Macys Group Gifting
Crowd funding for big ticket items
Interaction Design, Lean Development
Overview
GroupGifting was a project spun out of the Macys lab initiatives, and the first lean dev team I was placed on. Based on user feedback we discovered users were asking for smaller items in their registries to fund the larger items that they really wanted.
My role was this was a hybrid partnership with a Product Manager, UX Architect.
Goal
Provide users with a way to ask for people to contribute to their larger items so they could get what they wanted without having to go through the returns process.
Aimed at Macy's customers (women in their 30-50's) and more specifically our Registry Users.
HYPOTHESIS:
If we deliver macys.com customers GroupGifting then items that aren’t normally gift-able (big ticket items) would be easily gifted and result in an increase of sales in these items and reduced returns. (commonly practiced behavior in registry according to user research).
Process
1. Competitive Research
Quick analysis of similar/adjacent products out there. One thing to note is the products that had the most impact were the ones that included some sort of story telling which we wanted to add into our product.
2. Product Definition
Created in tandem with UXA & Product Manager
Group Gifting Is: small scale crowd funding for gifts, more thoughtful gifting, applicable to multiple experience/life events, more social, more convenient, less stressful, more participatory, proactive & reactive
Group Gifting Is Not: a marketing campaign, an evergreen bank account
Giver Needs: Convenience (easy collection of funds), Helps identify what recipient REALLY wants, Flexibility (options on what to gift), Connection to recipient, Connection with other gifters in group, Anonymity (not seen as cheap for giving what they can afford), Altruism, Acknowledgement/credit
Recipient Needs: Acknowledgement (ettiquette, tracking the process), Convenience, Ability to get what they want, Options, Remove stress, Remove guilt for big ticket items
3. MVP User Flows
Group gifting set up flow
Set Up
Allow user to create a groupgift for either themselves, or someone else (initiator).
Contribute
Allow user (contributor) to contribute to existing group gift.
Redeeming
Allow recipient to redeem a groupgift, either as the item gifted or as a egiftcard to buy the thing they actually want.
Pivot
Group gifting contributor flow (minus non site interactions, email confirmation, etc).
Group gifting redemption flow.
Created after there was not enough support to create a working product in 2 weeks, this solution was created to capture customer feedback and see if there was signal to continue building.
4. Future Backlog
Medium Impact
If we create group gifting and allow the gift giver to break up payments over time for items we alleviate the guilt associated with requesting big items.
If we allow group gifting for any event or occasion, it will make it easier for customers to use Macy’s repeatedly for life events resulting in repeat visits, increased sales, and brand loyalty over time.
If we allow 3rd Party organizers to manage group gifting for friends and family, it will give customers more reason to use Macys as an event planning destination and will result in more community engagement and participation in gift giving.
Low Impact
If we create group gifting and allow the gift giver to break up payments over time for items we alleviate the guilt associated with requesting big items.
If we create group gifting we can allow customers to request funding for entire sets of items/eliminate receipt of incomplete sets therefore lessens returns.
High Impact
If we enable notifications to group gift participants, it will provide funding status updates and progress towards fulfillment that will result in repeat visits, higher likelihood of funding, and gift giving recognition.
If we optimize a frictionless checkout when contributing to group gift items, it will allow for quicker checkout, rather than going through the multi-step macys.com checkout process and it will result in less form fields to fill out, allowing for quicker donation fulfillment and higher conversion rates.
If we allow group gift recipients to top off the remaining balance on a group gift, it will increase the likelihood of a gift being fully funded and increase shopping cart conversion/higher margins through incremental sales.
If we enable telling a story behind the group gift and it will give friends more reason to participate in the group gift fund resulting in higher participation in group gifting.
If we offer recipients the ability to thank gift givers from group gifting, it will make it easier for them to track who has been thanked, and will also result in gift givers feeling recognized and bring suprise and delight to customer.