Choice's Transformation: From Limited Offers to Endless Possibilities
Role
Product Designer
Company/Institution/Clients
Scope
Timeline
August - December 2023
Overview
Choice launched with a simple shopping strategy: “Buy 3 and get free shipping.” Early on , it driving good traffic, boosting sales, and giving the platform a clear identity.
But as Choice grew, that same model became a roadblock. The rigid structure limited what products could be offered, reduced margins with unsustainable shipping subsidies, and failed to keep users engaged.
In this project, I need to transform Choice into a scalable, adaptable shopping platform that can accommodate a variety of products, allow for more intelligent promotions, and facilitate easy user discovery. Additionally, all of these things must maintain control over profitability.
Want to know more the design process? Keep scrolling!
Deep dive the project background
What is choice?
Choice is a Lazada platform where customers can buy directly from manufacturers at discounted prices, often with "Any 3" deals and free shipping on selected products.
How current Choice Flow look like?
Choice Flow on August 2023
Few months after it launch, here's the type of customer that we learn
For purchase decisions, our customers rely on these 3 things such as:
Challenges that we're facing
As Choice scaled, it hit a breaking point: the very mechanisms that fueled early growth were now holding it back.
Business Challenge : Profitability Under Threat
User Frustrations: Limited Choices and Difficult Discovery Lead to Churn
We’re doing quantitative research by survey in 6 ventures [ID,MY,VN,TH,PH,SG] and User Testing in ID and TH,we found some issue in current flow that might need improvement, such as :
Product discovery: Users may struggle to find specific products, as the current method relies mainly on scrolling the homepage and end-up leave the channel
Limited product variety: The current range of products not encourage users to buy a lot
Lack of personalization: Users may not receive relevant product recommendations on the product detail page or in the recommended section.
Together, these challenges created a dangerous loop: unsustainable for the business, frustrating for users. If left unchecked, it threatened both profitability and retention.
Strategy & Goals
We needed more than quick fix solutions to advance. Users needs flexibility, the company needs profitability, and the outdated model was not support it. Therefore, we reframed the challenges into 3 guiding questions in collaboration with researchers, business stakeholders, and project managers
Key metric that we want to achieve are :
Designing Our Experiments
Defining flexible channel design homepage for future Improvements
Pain
The old homepage was rigid. There's no slot for campaign and if there's any new initative, need to make a design & do some development, making it costly and slow for the business to adapt.
Exploration
To address the challenges we faced, the first thing we did was set the foundation by redefining the homepage’s structure. We developed the homepage’s structure with customizable blocks that could be easily adjusted. This approach allowed us to distinguish between business-driven and designer-driven elements.
Decision
We tested both normal and campaign states, ensuring the layout could flex between day-to-day browsing and special events.
Outcome
The new design gave Choice a scalable, flexible channel . It will cut development costs and make it easier to adapt to shifting business needs. (Strategy tie-back: Customization)
Enhancing Product Diversity through Assortment and Marketing Strategies
To increase product assortment and create more engaging promotions, we introduced:
Product assortment beyond price-driven bundles
Pain
The “Any 3 for xx price” bundle limited variety of product. Users saw too many similar products, while the business missed out on higher-margin items.
Explorations
Instead of only offering "Any 3 for xx price" deals, we introduced a mix of bundled (NN) and non-bundled (non-NN) products. This helps to diversify the options available in lightning deals and the "Just for You" section.Decision
We prioritized non-bundled items in the “Just For You” section while still strategically including some bundles.
Lightning Deals : Daily promotions that focus on highlighting NN products
Create a sense of urgency: We’re restricting daily quantity of NN products to make it exclusive and desirable.
Mitigate losses: NN products often have lower profit margins and require higher subsidies. Limiting their purchase can help control costs and maintain profitability.
Just For You : Highlight more diverse product based on category & promotions and focus on non-NN product
Prioritize non-NN products: Display a majority of non-NN products (85%) while strategically including some NN products (15%).
