Poundland

Overview

Poundland is one of Britain's largest discount retailers, and by 2015 it sold to two audiences online: consumers buying a basket of a few items, and independent retailers buying wholesale by the case. Its digital platforms had one navigation for both, no defined journeys for either, and product discovery that did not reflect how either audience shopped. I led the research and redesign at Ampersand across web and mobile.

Research

Stakeholder workshops with the trading, ecommerce and wholesale teams, user interviews with consumers and with independent retailers, and data analysis of what each audience actually bought and how often. Two sets of personas and journeys came out of it. The consumer wants promotions, seasonal ranges and click and collect from the local store. The retailer wants to reorder what they ordered last time, by code, in cases, on account, and to know the delivery cut-off and the minimum order without phoning.

The design

One catalogue with two front doors. The consumer site got a restructured information architecture and taxonomy, seasonal homepages such as the Christmas layout shown here, and a discovery model built around promotions and ranges. The wholesale side got an order pad: it opens on the retailer's last order, takes a product code or a barcode, shows case price and live stock, keeps the minimum order and the van fill in view, and sends the order to the account. Orders, invoices and the delivery slot each got a screen, because they were the three things retailers phoned about. Both audiences share the product data, the images, the codes and the design system; the wholesale site is the consumer site with the account sections switched on. Low, medium and high fidelity wireframes were refined through usability testing, behavioural analytics and feedback sessions, with WCAG 2.0 AA compliance built in.

Results

Conversion rose 35 percent, the strongest result in the Ampersand portfolio, on a platform that served both audiences without splitting into two sites. The Head of Ecommerce said the shopping experience portrayed the Poundland brand values. The homepage wireframes here are from the delivered work; the wholesale order pad and mobile screens are reconstructions drawn for the portfolio from the same design.

Delivery

A team of twenty with four direct reports over two years, shipping to web, mobile and native apps across the United Kingdom, with the plan, scope, change control and status reporting to the client sponsor owned by me.