NEW DESKTOP AND MOBILE RESPONSIVE SITE

Coming out of the chaos that was 2020, we learned that Amazon generated $386 billion. We wanted to provide an alternative; a method for small, local businesses to compete with Amazon’s fast shipping, and combination of stored payment and customer information.

Foxy: A New Amazon

Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop
Figma
Google Suite
Invision
Miro

UX Designer

ROLE

TIMELINE

Jan 2021 - Feb 2021

SOFTWARE

Our Process

USER SURVEYS

We began our research with an anonymous survey to gain understanding about people’s online shopping habits and how the pandemic changed these habits.

Ask the Audience

The survey revealed four insights:

Insight 01: Consumers are thoughtful in their purchases and would like to support local retailers when possible, especially when they offer the conveniences of big retailers.

Insight 02: Consumers enjoy shopping from big retailers that have benefits such as a large product selection, product reviews, and a simple checkout process where their account information is saved.

Insight 03: For people who live in rural areas, Amazon offers variety and convenience not found in local stores.

Insight 04: Consumers are more intentional about their shopping habits since the pandemic started.

These insights led to our understanding the problem more clearly.

Amazon undercuts competition, contributes to climate change, and exploits local communities, but it meets many different needs for a lot of people and does it successfully.

DEFINING OUR USER

Muriel represents the largest demographic of adult consumers, the millennial, with her perfect blend of online shopping habits and technology capabilities.

Muriel, The Consumer

Insights about Muriel

Goals: wants to make shopping decisions based on online research, such as reviews and photos, and wants to avoid paying shipping if possible.

Pain points: doesn’t want to enter personal information on every site, finds it necessary to shop online because it’s not available nearby in person.

SAME GOAL, SHIFTED STRATEGY

Project Pivot

Solving Muriel’s needs…

As we progressed through our research phase, we realized we were heading in the wrong direction only half a solution. The solution we were designing wouldn’t be able to meet Muriel’s needs without also providing a solution for retailers.

…also solves Donna’s needs (and vice versa)

Because a relationship between a consumer and a retailer is interconnected (they rely on each other in order to exist — ‘supply and demand’), we determined that we couldn’t have a solution that only met one of part of this relationship. By adding Donna, we had a more well-rounded solution.

We kept our goal the same, but we shifted our strategy to accomplish it.

DEFINING OUR OTHER USER

Donna represents an older generation as a business owner. She may need some assistance adding an online storefront to her brick-and-mortar business, but she doesn’t have time to manage it.

Donna, The Business Owner

Insights about Donna

Goals: strengthen the presence and reach of her existing website, incorporate technology to stay relevant and available to her customers.

Pain points: a lack of customers due to online retailers, lacks the technical skills and the time to place her website in front of customers more.

The Challenge

Amazon is a corporate behemoth that offers many different goods and services that their customers have grown to rely upon. This makes it challenging for small businesses to compete in the online marketplace. Customers shop at Amazon for convenience and out of necessity because their needs are fulfilled quickly and easily, even when local retailers might offer similar solutions for a similar price.

How might we create a solution for small businesses to distribute products quickly, store customer information securely, market products easier, and make shopping locally as accessible as Amazon?

FEATURE PRIORITIZATION

We used dot voting to prioritize what was most important, starting with the highest impact to our users and the lowest complexity to design.

Narrowing Down our Solution

High impact, low complexity

Features that help both the consumer and the retailer meet their goals.

• Shop by location

• Search by store type

• Stored payment and shipping information

• Directory of local stores to shop from

High impact, high complexity

Features that support the quick and convenient shipping and delivery process.

• Two-day shipping by shopping locally

• Same-day delivery by bike courier

• Easy returns included in easy shipping

Low impact, low complexity

Features that benefit the consumer when browsing the Foxy site.

• Suggest similar stores 

• Store owner information is available to view

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Attempt 1: How to Solve the Problem

Our first attempt to analyzing competitors included an “analog” version of our perceived solution (Pikes Place Market in Seattle), our ideal solution (Not Amazon in Canada), and Amazon itself.

Researching the Market

Attempt 2: Defining the Solution

We found that we were heading in the wrong direction; we hadn’t included a solution for the consumer in our original analysis. We pivoted back to this process.

UI DESIGN

Branding Foxy

  • Primary logo. A golden hue contrasts the forest green.

  • A fox on a box. Shipping box branding.

  • Vertical logo composition.

  • A Foxy employee making a local delivery.

  • Conceptualizing the Foxy brand.

  • Foxy employee preparing a package to be shipped.

  • Combat climate change by selecting same-day bike delivery.

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

How Foxy Works

Foxy enables small businesses to compete with Amazon more effectively by offering solutions for fast, local delivery and simplified payment processes to meet the needs of consumers who have grown to rely upon first class service from the world’s most successful e-commerce brand. 

Step 1: Retailer creates a business account by submitting their business information.

Step 2: Customer creates a personal account and submits their personal information, shipping information, and payment method.

Step 3: Customer shops online and uses the Foxy option at checkout on the retailers site.

Step 4: Retailer gets notified of a new order, prepares it be picked up for a Foxy courier, Foxy provides personnel and resources for deliveries.

Step 5: A Foxy courier delivers the order to the customer, or drops off at local shipping outlet if necessary. Foxy delivers by foot, van, or bike.

Step 6: Customer receives order, and is satisfied by quick delivery and supporting local business.

WIREFRAMES

Low and Mid-Fidelity

Objective:

Offer two separate flows depending on if the user was a consumer or a retailer. This process was helpful to establish the first step of either type of user’s journey based on their objective.

Learnings after usability testing

  • We needed to clarify what and who Foxy is for.

  • We needed to establish trust in the product and services that Foxy offers.

HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

We implemented feedback from our testing. Click here to view our final prototype on mobile.

The Final Product

NEXT STEPS

Wrap Up and Onward

The next steps of building the Foxy platform would include a bit of business sense as well as product design. We would love to see our solution come to light, and would need to take the following steps to make it happen.

The next steps include:

• Expand markets to other locations

• Develop an app for Foxy

• Design promotions retailers and consumers

• Create a business plan