Rent-A-Center Case Study
Problem
Rent-A-Center, an exclusively brick and mortar business, was loosing marketshare to other rent-to-own businesses with much more sophisticated online experiences.
Objectives
- Elevate visual and brand experience to match in-store experience.
- Create a more E-commerce like experience.
- Create a total digital experience allowing customers to source a product
- Develop add to cart function and complete rental agreement process on the site.
- Create new account and payment management flow integrated with site.
Approach
Competitive Research | Wireframe Development | UI Design | Prototype Development | Quantitative Design Research | Usability Testing
Result
80%
Increase in customer lead generation
Original Design
• Cluttered with many different elements competing
• No correlation to available inventory in store locations
• Customer billing handled in separate site experience
• Visual experience did not match current branding and in-store experience
Competitive Review
I explored both direct competitive brand experiences as well as top eCommerce brand sites as a way to establish a best-in-class online browsing, searching and shopping experience for an atypical product brand. I considered taxonomy, site architecture, merchandising of products, store locator features, product category and detail displays, cross-sell and recommendations.
Wireframe Prototype
I developed progressively advanced wireframes beginning with the establishment of page level features and content to inform a design exploration process and evolving to a full design prototype that was the subject of a usability test. I ran a 12 user, 60 minute test focused on taxonomy, success of browsing to specific products and store locator function to inform improvements to overall usability of the site.
Preference Tests
I ran eight separate preference tests focusing on the entire home page design as well as variations of different modules in the page, including hero, merchandising zones and RAC video promoting the brand benefit.
Test ranged from 50-100 participants and all had a 89% or higher statistical significance in establishing a winner.
Memory Tests
Memory tests focused on 50 participants. Each user saw a creative element for 5 seconds and then were asked two name three items they recalled from memory. Eight tests focusing on home page merchandising layouts were presented. A clear winner emerged based on a high percentage of key elements being recalled at a higher rate than all other designs.
First Click Tests
Five first click tests were conducted using 50 users per test with the object of giving users a click in terms of finding a product or product category and where they would first click to browse to that item. This allowed us to provide the best navigation design, store locator placement and merchandising zones on the home page.
Click Flow Tests
I tested 50 users in each test utilizing click flows in order to establish the best desktop and mobile navigation and labeling structure to improve overall navigability of the product catalog.
Final Design + Results
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​80% increase in rental leads
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Store locator mapped to local inventory
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Reduced rental lead form from 4 pages to 1
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Integrated account and payment processing