Case Study: Point of Sale

Loop Returns

tl;dr

Loop Returns is a B2B2C SaaS company focused on the post purchase experience for the shopper and return logistics for the merchant. Small and medium sized merchants who serve customers online and in store, need a unified and consistent way to process returns.

Point of Sale

Extending the post purchase experience in store

Small and medium sized merchants who serve customers online and in store face several chanllenges when processing returns. They may be using multiple systems to manage their online, instore, and in warehouse processes. Because of this, on top of being cumbersome to manage, record keeping can be challenging. Additionaly merchants are typically looking for ways to simplify their teach stack.

Principles of design

Gain user trust

New users don’t know what to expect and how the platform works.

Inspire confidence

Sales associates are a merchants’ ambassadors. As such, shoppers look to them to help them make decisions and complete tasks.

Sales associates should have the confidence in the tools at their disposals to get their job done.

Tolerance for uncertainty

Onboarding staff to new software is expensive and time consuming. Good design can mitigate that friction.

Users

The Merchant

They manage the loop instance. They are responsible for turning features on/off. Their day-to-day focus revolves around logistics and workflows.

Behaviours

  • They’re comfortable with technology
  • They manage the logistics of onboarding new technologies (hardware and software) to their staff
  • They work with their staff to process the returns manually

Needs/Goals

  • A way to onboard tech for their team that is quick and easy
  • An easy way to process returns (to reduce the manual labour)
  • A way to the user profile of customers that do returns/exchanges
The Shopper

The shopper may be an individual that has a hybrid work model where they go into the office 1 to 2 times a week, is back in the office full time, or works fully remote.

Factors worth considering:

  • Where do shoppers live? (urban vs rural)
  • Shopping preference (online vs in-store)

Needs/Goals

  • A way to onboard tech for their team that is quick and easy
  • An easy way to process returns (to reduce the manual labour)
  • A way to the user profile of customers that do returns/exchanges
The Sales Associate

The sales associate spends the majority of their time at work engaging with customers. They help customers find what they’re looking for, as well as process any transactions such as new purchases, returns, and exchanges.

Behaviours

  • They’re generally comfortable with technology they are already familiar with
  • They have a very busy schedule, often multitasking to get their job done
  • There is a lot of manual work of recording returns offline, to enter in the system later

Needs/Goals

  • Tech that isn’t complex to learn
  • An easy way to process returns (to reduce the manual labour)
  • A way to see the customer order history

The user experience

Order lookup

Users: Sales associates.

Key objectives: To simplify complexity for the sales associate and to provide them with tools to service the shopper.

Item selection
Confirmation

Return online, drop off in store

Users: Sales associates and Shoppers

UX Considerations: Expected time to complete for the shopper and to reduce cognitive load for the sales associate