2020 - Salon Services
Sign up Journey
A project to review the sign-up journey on the B2B Salon Services site salon-services.com
Brief & Goals:
The brief was to simplify the sign-up journey for the customers of the Sally Europe’s B2B site, Salon Services. The current journey was lengthy, overcomplicated and didn’t indicate to a user how much more information they had to add before completion. It wasn’t optimised for mobile and the fields were repetitive.
Role & Team:
My role as Senior Digital Designer at Sally Europe was to analyse the current user behaviour on site, and create a new user flow that ironed out issues to decrease the dropout being experienced. This then needed to be presented back to the business with reasoning behind it, and all eventualities checked by development manager.
Developed by Astound Ecommerce.
Initial Research
Mapping out potential drop-out within the journey.
62%
The percentage of users that reached the sign-up page dropped out before completion.
42%
The percentage of users that dropped out at the stage where trade verification was requested.
1:58
The amount of time it took to complete the process. Timed competitors sign-ups took only 1:04.
Goals
- Aid the user understanding of how the site works, and who you have to be to shop.
- Aid user understanding where to go if they are a retail customer.
- Ensure referencing and alignment with in-store processes and make this a clear journey.
- Have an action plan for getting information we will strip from sign-up, whether this be through email or a more built out 'my account' section.
- Increase conversion and decrease drop-out by creating a simpler sign-up process to help customers start shopping quicker.
Previous Design
Changes & Results
Signposting
On screen one, the user was presented with anchor links to sign in or sign up. Previously on a mobile screen there was no signposting that both options were available.
A 'why sign up' panel was also added, with a content page that added some explanation. Previously a user had no explanation as to why they needed to create an account.
Progress
The long-scroll accordion became a multiple step form with a progress bar. The aim of this was to present the user with bitesize sections to information to fill in, whilst having an idea of how long it might take, with an aim to reduce dropout from frustration. This also allowed the user to focus on each section.
Removing repetition
Previously the user was being asked to fill in an address to be linked to their account, as well as where to deliver their card. Removing this field and allowing this be one, meant users weren't experiencing the frustration of entering information multiple times. This also fed into the checkout journey, so we wouldn't have to ask for this information again there.
'Take a Photo'
Users are required to upload documentation to apply. Previously the only CTA read 'upload documentation', this was one of the biggest drop-off points. Knowing users were almost all on mobile (80%), the decision was taken to add a 'take photo' CTA, to allow users to access the camera. This was to make it feel more accessible for users to quickly snap and upload.
Promotion at dropout point
A 'sign-up' promotion was offered at the trade identification step, this was to try and add an extra incentive for the user to continue on from this point, as this is where the highest drop-out was recorded.
Field tagging
For the mobile experience tagging for each field was added, this allowed the user to enter information much quicker and led to a less frustrating experience.
5.1%
exit rate decrease
18%
application success rate increase
20.2%
Page value increase
Journey could be completed in 1:02, down by 56 seconds, and levelling out with competitor sign-up.
Context for users around signing up
I wanted to look at the full picture of sign-up, not just the application itself, which lead me to follow points across the site where the user might encounter the need or want to sign-up with Salon Services (given that it's mandatory to sign-up to shop).
Littering links
- A new dropdown on 'my account' reading 'Why do I need a trade card?'
- A pop-up when a user clicked add to basket and showed no cookies, that gave them the option to redirect to the retail site or sign-up
- A strip banner at the sign-in/sign-up page that linked to a content page.
- Links within the footer
Educational content
This worked alongside an update to a Salon Services Trade Card content page, that was updated to become an education piece for potential new sign-ups. The updates on this page caused a fall in bounce rate from 63% to 15%.
Adding the links across the site caused page views to rise by 300% proving the appetite to understand the proposition.
What I learnt
This project taught me how streamlining can effect the users experience. Evaluating what information was actually needed from the user, rather than trying to gather everything about them in one place, both gained trust from the user that we weren't delving too much into their information, and meant the whole process for them could move quicker, to lower drop-off. Looking at the platform as a whole, rather than one form (for example at checkout), allows you to gain 'lost' information in different places, breaking up the users experience of providing you with it.
It also showed me how important it is to make form experiences bitesize, simple and efficient, with an end in sight, as opposed to a long 'no-end-in-sight' scroll.