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What is a Protection Plan?
A protection plan provides coverage beyond the standard manufacturer warranty for eligible items at Lowe's. It covers repair or replacement costs for when the product malfunctions.
In short, prompting for Protection Plans at Self-Checkout means we have the opportunity to sell more item-related services. This has the potential to add millions of dollars to our bottom line.
Why Protection Plans?
Problems to address:
The current state screen was not catching customers attention. Close rates were low (4% vs. average 11%).
The benefits on the left panel were the same for all product categories and were not contextual.
Competitor Research
Key Findings:
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Home Depot's prompt occupied the entire screen and clearly showed how to accept or decline the plan.
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Target did NOT give an extensive list of plan options. Their interface was simple and provided minimal information.
User Interviews
We spoke with 14 cashiers and 30 customers about protection plans. We wanted to discover pain points cashiers had when selling protection plans, and how customers viewed the plans in general.
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Cashiers need adequate training on how to sell protection plans.
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Cashiers were not incentivized to go above and beyond to sell protection plans at checkout.
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Customers love print materials that they can take home. How do we merge that with the on-screen experience?
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Bullet points on the screen should be shorter and easier to read.
-As a new cashier, I'm not comfortable with communicating these plans to customers.
-Cashier #11
-I don't always read what's on the screen because I don't see the value in protecting my purchase.
-Customer #6
Usability Testing Round 1
Our business partners wanted to test the idea of presenting an additional prompt if the customer declined the protection plan.
Key Findings:
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Customer were extremely annoyed that we were questioning their decision to decline protection
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Users said that the info displayed on the screen would NOT incentivize them to purchase the plan
A/B Testing
After discussing the findings from the previous test and looking for improvement areas, we worked with content strategy to identify different heading copy ideas for the prompt screen. Our goal was to observe whether there would be an increase in sales.
-We launched 2 versions of the protection plan screen to 3 stores across the US.
-This test was run over a 3 month period and had a sample size of >3,000 customers.
Option B
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Option B performed better than option A by 1.23%, exhibiting a higher attachment rate. Customers were more likely to purchase a protection plan if shown Option B.
Results:
Option A
Usability Testing Round 2
After about 6 months of pursuing other Self-Checkout work, the business wanted us to work on the scenario for bulk protection plans. The customer might have multiples of the same item in their cart, but NOT want to protect all the items.
Interface Improvements:
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Simplified version of the left informational panel with 2 points instead of 4 to reduce cognitive load.
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Descriptive header with value add was maintained given the feedback from the A/B test.
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Screens were updated with new components and styles from our design system team to ensure consistency across experiences.
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Experimented with different color schemes for the left panel, as shown to the right. Chose the white color scheme to achieve the cleanest look possible.
Key Findings
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Purchasing different combinations of protection plans for multiple items is not something people would use often.
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The navigation was clear, but the process would be time-consuming at checkout
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The screen was what people expected to see, but would not necessarily influence their decision to purchase the plan
The bulk protection plan experience we user tested was launched. We waited several months in hopes it would perform well in stores.
-Customers who already knew they wanted to protect their item(s) were purchasing the plan.
-The majority of customers were quickly scanning the screen and declining protection.
Further Analysis
Our team held a brainstorming session where we looked at the protection plan experience in the stores holistically, not just at Checkout.
Future A/B Test
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Explore other methods to drive adoption in the stores such as signage near eligible items in the aisle. This will allow customers to consider protecting their item before arriving at checkout.
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Discover whether customers prefer a fullscreen prompt or a partial screen prompt and iterate accordingly.
Next Steps:
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Incentivize store employees to communicate the main benefits of protection plans to customers, especially at checkout. Provide training and compensation incentives.
Final Thoughts:
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Design is often messy and a quick solution is not always found.
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Business decisions drive priorities that are often inconsistent with customer behavior in the store. UX should dictate the best experience while still satisfying business needs.
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Just presenting a screen is not an effective way to influence customer behavior. We must take human factors into consideration.
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