Client
SalonCentric (L’Oreal)
Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
~6 months (Shipped late 2021)
SalonCentric, a subsidiary of L’Oreal is one of the largest wholesale salon and beauty supply distributors, serving more than one million licensed beauty professionals in the US. Their goal is to become leaders in the professional beauty space, supporting the growth, education and success of all beauty professionals.
Challenge
Supply chain shortfall
Beauty supply distribution was slowed during the height of the pandemic, stylists weren’t able to stock up on their usual supplies and were forced to shop elsewhere. SalonCentric didn't have the infrastructure needed to provide additional pathways to put beauty products in their customers’ hands, underscoring the urgent need for an onmi-channel approach.
Low customer confidence
The majority of online purchases are from salon owners who typically repeat orders, while independent stylists and students preferred in-store visits to explore new products and brands firsthand. As the world shifts from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce, the majority of SalonCentric customers didn't have the confidence to make purchases online, where the brand and product education was lacking.
Approach
A shift in customer base
Insights from interviews with key participants and stakeholders revealed that traditionally, SalonCentric mainly catered to salon owners and businesses. However, independent stylists are their most rapidly expanding clientele, and should they aspire to turn into true partners with their entire customer base, SalonCentric must adjust by offering relevant services and resources.
Auditing the current experience
Loud promotions saturate the experience paired with a disconnected browsing and discovery experience, resulted in a frustrated and overwhelmed customers and vague identity for the SalonCentric. Additionally, the shopping experience is impersonal, forcing more work upon users to find what they're looking for.
The lack of design system and information hierarchy throughout the site contributes to an incohesive look and feel making it untrustworthy and inconsistent.
Configuring the Product Detail Selection
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Scaling the Product Detail Page (PDP)
The product selection panel underwent numerous iterations in order to accommodate all the use cases for different marketplace sellers, product types, and shopping options for each product type (swatches, sizes, collections, ranges, categories, etc.)
One of the biggest challenges were to fill a small space with 15-20 requirements without it feeling claustrophobic or disorganized. Even we were overwhelmed at first trying to puzzle all the pieces together, but eventually we were able to land on an approach with organized information hierarchy that was scalable and easy to process.
Experience Outcome
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Three types of intermediary category pages (CLP and PLP) for types of users who either know what they're looking for or those undecided that need some navigational guidance. The main use cases for are category, brand, and deal pages, each encompassing modules to provide additional information and context.
Reflection
As a self-proclaimed midnight doom shopper, I didn’t expect my first e-commerce project to be so convoluted. It was everyone’s first time working with Mirakl so we, clients included, ran into some challenges that forced us to change or pivot our approved designs completely.
Since was all a learning process for us, I knew I had to ensure our stakeholders, engineers, and program managers were involved in the updates and communication that was occurring asynchronously by getting the team to track our status and progress in Notion. It was a surprise we weren’t using a project management tool to begin with, but I was thrilled find that there was an overwhelming positive response for it.
I was credited with fostering a much higher degree of collaboration and communication with our client, paving the way for stronger relationships moving forward. I was promoted from Senior Product Designer to Lead Product Designer within three months of starting this role.