TAYLORED WINES
UX DesignER / Project MANAGEr
As Project Manager on a team of four UX designers, I led a design strategy to convert wine lovers and enthusiasts to loyal customers through a multi-channel solution, based on user research, market analysis and user testing.
“Thank you so much for all the work you put in and for an inspiring presentation. The research was invaluable”
The SHORT STORY
The FULL STORY
WHO ARE TAYLORED WINEs?
Our client, Taylored Wines was new to market, offering a way for consumers to purchase a selection of curated wines directly from small wine growers throughout the country.
The client came to us with an e-commerce website and a good idea of who the clientele was, a group described as "mass affluent" was looking to increase subscriptions, convert more subscribers to repeat customers.
Although Rachel, the founder, had some ideas, she was open and willing to base any decisions on what our research found (aka - the perfect client!)
The existing website, though functional,and gaining traction, visitors and subscriptions was not yet converting customers.
What does the Market look like?
Consumer Trend Analysis Infographic
AN EVOLVING MARKET
I created a trend infographic to see what the broader consumer landscape looked like and see how consumer behaviours had changed towards wine and other products that our target market would be buying.
Key findings:
- A move away from convenience and speed to local, higher quality goods
- From a world of choice to curation and "trunk club"
- From offline to online to multi-touchpoint consumer journey
- Wine goes from party drink of choice to the beverage of the sophisticated
WHAT IS THE COMPETITION UP TO?
Basing wine taste on coffee taste...
With people buying wine offline and online, there were plenty of places to find wine, even some places to find the boutique wines that Rachel was selling.
But Taylored Wine is among a few that offer only high end, boutique wines but saw an opportunity to focus on a more personalized service.
Many competitors were trying to predict taste based on creating an automated tool which would recommend based on a set of criteria such as how you take your cofffee or drinkbut, while fun, failed to address the real needs of people choosing wine.
HOW the experts RECOMMEND WINE
“I can’t recommend without knowing
their palate. People drink differently every day
”
“Being a good sommelier is all about being a good translator
”
WHO IS BUYING BOUTIQUE WINE?
We started our research using secondary data obtained from the stakeholders and conducted our own survey to look into wine buying habits in general and to verify who the users are. A survey of 80 people, plus a wealth of background research on wine drinking habits in the US gave us plenty of data to work with.
Secondary research suggested that only some people spent disposable income on higher quality, more expensive wine. By surveying wine drinkers spending and drinking habits, we narrowed down our user base to: wine enthusiasts and wine lovers.
HOW, WhERE, WHEN AND WHY ARE THEY BUYING IT?
Eight one on one interviews with wine lovers and enthusiasts generated more qualitative data. We needed to understand the feelings behind buying and drinking wine.
Talking to target audiences
Holding a wine tasting workshop
Observing people shopping in stores
““It’s fun trying new wines. I love wine tastings.””
““I would spend more money on a boutique wine - you can tell the difference” ”
““I don’t speak somm…””
“I never remember the name of the wine, but I remember where and when and who I had it with””
AnalySing the data
The team organises the thoughts in post-its
Insights
- Overlong descriptions can be intimidating and incomprehensible
- Context is key to purchase and consumption
- Every palate is distinct
- There is a lack of understanding of boutique wine
- Higher spending is motivated by trust
- There's a higher risk associated with buying wine without tasting
- Wine is social throughout the process
Design Direction
The solution would:
- Meet wine lovers and wine enthusiasts in their chosen context
- Advocate the benefits of boutique wines
- Build trust in Taylored Wines as an expert curator
- Instil our audience with the confidence to buy online
GENERATING IDeas
Sketching ideas - on more post-its
Bringing the Client In
Inviting the client into an ideation session we presented the research and shared our insights. We then presented three scenarios to ideate around for our wine lovers and enthusiasts to imagine how we might be able to best serve these customers.
HOW MIGHT WE…
- Meet users in their chosen context?
- Advocate the benefit of boutique wines through understanding and engagement in the wine community?
- Build trust in Taylored Wines as an expert curator that provides personalized recommendations?
- Instill wine-lovers and enthusiasts with the confidence to purchase wine online?
Sketching it out
Based on the ideas that came out of the ideation session I started sketching ideas out including features, stories and user flows to try and figure out how some of the ideas might work together, at which point in the journey would we be meeting our users and figure out where the roadblocks might be.
THE SOLUTION
A new Website
The website needed to speak to the users and communicate the offering in a way that made sense to them. Based on the idea of guiding users through the purchase of buying wine and showcasing a brand identity that was more in tune with what the mass-affluent wine loving users would expect from a premium service.
Feedback on the existing website was that it didn't seem to match the offering, that it looked more like a catalogue site. The language on the site was also directed by the wineries and had "marketing speak" creeping in so the language of the site had to be designed to speak to users in terms they were familiar with and that would be accessible but still informative.
Product Page Redesign
- Clear, accessible descriptions in language which users can understand
- A cleaner, more luxury feel to the site which matched the brand experience
- Clean simple navigation
- Large images which show the wine
- Categorisation
- Filters depending on level of wine expertise
- Reviews and expert quotes designed to build trust
A WINE TASTING JOURNEY
As well as redesigning the site we knew this could not just be an online solution. All our data suggested that people will spend more on wine that they've tasted and loved. So, the best way for wine lovers to get to know and love wines is to taste them.
The challenge, however was getting people to purchase online once they've tasted. We held a wine tasting workshop to observe the way people interacted with the site and with tasting wine. Despite loving the wines, the users still didn't buy them.
Why aren't they buying?
After talking to people who were at the wine tasting we concluded three main factors that were contributing to the lack of sales.
1. The website brand did not match the experience of tasting wine
2. No clear point of sale at the event and no incentive to buy at event
3. They had intention to buy, even took pictures of the wine, but there was no connection with Taylored Wines and no reason for them to go back to Taylored Wines specifically.
We had dealt with number (1) through our website redesign, but we needed to look at the other two more closely.
For (2) generating sales at the event we designed a stand that would make sure the Taylored Wines branding was clear, included an infographic on what TW do and why their wines are unique and a clear call to action there and then.
We also mocked up a point of sale ipad which was tailored to the event experience, focusing on just the wines on sales with minimal descriptions and noise around the wines.
They still had to buy online but had the option to do it there and then while they were in that social situation.
CREATING AN ONGOING COvERSATION
The final problem (3) was one we needed to address by looking at the whole picture, from before they even hear about the event to what happens when they receive the package. While the branding at the event went some of the way to creating a connection with Taylored Wines, I started looking at how that conversation could start within the users' existing context and how we could start the conversation by having them interact with a wine menu before they even got to the event.
ExtenDing the experience
Our research showed that users were looking for ways to keep track of wines they love. We decided that we could help them with that by providing them with a notebook which they could get upon signing up at the event or buying online.
“I take pictures of wines I like”
“I remember the experience of drinking the wine, but I forget the name”
AN OMNI-CHANNEL SOLUTION
There are multiple journeys that our users might take and each touchpoint needs to be a part of the conversation going between Taylored Wines and their customers. Recommending wine is not a one-way street, it's a conversation between expert and customer. Wines are recommended based on a person's individual palette, wines they've liked and the context they're going to be drinking it in. My focus was to make sure that we took those data-driven insights into account in every apart of our design and created a strategy which creates an online and offline conversation.