User Research Project
Online Shopping Behaviour
ONLINE CLOTHING STORE: MANGO
(This project is a case study conducted as part of a UX-UI course)
PROJECT OVERVIEW
- My role: UX/UI designer
- Project duration: 15 days
- Methodology: Analysis, User Interviews
- Tools: FigJam, Zoom
THE CHALLENGE
The MANGO online shopping store is facing a higher user drop-off rate, as a portion of users add items to the shopping cart and abandon it without finalising the purchase. The brand seeks to understand the causes behind the shopping cart drop-off.
PROJECT GOAL
Identify the reasons behind the higher user drop-off rate from the MANGO shopping cart and propose design solutions to reduce it.
BACKGROUND
MANGO is one of the biggest clothing brands in Spain. Well-known across the world, MANGO stands out as a good-quality and affordable brand.
Like many others, it is not immune to fast-fashion drawbacks; however, what its customers value most is its emphasis on natural materials, variety of styles, and lower cost.
User Research
The objective: Identify the reasons behind the high shopping cart drop-off rate.
Understand why users abandon the shopping cart and decide not to complete the purchase.
To achieve this objective, we need to understand MANGO users and their shopping behaviour, including their motivations and the main aspects they value in the shopping process.
The research focused on understanding the user journey and exploring the key pain points and frustrations users face during the shopping process, as well as identifying the exact moment they decide to leave the online store without finalising the purchase.
Moreover, it was essential to understand what motivates the user, what is important for them and they value when browsing and purchasing clothing online.
METHODOLOGY: Assessing Online Shopping Behaviour
Qualitative research in the form of interviews with a relevant sample of users was conducted.
Participant Selection Criteria: The primary condition for user selection was that participants had visited and navigated through MANGO’s online store at least once.
Starting Hypothesis
- Overly Complex Registration: An extensive registration process involving too many steps contributes to a high drop-off rate.
- Browsing Without Purchase Intent: Users often visit the online store with no intention of making a purchase.
- Misuse of Shopping Cart Functionality: The shopping cart is frequently used in ways unrelated to its core purpose (e.g., as a Wishlist), rather than facilitating purchases.
- Unexpected Checkout Costs: Additional fees (e.g., shipping, taxes) revealed at checkout lead to a higher drop-off rate.
- Trust Issues: Lack of transparency and unclear product or policy information generate mistrust or insecurity, further increasing abandonment.
Key Findings
Shopping cart misuse: Different user personas browse MANGO store and use the shopping cart distinctively.
Immersive online shopping: Users increasingly expect an online shopping experience that closely mirrors real-life interactions.
Transparency: Users value transparent, detailed product information, and customer support when buying items online.
User Personas: Main Characteristics
Ana: The Savvy Value-Conscious Trend Explorer
Needs-driven, safety-first, patient planner, social buyer
Age: 30–45
Occupation: Busy professional
Location: Urban/suburban
Tech comfort: High (uses apps and desktop but prefers larger screens)
- Ana only shops when she really needs something but she is up to date and alert on trends and sales. She values secure payment gateways and trusted brands.
- She is patient and tries to optimise cost-quality in her buyer experience. She will compare prices, fabric quality and reviews across 3-5 brands before purchasing.
- Occasionally coordinates group purchases with friends/family to split shipping costs.
What can we offer to Ana to motivate her to finalise the purchase?
- Transparent fabric details: Clearly display fabric composition and care instructions, highlighting unique quality features (e.g., organic materials, durability).
- Loyalty rewards: Bonus points for purchases that can be accumulated and redeemed for discounts.
- Buy with friends discounts: Special offers for group purchases.
- Personalised price alerts: Real-time notifications for price drops on her favourite saved items.
The shopping cart has multiple functionalities and uses (Wishlist, cost overview, comparison tool) that go beyond its functionality as an online shopping tool.
Key Insight
Leisure Franci: The Relaxed Trend Wanderer
Shopping is her hobby, speed driven, trend curator and eco-conscious
Age: 25–34
Occupation: Creative professional
Location: Urban
Tech comfort: Mobile-first; relies on apps for 90% of shopping
- Franci visits shopping apps 4-5 times per week. She likes to browse clothing catalogs in the afternoons, this way relaxes and disconnects after long working hours.
