Zooplus AG, a leading European e-commerce company for pet supplies, is undergoing a significant redesign focusing on maintaining revenue and conversion growth during this transition. The approach emphasizes evolutionary changes, utilizing A/B testing and usability studies to minimize risks and enhance site performance. The document outlines the importance of data-driven design decisions, user personas, and gradual implementation to improve overall user experience.

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2. zooplus AG
Ι zooplus AG is the leading e-commerce
player in the European market for pet
supplies
Ι It has been founded in 1999 and is active
in 23 Countries
Ι zooplus has about one million active
customers in Europe and € 426.92 million
revenue in 2013. The range consists of
more than 8,000 different items
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3. The Challenge
Ι zooplus is facing an important renovation phase
(redesign of the front end + responsive behaviour +
adoption of a new system for the backend side)
Ι The goal is to maintain the same level of revenues
and conversions growth we have reached during the
previous years
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Ι “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have
excluded the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth.”
Sherlock is always right #1:

5. Our Approach: Evolution instead of Revolution
Ι Revolutions are often messy and
unpredictable
Ι Using an evolution approach means that
after you have identified your most
important pages and features you have
to test them
Ι You should test new layouts, design and
content with controlled A/B tests,
Usability tests and Heat maps Analysis
Ι This will minimize the risk of a
conversion drop
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6. Failed Revolutionary approach: Marks and
Spencer
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7. Successful Evolutionary approach: amazon
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8. Ι Standard approaches and best
practices can be a good starting point
for collecting new testing ideas but you
mustn’t follow the flock brainlessly
Ι The only best practice really worth
biting into is the practice of rigorous
conversion testing
Never follow the flock
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9. Failure Example: Infinite Scrolling on etsy.com
and yoox.it
Ι The users felt lost and they couldn’t filter between relevant
and not relevant data anymore, they were drowning in
information
Ι It isn’t a good fit for goal oriented task
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10. Example: Large images are forcing the users to
scroll more
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11. Don’t be fool by a pretty face
Ι Don’t be fooled by beauty alone
Ι You should resolutely focus on
business goals, usability and results
Ι Nice new design treatments need to
prove their value in driving usability
improvements and conversions
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12. Example: Uber
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13. Example:gomacro.com
Ι The site has incredible attention
to detail. The Interactions are
intuitive and the navigation is
easy to understand, but the
great design and polished
animation really demonstrate the
vibe of the brand.
Ι Michael FWA, Judge
Ι Extremely well done. Solid
Usability with fresh approach.
This is great work.
Ι Scott, FWA Judge
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14. Ι It is very important to implement the
changes incrementally, especially if
the adoption of a new CMS is involved
too
Ι This help you keep track of how
content changes affect your
conversion rate and content rankings
avoiding your website to become
invisible to search engines
Invisible Man
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15. How the Evolutionary approach works?
Ι Content Audit and Inventory
Ι Definition of Personas
Ι Analytics Review
Ι Systematic use of A/B testing and Multivariate
testing through out the website + Heat maps
Analysis
Ι Reiteration of Usability tests
Ι Avoid Change Aversion
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16. Content Inventory and Audit
Ι It is important to identify what are the
valuable content/pages
Ι You should take into consideration important
KPIs like: page rank, visits from search
engines, conversion rate, bounce rate,
internal search keywords=
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17. Personas Analysis
Ι It is important to have an holistic view on current and
potential customer: this is possible through the use of
personas
Ι These are fictional characters created to represent the
different user types that might use a site, brand or product in
similar way
Ι They help in considering the goals, desires and limitations
of users in order to help to guide decisions about service,
products, features, interactions and visual design of a website
Ι A good base to build the personas are: customer
segmentation Analysis, Analytics Tools, Customer Survey
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18. Personas example: Brands Loyal
Background:
Ι Name: Heike Klum
Ι Age: 41
Ι Job: Lawyer and Mother
About:
Heike is a very busy woman: a lawyer and a mother of a 5 years old little guy.
She is also the owner of “Star” an adult Maine Coon which she and her
husband adopted, before moving in their new house 5 years ago.
Since Star was a kitten she has always purchased Royal Canin products
because they were suggested by her friends Maria and her Vet.
In order to save some of her very limited time she likes to buy food for her
cat online by zooplus.
By zooplus she usually buys also Bio Kats Cat litter. Recently she subscribes
to the Savings plan which is helping her to save some money.
