Hanna Kang

Designing the future of omni channel returns

The challenge

Create an improved returns experience across all of Walmart's channels that lowers costs, saves time, and improves customer satisfaction.

OUTCOME

Storyboards and concepts that outline the user experience and lay the groundwork for new business strategy and product and service development.

My Role

I worked with a team of business transformation strategists, analysts and experience designers to create a strategic framework and design new returns experiences. I led a team of experience designers and strategists to conduct research, to identify key pain points, ideate concepts and create the final deliverable of user journeys and storyboards.

The Walmart returns experience

 Walmart wanted to rethink and redesign their returns experience and provide fresh, best in class experiences to their customers. They were losing market share to online retailers and they knew that they needed to start providing an easier returns process in order to compete. They also needed a returns experience that was consistent across all channels - whether a customer bought something online, in store, through grocery pickup or in home delivery. They wanted to find the most painless returns experience possible to keep customers loyal and grow the business.

This challenge had its roots in business transformation and strategy and required a multi-disciplinary team to define the business problem. I worked with a team of business transformation strategists, analysts, marketing specialists and experience designers to deliver the final output of experience concepts.

We approached this challenge by assessing Walmart's current returns experience. What was good about it? What needed improvement? What worked for customers and what didn't? We did an audit of Walmart's return policies online as well as in store, purchasing items and going through the experience of returning them ourselves. We also interviewed stakeholders to understand known internal issues.

Here's what we found:
 

• It was difficult to discover how to return an item because it depended on how it was purchased and delivered. Walmart's vast marketplace included groceries, jewelry, electronics, tires and third party Marketplace sellers. The return policy was not clear or easy to understand.
   

• Return service employees also had a difficult time assessing each return, contributing to longer responses and lines.
   

• Policy copy was different in store and online. In both cases, there was way too much type and the policy was difficult to read or understand.
   

• The retail returns experience was plagued with poor space design making it an unappealing option.
   

• Online returns did not have free shipping and required customers to have a printer to print out the label.
   

• In practice, the policy was quite generous and flexible but its written form came off restrictive, requiring original packaging and the receipt.
   

• Keeping packaging was a major deterrent. Sometimes the person didn't hold on to the packaging because they were happy with the product at first.
   

From market research, we knew that an improved return policy was essential for Walmart's long term success. We learned that across the industry, 67% of consumers review a retailer's return policy before purchasing online and 15% will abandon cart if the policy is not clear. 70% of online shoppers make additional purchases when they return an item in store and 45% make additional purchases when returning an item online. We also knew that enabling more avenues for return can reduce significant processing costs. We took these insights and surveyed the competitive landscape for existing best practices.

Field research and competitive audit

My teammate Aldo and I rented a car and drove around New Jersey to research the following competitors in person:

• Best Buy

• Whole Foods

• Target

• Home Depot

• Kohls

We also looked at online businesses like Amazon, FreshDirect and Sephora. We took photos, notes, screenshots and synthesized our findings on a whiteboard to identify emerging principles.

With these in mind, we developed key scenarios to explore a wide range of solutions.

• Lisa - a frequent Walmart shopper with existing app wants a refund on spoilt groceries
   

• Gayle - a regular brick and mortar shopper wants to return shoes she purchased through the Walmart app by mail
   

• Mary - older customer who uses Walmart Pay and needs to return a very large and heavy item
   

• Ben - purchases a large electronic item that breaks and doesn't have the original packaging to be able to return or exchange it
   

• Margot - purchases an item and wants to return it without standing in long lines
   

We split up the scenarios and started to brainstorm blue sky user stories that could solved the problems in innovative ways. Some of the ideas were bad, some brilliant. We picked what worked and what didn't, gave each other feedback and kept iterating.

Once we had a few rough drafts, we put them up on a whiteboard to see how the stories interacted with each other. Were there any gaps and touch points we weren't covering? Did we need to tweak a story line or add another to get a full picture? Was one strong for being able to cover a multitude of touch points or too complicated and needing simplification? We critiqued the stories until each one felt right.

Here are a couple examples of our final user journeys:

Out of these stories, we came up with improvements for existing services and developed several new product and service concepts that met gaps and pain points:

• WalmartBot
  A chatbot that helps customers find the best returns approach in a friendly, conversational and helpful manner
   

• Instant Refund
  An instant refund for items which cost more to return
   

• Curbside Services
  Curbside returns for physically demanding items
   

• Express Returns
  A fast lane for account holders
   

• Express Drop Off
  A return box in stores that customers can just drop their return off in
   

Storyboards and new experience concepts

Once the stories were refined, we sketched storyboards, iterating them until each frame captured the essence of the touchpoint from the angle of the camera to the rough prototype of the screen. I then worked with our illustrator, Anuj, to polish the sketches to their final form below over several weeks of iterations. By the end of the project, we had developed 7 distinct user journeys. Here are Ben and Mary's examples below:

Ben returns a TV

Mary returns a patio umbrella

Defining a new policy framework

While the storyboards were taking shape, I worked with the strategists and analysts to develop a returns policy framework. The ideation and storyboards gave definition to the experience at large, and we were then able to build a new user-centered policy from the ground up. We found that when all channels are taken into consideration, there are seven discrete experiences and four hi-level buckets. This process helped bring clarity and simplicity to a task that had at first seemed overwhelming in its opportunities and possibilities. It also mapped back to the user journeys and showed its clear roots in user experience.

Next steps

At the end of the project, we shared these concepts back to Walmart for approval for the next phase of prototyping, testing and developing. I developed a pilot test and script to walk through the actual scenarios and refine them. Our team didn't get to work on the next phase of the project but this project stands out in my career for its opportunity for impact, quality of teamwork, and output. I was grateful to work with an incredibly talented multi-disciplinary team that was humble and passionate about user experience and helped each other grow through the process.