- She likes to save items in the shopping cart to calculate the total cost of the order, however, does not think twice when she likes a trend.
- Franci is environmentally aware, so she often buys second-hand.
- She loves to follow Instagram trends and influencers can impact her decisions on which trends to adopt.
How can we enhance Franci’s shopping experience?
- Personalised alerts: Notifications for price drops on her favourite items. Updates on new trends and Instagram-viral styles.
- Flexible payment options: Ensure support for PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay.
- Cost transparency: Clear breakdown of all costs (e.g., taxes, shipping) at every stage of the buyer journey.
- Curated browsing: Well-organised catalogues with intuitive filters (e.g., by colour, occasion, fabric).
- Authentic product representation: High-quality images showcasing items as worn by real people, with accurate colour representation.
- Second-hand integration: Allow users to resell pre-owned items directly on the site.
Users like to have near real-life experience while safely browsing from their sofa.
Insight
Natalie: The Boredom-Driven Mobile Shopper
Impulsive buyer, inpatient, speed centered, prone to distraction
Age: 18–30
Occupation: Student or entry-level professional
Location: Urban
Tech comfort: Mobile-exclusive (99% app usage)
- She visits apps because she is bored or has spare time and most often visits the app and completes the transaction. She does so using her mobile phone app, as she is not such a big fan of desktop.
- Occasionally she forgets about the saved items after closing the app as she gets distracted with something else.
- She can’t stand long loading times, especially at the checkout. This makes her lose patience and abandon the purchase.
How can we make Natalie’s shopping experience better?
- Seamless Checkout Experience: Avoid disruptions at the final stages of purchase at all costs (e.g., ads, pop-ups, etc.).
- Fast loading site and checkout: Ensure fast loading website and continent, in particular fast checkout process.
- Strategic Promotions: Promote flash sales on the homepage.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery: Send app reminder notifications for items left in the cart.
- Inspiration-Driven Shopping: Feature influencer-curated Instagram picks. Provide style suggestions (e.g., “Pair this item with Product B”).
Our users like to get what they need quickly and with no interruptions.
Insights
Transparency and realistic product representation is important for the users to trust a brand.
Common Pain Points & Design Solutions
Uncertainty about the clothing items and the shipping times.
Solution: transparent information about the products and the shipping times.
Identifying that the product is out of stock after selecting it.
Solution: highlighting that the product is out of stock and they can save it for later
The lack of transparency when it comes to shipping cost.
Solution: Include transparent information about the shipping costs
The Shopping Cart is Sometimes Misused as a Wishlist
Design Solution: Differentiate “Add to cart” CTA button from “the Wishlist”. Enable the “save to Wishlist” option for both, registered and unregistered users.
This way, the users will be saving the items to the Wishlist, which will reduce the misuse of the shopping cart. Reduced misuse of the shopping cart will have a positive impact on the abandon rate. However, in the case of Mango, this solution helps the users with registered accounts but won’t assist unregistered users under the current setup. Currently, the option to aggregate items to the Wishlist is only available for the registered users.
For instance, H&M solves this issue enabling the users that are not registered to save items as favorites. This way, the user does not have to rely on the shopping cart to save items, which can reduce the drop off rate.
Key Features Ensuring a Good Online Shopping Experience
User research helped identify critical features online shops should prioritise to provide optimal UX:
- Customer reviews supporting different clothing items make the users feel safer when making a decision on making a purchase.
- Useful, straightforward product descriptions to satisfy user needs and offer all the necessary information, and this way create more real-life kind of shopping experience.
- Well organised products catalogue and functional filters streamline the browsing process, making it easy for the users to find what they need.
- Detailed size guidelines and simulators are very helpful in supporting the users when making decision on purchasing items online. These tools ensure a more interactive shopping experience, increase conversions, and reduce return rates.
- Realistic photos (accurate colour representation, diverse, relatable models) bring the online shopping experience more closer to reality by providing customers with a clearer and more accurate representation of products.
- Live chat support for real-time assistance
- Fabric care instructions
- No mandatory account creation (ability to purchase or save items as favourites without registration)
- Fast-loading site with a quick, secure checkout process
- Create an in-house second-hand marketplace to enable the users resell second hand clothing items they purchased from your brand. This way attract the users that are environmentally friendly and support circular economy.
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