Favorite Brands:
Ι Royal Canin 10 kg
Ι Royal Canin 2-4 kg
Ι Royal Canin Kitten
Ι Gimpet and Beaphar Snacks
Ι Special food: Senior Products
Ι ProPlan
Goals:
Ι Buy Royal Canin products
Ι Buy Cat litter
Ι Buy from a retailer she can trust
Ι Save some money
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19. Ι Data! Data! Data!” he cried impatiently. “I can’t
make bricks without clay.”
Sherlock is always right #2:
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20. Analytics for Site Redesign
Ι It is necessary to evaluate analytics reporting to
understand “what” people do on the site
Ι How much time do users invest in the site?
Ι How many visitors have never been to the site
before?
Ι How many people visit 1 page and leave (aka Bounce
rate)?
Ι Where do users spend the most time?
Ι Where are the top pages people enter the site on?
Ι What are the pages where most people leave?
Ι How do segments of users move through the site?
Ι =
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21. Useful Google Analytics Reports for UX
Ι Top Reports for UX
1. Audience > Technology > Browser & OS
2. Audience > Mobile > Devices
3. Acquisition > Channels
4. Acquisition > Social > Network Refferrals
5. Behaviour > Site Content > All Pages
6. Behaviour > Site Search > Search Terms
7. Behaviour > Events > Top Events
8. Behaviour > In Page Analytics
9. Conversions > Goals > Overview
10.Conversions > Multi-channel funnels > Path length
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22. Ι “Never, ever, ever, act on assumptions. Search
out the facts and act on those.”
Sherlock is always right #3
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23. A/B testing and Multivariate testing
Ι A/B Split Testing
Ι In A/B testing (also known as split testing), you vary only
one element on the page at a time.
This element may be any part of the Web page critical
to conversions (e.g. button colour, size, ad copy headline).
Ι Multivariate Testing
Ι In multivariate testing, you identify different
sections/factors on a page which effect conversion rate.
Different variations of those factors are created, which
are then combined to give rise to multiple different
versions of the website.
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24. Ι A heat map is a two-dimensional representation of
data in which values are represented by colours.
A simple heat map provides an immediate visual
summary of information.
Ι Not only will it show you exactly where your visitors
are clicking, it can also help you find the best
position for a form fields or button, see which
banners or sales ads are clicked more often, or
even provide your managers or team with a visual
way to understand site usage patterns.
Ι You can use this information to improve your
website by determining which design elements are
performing best and which ones aren’t getting
noticed.
Ι A good and cheap tool is Crazy Egg:
https://www.crazyegg.com
Heat maps Analysis
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25. Ι “We approached the case, you remember,
with an absolutely blank mind, which is always
an advantage. We had formed no theories. We
were simply there to observe.”
Sherlock is alway right #4
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26. Usability testing
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27. Benefits of Usability Testing
Ι Learn if participants are able to
complete specified tasks successfully
Ι Identify how long it takes to complete
specified tasks
Ι Find out how satisfied participants are
with your Web site or other product
Ι Identify changes required to improve
user performance and satisfaction
Ι And analyse the performance to see if it
meets your usability objectives
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28. When to work on Usability
Ι Before starting the new design, test the old design
to identify the good parts that you should keep or
emphasise, and the bad parts that give users trouble.
Ι Test your competitors' designs to get cheap data
on a range of alternative interfaces that have similar
features to your own.
Ι Make a mockup of the first design idea and test
it.
Ι Inspect the design relative to established usability
guidelines whether from your own earlier studies or
published research.
Ι Once you decide on and implement the final
design, test it again. Subtle usability problems
always creep in during implementation.
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29. How to avoid (or mitigate) change aversion
Ι Warn users about major changes. Unexpected
changes catch people off-guard and can provoke a
defensive response.
Ι Tell users how you’re addressing key issues they’ve
raised. This assures users that their feedback is critical in
prioritizing improvements.
Ι Plan a progressive introduction of the new design
elements and features, don’t do it in one shot this will
make changes less stressful for users
Ι Start this process at least one year before the launch.
This will help your customers to get accustomed to the
changes and mitigate aversion.
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30. Thank you :)
Ι Alessandra Petromilli
Ι Twitter: @aleanan
Ι Instagram: @selkieap
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32. Credits
Pictures
• Evolution by PaSt1978
• Sheeps by vincentfavre
• The invisible man by DanielGrzeszkiewicz
• Notes by roomzeiss
• Usability test picture by Dr. Jenny Cham blog
• Change Aversion sketched by Hendrik Müller
• Sherlock Holmes. by lucky-your-with-amy
Content
Nielsen Norman Group: http://www.nngroup.com
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