Introduction

The urban residential landscape is unevenly developed. Some neighbourhoods are plush with all the latest amenities while the residents who reside in upcoming localities struggle with access to services. Many consumers live in a locality with no nearby mom and pop grocery shops; these consumers struggle to replenish daily household items. As a result, they buy most of their dietary requirements in a single visit to the market every month and hoard the supplies needed for a few weeks at a time. This may seem like a suitable method for the purchase of routine home provisions, but not so much for perishables.

Many users spend extra time and money to buy perishable items like milk and bread daily. The adoption of a Micro Delivery Service such as Supr Daily can fill the gap in this market.

What is Micro Delivery Service?

A micro delivery model is the opposite of the on-demand model of grocery e-commerce we are used to. In contrast, the micro delivery service works on the premise of enabling users to place a fixed order of perishables that is delivered to the doorstep every day. Users can order things a day in advance and the service will dispatch the same at a fixed time day after day. For example, your daily newspaper is brought to you through a micro delivery service)

Micro delivery services allow customers to subscribe to daily needs and lend them full control over volume, frequency, brand, et cetera, along with the flexibility to cancel at will with the tap of a button on their smartphones. These users belong to the new crop of customers enjoying the micro-delivery or the hyper-local delivery ecosystem in India. Some of the popular services which have this kind of a delivery model are, Big Basket Daily, Milk Basket, Supr Daily.

How can UI & UX help?

Since this service is not an on-demand service that users avail occasionally, it is very important to ensure the users have a hassle-free experience every time they log in. This not only helps onboard new users; it will also help retain and convert them into loyal customers. According to Searchnode, 74% of online consumers get frustrated with content that has nothing to do with their interests. Hence, in the case of micro delivery services, it’s important to navigate a user experience that is easy, intuitive and to-the-point. We’ve collated a list of useful UX/UI tips specific to micro-delivery that you can use to enhance the experience:

1. Help the user finish the task list as soon as possible.

The app should enable users to go from holding a list of groceries to receiving the groceries as quickly as possible. Working professionals, the main target user persona for this kind of a service do not have the patience to spend time buying groceries. Purchasing milk and everyday essentials is a chore and not an inherently enjoyable activity. E-commerce websites try to increase the amount of time spent by users online, however, a micro delivery service must aim to minimise the transaction time by reducing the number of steps.  This aligns with UI UX laws we have discussed here. 

Example: In Supr Daily, when users pick the quantity of an item they wish to buy, we directly add them to cart instead of having a separate add to cart button. This reduces the number of steps in the users’ workflow.  

2. Simplify the onboarding process

Most ecommerce websites require the user to login and create an account before they can make a purchase. This practise creates a high user drop off rate because most people don’t wish to go through the rigmarole of registering before they see the product. It’s crucial to ensure that users can browse and add products without logging in. Once they have put products in the cart, there is a higher probability of them sharing their credentials to login. This will ensure lower drop off rates.  In various other UI UX design projects we have made an attempt to ease the onboarding process.

Example : In Supr Daily, we allow login through OTP which is much faster than using a password. Once the user logins in, we do not log the user out every session unless the user chooses to do so. We also auto pick the user’s location so that the user can directly jump to browsing products.

3.  Increase discoverability of products by categorising them.

People often discontinue from service if they cannot find what they need. It is crucial to design your UI/UX in such a fashion that the customer finds what they are looking for with minimum effort. The best trick here is to use filters to increase discoverability.  Items that are most often ordered should be placed up front. The purpose of the entire user experience is to make sure people find what they are looking for.

Example : In Supr Daily, we have milk as a top level category even though it is also categorised under Dairy Products. Since most of the users buy milk on Supr Daily, this helps those users access Milk easily. 

4. Provide all additional details for all items.

The product page should place emphasis on details like volume, weight and quantity to help end users in ordering what they need in one stroke. This will make sure there isn’t any confusion. Another rule of UX with respect to micro-delivery is to display products that are consumed together. Users can also seek indirect recommendations in terms of viewing a display of what other users bought recently. This bundling technique can be seen on various e-commerce websites, it also has significant UI UX design implications. 

Example : In Supr Daily, we use bold typography to bring emphasis to the quantity and weight in the product page.

5. Allow the user to micro-control their subscriptions.

Most micro delivery services allow customers to subscribe to daily needs to ensure the user does not have to place the same order daily. When designing these subscriptions, make sure the user has full control on the volume, quantities and the frequency of the subscription, with the ability to pause orders as well. Since the end product is groceries and perishables, ease of use along with the ability to modify orders can reign control on their consumption and expenses. The ability to change an order up until a certain time before execution can prevent the incidence of wastage and returns. These aspects are to be considered throughout the UI UX design process, hence arises the need for UX research.

Example : In Supr Daily, we used a step by step subscription model where the user can control the volume, quantities and the frequency of the subscription. The users can see the price & reward points change based on their selection.

6.  Set the right service expectations in advance.

Each delivery service follows a different delivery model. Some allow the user to pick delivery slots, some deliver at fixed times every morning. In some services the user can interact with the delivery executive in person, in some services there is no contact. Ensure that these expectations are set well in advance with the user. The onboarding screens are a good place to communicate the nuances of the standard service and what can be accessed in a premium service. This expectation setting will generate better service reviews and positive word of mouth.

Example : In Supr Daily The onboarding flow was leveraged to communicate the service differentiation and set the right expectation from the very beginning.

7.  Allow users to quickly access their active orders.

Once the user places an order, the details about the order should be easily accessible and trackable to maintain transparency. Since the nature of the service includes an active order daily, showing expected delivery time helps reduce no of help requests. Discrepancies and out of stock notifications can be flagged ahead of delivery. The best place to house this information is the home page. The user experience must always show the status of the delivery as well the expected delivery time. Keeping the user well informed will help reduce the number of help requests raised.

Example : In the Supr Daily app, primary real estate, right on top of the homepage is dedicated to upcoming deliveries. This is extremely useful because it helps the user keep track of daily needs, plan meals a day in advance.

8. Anytime access to customer care services.

Having a help section is compulsory for all online e-commerce companies. This section facilitates a greater understanding of the product to many first-time users. In addition, it makes the user feel like help is at hand when they need it.  Most users access this section for any kind of common queries as well as for reporting an issue. An informative, well-structured help section will help the user gain trust on the service.  A recently pushed idea for customer service has been chatbots, including chatbots to user interface comes with its own sets of challenges. 

Example : In Supr Daily, we mapped out the most frequently reported issues and created a custom flow for each of these issues with added functionalities like the ability to attach an image. The user will be able to report these issues with a few clicks. This also helped reduce the turnaround time.

9. Use fresh visual imagery.

Since users rely on micro-delivery services for daily perishable items, using fresh imagery helps communicate to the user that they will always receive good quality items like fresh vegetables and dairy products. This is a subliminal method of assuring the quality of produce. Most users are used to buying perishables only after ascertaining freshness; use of fresh visual imagery serves as an appropriate proxy for this practice.

Example : In Supr daily, we used shots of fresh vegetables with dew on them as category images which made the app very visually appealing to end users.

10. Use a combination of text and visuals to communicate with the users

Communicating the right information as precisely as possible is one of the biggest challenges since the real estate on a phone is quite less. Therefore UX design plays an important role to ensure the perfect portrayal of content. Never rely on only text which is quite boring or just visuals which tends to be vague. Use a combination of both.