Simplifying the shopping experience of B2B Construction Products through landing pages

As a UX Design Intern at EquipmentShare, a billion dollar construction start-up that deals with rental and selling of specific products at scale, I tackled the goal of increasing sales for our B2B products. To translate the business needs into user needs, I leveraged competitive analysis and an internal design audit to identify pain points in our user’s purchasing journey.

I created a scalable solution for our distribution team, incorporating motion graphics that set us apart from competitors, resulting in a 1.3% conversion rate.

Role

Team

Project

Timeline

UX Designer
- 1 Designer (myself)
- eCommerce Analytics Specialist
Implement landing pages that would increase sales of high ticket items
8 Weeks

Business Goal

How might we increase the number of B2B sales for construction companies that buy products for their own commercial contractors?

Success Metrics: Conversion Rate w/ A/B Testing

1) User Pain Point

‍The main issue our customers face is not knowing exactly what product they need. Since manufacturing brands work with proprietary attachments, knowing a machine’s model number, manufacturer, and the type of product they need to buy is a time consuming and a highly variable process.  

As a result, our end-user often wants to talk to a person over the phone to make their order to ensure they are receiving the right product.


2) Business Pain Point

‍EquipmentShare had a backlog of inventory and needed a way to increase their revenue and marketshare to compete with local competitors. Additionally, our distribution team spent a large portion of their day on the phone receiving background information on the customer’s needs.

Solution

Designed and implemented 4 landing pages utilizing mobile first design with a type form to reduce call-in orders and highlight product benefits.

I spearheaded our new landing pages, strategically emphasizing the benefits of our products, and implemented form submissions enabling customers to specify their equipment requirements for a personalized shopping experience when our distribution team reaches out to them.

Achievement

Converted 1.3% of users toward item purchases ranging from $50 - $1500.

Built a motion graphics library for specific products that could be utilized for future marketing campaigns.

Read my full design process below

Business Context

Our Inventory was backlogged due to the number of products we sold to other construction businesses

Providing products that work with various manufacturers' proprietary machines required us to have multiple of the same type of product for our customers.

Discovering the User Problem

How might we help users find the exact product they need while separating ourselves from our competitors?

Through connecting with stakeholders in distribution and conducting a competitive analysis, I discovered that our user struggles to find the exact product they need. As a result, their origin point starts with a need for replacing a type of product and utilizing customer service through phone calls to place an order.
Since we were selling third-party attachments at a lower cost than the equipment manufacturer, competition was higher and differentiating our buying experience was crucial.
After connecting with stakeholders in distribution, I found out that they spent most of their day on the phone due to the lack of initial information they had from the user

Solution Redirection

After researching, I found that scaling our sales required reducing the amount of call-in orders

Design Pattern Research

How might we increase the number of sales in an engaging way that reduces call in orders?

1. Mobile Design Patterns

Media focused mobile design pattern would allow for user recognition of products and brands without excessive scrolling.
‍
Card Layout and Information Focus both have been used in designs like Apple and Gumroad to simplify checkout, but because our conversion didn't immediately result in a sale, these two options would end up having a higher bounce rate.

2. Desktop Design Patterns

Z-Pattern emphasized our products best and created an easier flow for the users' eyes. This combated our competitors approach and simplified our conversions
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‍Card Layout Design had too much choice and followed suite with the mobile issue of needing an immediate checkout afterwards.

‍Sequence Map required a large amount of clicks before user information was collected and would rely heavily on A/B testing copy.

‍Article Focus was a strategy that could increase SEO which 2 team members of mine were focused on, but since we were running digital ads for users to reach these pages, working on something more targeted would be more effective.

Final Designs

I Focused on 3 Main Design Decisions

1) Z-Patter Design Layouts on Desktop

  • Through my competitive analysis and design pattern research, I found that a Z-pattern would provide the content hierarchy required to take users attention to the type form. This gave the user control of the actions they took, as access to our full catalogue site and distribution team is available at the top, but let the content guide them to our desired business goal.
  • To increase conversion rates, I built variations of the pages that my team could A/B test once deployed.

2) Adding Motion Graphics to increase user retention

  • To modernize our pages and increase engagement, I built out a variety of motion graphics using After Effects and Blender
  • I  focused on making their use case broad enough to save my team time for future marketing needs.

3) Building out negative space for product use cases and benefits

  • To increase scrollability and highlight product benefits, I took inspiration from Apple in their utilization of negative space.
  • These choices kept my design on brand while still pushing a modernized solution for our user.

Takeaway/Reflection

Discovering the reason behind company practices can reveal pain points that align with user goals.

As I jumped into the construction industry, asking questions about our department and brand practices was helpful in establishing what my team’s short and long term goals were. Speaking with the distribution team stakeholders showed me that their goal of reducing call-in orders actually aligned with our users goals of finding the best product for them.

As a result, designing for our user meant making sure all parts of their journey would aid in my stakeholders journey’s as well.

If I had more time

I would have liked to focus on primary research, talking directly to users about how they go about their purchases and A/B testing different designs with them after.

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