Determining eligibility

To be eligible for Etsy ASAP, the buyer needed to meet two requirements:

1. At least one item in their cart was eligible for Etsy ASAP

2. Their ZIP code was in an eligible delivery area.

These two things could change depending on where the buyer was in the checkout flow, so I started by mapping out the flow.

The flow revealed that a buyer could be in three different states:

1. Eligible - the zip code entered is eligible and at least one item in the cart is eligible

2. Ineligible - the zip code entered is ineligible and/or none of the items in the cart are eligible

3. Unknown - the user has not entered a zip code (not logged in) and therefore we do not know if they are eligible

The cart

My first round of design explorations for marketing this new service was in the cart. I explored several different treatments that fit within the existing layouts on all platforms. Very small changes in the cart can have a huge impact on conversion, so I made sure to make only minimal changes for the users who were eligible. During this time, we didn’t have a name or branding for the service, so later I worked with brand to determine final branding for this service, keeping in mind the known constraints and placement options.

The review screen

On the review screen, buyers could choose their payment method and shipping options, as opposed to the cart, where they could only estimate shipping and view their items. If a buyer was eligible for Etsy ASAP, the review screen is where they would select that option and choose their delivery time. There were a few interesting problems to solve:

1. Mixed eligibility carts. Buyers could have some items that were eligible for Etsy ASAP and some that were not. This required consideration around how we grouped items eligible for Etsy ASAP and how we allowed buyers to select their shipping method. For the pilot, buyers would not be able to select shipping methods for each item, so I had to find a balance between letting buyers choose Etsy ASAP and informing them when their other items would arrive.

2. Etsy ASAP would not be default. Buyers were not required to choose a shipping method. Instead, they were defaulted to the cheapest option which was almost never Etsy ASAP. Because the shipping method section was difficult to find (on mobile the buyer had to scroll), it was crucial to make them aware that it was an option.

3. Sample size. There was a very limited number of buyers being exposed to these changes. Between October and December 2015 there were only 2,649 eligible orders in NYC. The goal of the pilot was to assess whether Etsy buyers would use a same-day delivery option, so I needed to make sure that the option was prominently shown to the small group of eligible buyers.

4. Changing addresses. If a buyer changed their address, it could change their overall eligibility for Etsy ASAP. For example, if a buyer was not signed in yet (unknown eligibility) but then became eligible once signing in, there needed to be a way to notify them that they were now eligible for Etsy ASAP, otherwise they would not know without scrolling first. Likewise, if a buyer changed their address on the review screen, they needed to know certain addresses were not eligible.

Confirmation

Once a buyer had successfully completed their order, they would arrive on the confirmation screen. I made some small changes to this screen across platforms to ensure continuity and trust.

Listing pages

If a buyer was signed in and eligible for Etsy ASAP, we made some small changes to search and the listing page. I explored several ways of informing buyers that they were eligible and explaining how to take action. This included considerations for when a buyer was viewing the listing and when an item was added to their cart.

Purchases

The last place I made changes was the purchases page, where buyers could see their past purchases. Because this page only accounted for 0.42% percent of all page views, the changes were minimal. I tweaked copy and updated the tracking view so that buyers could see where the courier was.