Moonrise Croissanterie
Online Bakery
Ordering Platform
Overview
Moonrise Croissanterie was a wholesale and direct-to-consumer bakehouse offering specialty laminated pastries and other gourmet desserts. Through the design and implementation of a website and online ordering platform, weekly sales were increased by an average of 250%.
The problem
Residents of New England seeking to purchase Moonrise croissants need to be able to directly access products in order to ensure they can secure the quantity and variety of products they wish to consume.
The role
As the sole designer, I conducted all UX research, authored all written and visual content, and designed the site layout.
Design goals
Showcase products
The site should feature high-quality visuals, presenting offerings through a “virtual pastry case.
Enhance customer experience
Users should be able to view product availability and easily place orders.
Improve local visibility
Improve access and visibility of products through direct sales rather than exclusively wholesale.
Discovery
The primary goals during this phase were to comprehensively understand the users, identify their key pain points, analyze competition, and identify opportunities to consider in the design. To achieve this, we employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including user interviews, surveys, and usability testing. These methods enabled us to gather detailed insights into user behaviors and preferences.
All sales were initially made through wholesale accounts. Products required an average of three days to produce, necessitating significant lead times to fulfill orders. Relying on third parties led to various limitations and challenges, including the following:
Business challenges
Low sales
High production cost
Limited visibility
Supply and demand
Limited product offerings
Customers were interviewed to gather insights into their habits and pain points regarding their experience with the business.
User interviews
*Personas based on characteristics of research participants who wish to remain anonymous.
Feedback and takeaways
Conversations with interview subjects identified a number of key insights about their experiences as well as opportunities for improvements.
Customers were drawn to the products by images posted on social media.
They expressed a high level of satisfaction with the croissants.
They showed interest in the opportunity to purchase additional products.
They struggled with accessing what was available due to the short window of availability at retail locations.
Competitive analysis
Customers were interviewed to gather insights into their habits and pain points regarding their experience with the business.
Initial ideation
After synthesizing user data and establishing the essential product features, we began the design and layout phase.
Must have features
Features deemed vital to achieving the product goals included:
Online pre-ordering
Item focus view
Image gallery
Live chat
Concept sketches
Wireframes
As content was still being developed, wireframes reflected a rough idea of our proposed means of navigating primary and sub-content, including the client requested inclusion of the coverage locator tool from the HCP website.
Menu
Cart pop-out
Main cart
Thank you
Moonrise home screen
User clicks the preorder button to navigate to the menu
User Clicks "add to cart" button to add classic croissant to their cart. User clicks the cart icon to view the contents of their cart
User views the contents of their cart in the quick cart view. User clicks "view cart button"
User reviews order before clicking the "checkout" button and proceeding with the checkout process
Billing screen
User enters billing information before submitting order
User receives thank you message confirming their order and providing instructions for next steps
User testing
Users were tasked with navigating a mid-fidelity prototype of the preorder process. Concurrent probing was utilized to gain insight into users’ thoughts and identify opportunities for improvement.
Conclusions:
Users completed the task scenarios without any hesitation.
Users did not have any questions pertaining to the operational aspects of the flow.
Users expressed concern regarding lack of pickup date reminders.
Users wished to see payment methods such as PayPal added to checkout.
Featured improvements
Order details
Focused inventory pages provide expanded information about the products as well as the remaining inventory. Users could add items to their carts from either the primary order page or the focused view.
Locations and reminders
As all purchases were being made for future pickup, and the pickup location was in a rural, residential neighborhood, a map displaying the location and a "request directions" call-to-action featured prominently on the page. The pickup notification tool enabled users to set reminders for the pickup through calendar or text notifications.
Closing thoughts
The implementation of the website and ordering system increased sales by 250%. By providing a clearer outlook on ordering trends, it reduced food waste and business costs. It allowed users to secure items they wanted, eliminating the uncertainty and time constraints of the first-come, first-served wholesale model. Whereas wholesalers previously determined inventory types and quantities, the new model's inventory was based on sales trends, putting the power into the hands of the consumer.