Veggie Saver
Veggie Saver is a produce bag that focuses on reducing plastic and food waste while contributing to Destiny Rescue, an organization that frees children from human trafficking.
Overview
Problem
Veggie Saver aimed to increase its presence in the American market and needed to adapt their Australian wholesale website for online sales to American customers.
Outcome
My insights guided Veggie Saver in enhancing trust and communication with American consumers through website changes, including language and architecture, and implementing an intuitive online purchase flow.
My Role: UX Researcher
I conducted stakeholder interviews, sourced and interviewed participants through Zoom, moderated usability tests, synthesized research results into insights, authored a report, and presented findings to our client.
Understanding the Problem
Why are we doing this?
After meeting with Veggie Saver founder Peita Pini, her team, and my research team, I gained better insights into the project's purpose. I used Miro for affinity mapping to group insights into themes and identify key focus areas:
1. Determine how to adapt the website for Australian wholesalers to suit American consumer needs.
2. Understand the current user flow to purchase a Veggie Saver bag- is it intuitive? Should a link to Amazon be added?
Image: Zoom meeting with Veggie Saver stakeholders and my research team.
3. Learn how to build trust with American customers and how to best position their product for the American market.
Crafting the Research
What questions should be asked?
After affinity mapping, I drafted research objectives for both the consumer and wholesaler components of the project led a task delegation meeting with my research team, and focused on these objectives for my research:
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How do Americans feel about the current website?
Where would they expect to go to buy a Veggie Saver bag?
Does having both retailer and customer access points on the same website impact their user flow?
Should there be an Amazon “Buy Now” button on the current site or should the current site have more of a focus on consumers as an e-commerce site?
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How does their perception of the current economy impact their spending habits?
Where would they go if they are looking for something like Veggie Saver?
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What selling points of Veggie Saver appeal to the American Customer most and why?
What parts of Veggie Saver’s purpose are most appealing?
What language would be appealing to an American customer that would make them buy Veggie Saver?
What methods should be used?
Semi-structured interviews. I chose these types of interviews to gain deeper qualitative insights from American consumers about their shopping habits, what they value, and how to build trust.
Usability tests. I chose this method to gain a greater understanding of Veggie Saver’s website usability. I also wanted to learn what reactions American consumers have while using the Veggie Saver website to help create a user journey map.
What participants should be sourced?
I first used a screener survey to ensure participants closely matched Veggie Saver’s target demographic of women ages 25-55 and aimed to find a similar group for American participants. I recruited:
8 American women
ages 30 -64
who regularly purchase produce
and shop online.
Each of the 8 participants took part in the semi-structured interviews and usability tests.
The Research Results
Usability Tests
An average of 27 seconds to reach the find a retailer button.
7 out of 8 users looked on the home page for a place to purchase.
No participants successfully figured out how to buy a Veggie Saver bag online.
User Interviews
Users were confused about the word retailer and were expecting to see a button directing them to buy on the home page.
Synthesizing the Research
I pulled quotes from the interviews and usability tests, coding them into themes within Google Sheets, and subsequently utilized these themes to create personas and a customer journey map.
Insights
American consumers were unsure where to purchase a Veggie Saver bag on the website.
When asked to find where to buy a Veggie Saver bag on veggiesaver.com during usability testing it took 27 seconds on average for interviewees to get to the Find a Retailer button. No participants successfully figured out how to buy Veggie Saver online.
The map on the Find a Retailer page caused some concerns and issues with their user flow. When reaching the Find a Retailer page, the map was zoomed in on Australia and this made participants wonder if Veggie Saver was available in the United States. Many participants thought the search process and map on this page was not intuitive.
The word retailer was not a familiar term for American women and it caused confusion.
Participants felt confused about the word retailer. They were expecting to see language like 'buy now', 'shop here', or 'our products' to purchase the product during usability testing. My research report goes in depth about more purchasing expectations.
Interviewees thought the Become a Retailer button meant it was a way for them to sell. When asked what they thought of the Become a Retailer button, the majority of participants thought it was a way for them to personally sell Veggie Saver. Some participants thought a button like this meant that Veggie Saver was a multi-level marketing company or MLM, kind of like Avon or LuLaRoe.
“That feels a little schemy to me because there’s not a product listing and it makes me think this is just a company that’s looking for people to sell...it reminds me of companies like LulaRoe or Avon.”