Maximize profitability: Non-NN products generally have higher profit margins. By focusing on these products in the "Just For You" section, we can increase overall profitability.
Outcome
This expanded the range of offers, boosted profitability with higher-margin items, and gave users more reasons to browse. (Strategy tie-back: Variety & Promotions)
"ChoiceDay" Weekly Promotions as part of our marketing strategy
Pain
There were no marketing hooks to drive habit or excitement in our old homepageExploration
Collab with business team, we will introduce a weekly promotion day , testing limited-time discounts.Decision
Launch Choiceday, a weekly promotion offering discounts up to 50% on select days. In the first phase, it will run every Tuesday, featuring a mix of NN and non-NN products to boost shopping enthusiasm.
Outcome
ChoiceDay will created anticipation and repeat visits, giving the business a recurring promotional engine.(Strategy tie-back: Variety & Promotions)
Enhance navigation for smooth shopping experience
Easier product discovery with a two-level tab system & search for seamless browsing
Pain
Users struggled to find products. Current homepage discovery relied on endless scrolling.Exploration
We explore two-level tab system: first for promotions, second for categories. I also improved search for faster product access.Decision
This allows users to easily explore product categories (window shopping) and quickly find specific items using the search function.
Outcome
Users could explore or dive deep quickly on homepage, making the path to checkout smoother
(Strategy tie-back: Discovery)Optimize checkout with a more flexible and seamless process
Pain
The rigid “minimum 3 items” rule blocked conversions. Many users abandoned before checkout.Exploration
We redesigned checkout to allow purchases with fewer than 3 items — but only orders above the threshold got free shipping.Decision
We made checkout more flexible—users can now buy fewer than three items but won’t get free shipping. This creates a natural incentive to reach the minimum spend for the benefit.
Simplify & Make Scalable Checkout Button
Pain
The cart and checkout button were solid ,covering too much screen and cluttered with text.Exploration:
We tested sticky vs floating carts, refining progress indicators and button clarity.
Final Decision
We decided to use on a compact floating cart with a simplified progress bar that emphasized promotional benefits
Beside the look , we also think about the scalability of the components in the future
Cart Icon : This area informs the cart status, and user can click to see the item details
Progress Text: This area inform user their checkout stage based on promotions
Price & Progress Bar : This area displays the price of cart item you’ve chosen, and informs users promotion info or promo status/progress
CTA Button : User can click CTA button to checkout page directly
Here's the plan next if we will expand the shopping mechanism
Outcome
A cleaner, scalable component that worked across multiple promotions, while keeping checkout progress visible without clutter. (Strategy tie-back: Discovery & Customizations)
Final Design Recap
these solutions transformed Choice into a platform that is:
Customizable for campaigns and business scenarios
Diverse in products and promotions
Seamless from discovery to checkout
Outcomes that tie back to the challenge
We launched the new Choice structure on November 1 ( preparing for 11.11 campaign), splitting the audience 60:40—60% experienced the new design, while 40% saw the old one.
The switch to the new channel design significantly improved Choice's performance. Due to its success, we fully rolled out the new design across all ventures in December (12.12).
Data based on Nov-Dec 2023
What went well
Users provided positive feedback in the satisfaction survey, said that the "Search" and "Categories" features made it easier to find good deals on Choice without the need for long scrolling.
In terms of discoverability, as expected, users heavily relied on the new navigation tools we introduced to browse the channel. The most-clicked features based on our data ranked as follows:
"Just For You" with dual tabs (over 50%)
Channel Search (over 20%)
Promotions module (under 20%)
Other traffic (~10%)
What need to be monitor next
Campaign vs Normal Days → Most data came from mega-campaigns (11.11, 12.12). We need to track whether improvements hold during regular shopping periods.
Retention impact → Will features like “ChoiceDay” and flexible checkout drive repeat visits beyond initial novelty?
