complaining about technical issues based on the devices they used when shopping.
For example, participant 2 (P2) uses an old version Android smartphone in her daily life, this includes accessing Shopee. One of the issues, including insufficient RAM to access the app. This derives into several problems such as a longer time to load the page, blank or error after click Place Order, went back to the previous page, or even worse, the app suddenly closed. These are the things that P2 sometimes encountered as an Android users when shopping with Shopee.
On the other hand, both participants gave positive comments for the technical matter. P2 said that even she has technical issues with insufficient RAM, she said that when she browses using wi-fi, the process can be much faster compared to using cellular data. This means that in terms of connectivity, Shopee can give users quick responses to every input. Meanwhile, P1 said that since she uses an iPhone, she has barely experienced a fatal error or sudden blank during a browse in apps and the web.
Other Interesting Findings
1. Interface does matter
P1 is much concerned with the interface. She said that Shopee’s interface is way much clutter compared to other e-commerce, with a flat and rectangular-shaped frame, for her it just looks messy. When she tried to open in the laptop, she just realized that every element on the page was too big. Once she clicked the Shipping Option, the pop-up page covers almost half of the whole screen, which very inefficient for her.
Meanwhile, P2 also said that she can’t quickly recognize which one is the Voucher column and Shopee Coins column since both features are in the same column, only separated by a thin line.
2. Payment method
Some issues also arise for the payment method, the final step before the user proceeds. Responses ranging from the interface problem to the different complexity of each payment method. However, P2 suggest for the payment process would be better to use QR scan so that user don’t need to type transfer code and improve security as well.
3. Participant’s love/hate relationship with merchants
This may be a bit out of scope. But after the checkout process is done successfully, several days later there are many notifications from Shopee and tell that there’s a new item or discount in the store. For some users, it is annoying and unimportant, thus they consider it as spam. Maybe participants just didn’t aware that they can turn off notification if it feels annoying.
Meanwhile, there was also an unresponsive seller in which, if a user asks for details or progress through the chat feature, they barely answer them. Thus they move on to a more responsive merchant and shop there.
Participants also concerns with the originality of the product. There was one day P2 felt hesitant to purchase an item, then cancel it due to its originality. Somehow she also finds it difficult to differentiate which items are original, and which are fake.
Conclusion
To sum up, it is important for Shopee to keep iterating the checkout process on all aspects, from technical issues to the interface and layout. They should also consider their interface design in all devices as well since each device has a different size and system.
For the payment process, make the flow simpler and ask more users to give suggestions regarding the process. Each bank provides different kinds of method, would be better to align them together so that the payment process can be well-integrated.
Recommendations
Based on all findings from this research, here are recommendations to apply for the checkout process.
1. Create an integrated design system for all kinds of device
Resize all system elements with appropriate balance. The idea here is to make all design elements less clutter.
2. Adjust the app with the phone specs, especially after upgrade the system sometimes the older version will get even slower
Both participants have experienced technical issues with their devices. For Android, the app somehow loads longer, especially for checkout when sometimes the participant gets a blank pages or errors. On iOS, even if there’s no fatal technical problem with the app, but problems when using a web browser still occur.
3. Build a less fragmented payment ecosystem
Shopee can streamline the process by work closely with partnered banks, enable users to use a QR scan for the transfer, instead of using a transfer code which is less secure and makes the payment process much longer.