American women connect with a product and company through a personal shopping experience.
How does Veggie Saver relate to them? A common theme that kept coming up throughout each of the interviews was personalization of the Veggie Saver bag to each user's life. They wanted to know the price, size, how many bags they will need for their fridge, and if they will need separate ones for different types of produce.
Interviewees didn't understand how buying Veggie Saver connects to Destiny Rescue. After reading about Destiny Rescue, the non-profit organization Veggie Saver supports with a portion of their profits, some participants were still confused about how Destiny Rescue connects to them buying a Veggie Saver bag.
American women don't realize that Veggie Saver can save them money. Saving money was a main goal for interviewees, yet it was not a reason that they would purchase Veggie Saver. The Veggie Saver team prided itself on the savings their product creates for consumers, yet this was not being communicated through their website.
Users prefer to shop for a product like Veggie Saver directly through the website. Most women I interviewed said that Amazon is their go to place when shopping online for convenience. However, these same women said for a product like this one, they would prefer to buy directly from the Veggie Saver website because they wanted to support the company’s cause directly.
Opportunities
1. Create an intuitive user flow to purchase a Veggie Saver bag through the website.
Use of the word store instead of retailer is more familiar with American consumers. Changing the Find a Retailer button to Find a Store on the website could help with a more intuitive flow.
Add a button that says Buy Now or Purchase Here for online purchases could create a quicker flow because this is the language they are expecting.
Provide consumers with a way to purchase through the website. Participants interviewed preferred to be able to purchase directly from Veggie Saver but would buy through Amazon if necessary. Linking the Buy Now button to Amazon could be a great temporary solution since building out an e-commerce website may not be feasible right now.
2. Show American women that Veggie Saver is a necessity in their home.
American women want to save money, reduce their waste, and know how Veggie Saver relates to their situation. Consumers didn't understand how Destiny Rescue relates to their purchase of a Veggie Saver bag. They wanted to learn more but didn't want to spend time reading the Destiny Rescue section due to its length.
Adding some infographics on the main page that show:
how much money is saved
how much waste is reduced
and how Destiny Rescue is helped
with a consumer's individual purchase could show Americans why Veggie Saver is essential.
3. Building trust with American consumers on the Veggie Saver website.
Along with changing the retailer language, it could be beneficial to separate the wholesaler and consumer space for Americans. Many of the participants I interviewed thought that the Become a Retailer button meant it was an opportunity for them to sell. The language even created distrust for them because they thought this meant it was a multi-level marketing company. The current website is geared towards wholesalers and customers. The women interviewed expected to see a consumer targeted website showing them cost, purchase options, and reviews from other verified customers.
Feedback from Stakeholders
“Your presentation was so helpful. I totally get that the ‘Become a Retailer’ language sounds like a pyramid scheme. I was like wow, yep I would think that. Once they get to the ‘Find a Retailer’ page it is not the easiest thing to use. I think that was a really great point to draw attention to as well.”
-Cait Scullin, Senior PR & Communications Manager at Swag Australia (Veggie Saver)
What I’ve Learned
I am grateful for the opportunity to work on a project like this and have learned a lot from it. A few of the highlights of what I learned are below.
1. The importance of silence in interviews.
Framing questions during user interviews in a way that leaves room for participants to reflect can lead to some pretty interesting insights. Without building in moments for users to reflect, I would not have learned about how some participants thought Veggie Saver was an MLM or some of the struggles that consumers had with the purchase flow.
2. How to present data when the mission of the users is different than the client’s in a kind and informative way.
There were some strong opinions from participants in the interviews and usability tests about Veggie Saver’s affiliation with the non-profit Destiny Rescue. Destiny Rescue was the reason that the client founded Veggie Saver. Before relaying the information through a presentation to the client, I asked the following questions:
Is it kind? Is it useful? Is it necessary?
Asking these questions allowed me to present the disconnect consumers had with Destiny' Rescue and the shocking information that participants thought Veggie Saver was an MLM.
3. Do your research on cultural differences before presenting your research to a client.
It was an honor to work with Natalie Troxel who has an abundance of UX research experience working in different cultural environments. Our stakeholder was from and mainly operated in Australia. Natalie taught me to do research on language terms before presenting to see if they need to be defined or translated. Even though we both speak English, terms may not be recognizable. Defining what terms mean in the United States in addition to this improves communications with your client.
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