Sales for AirAsia Travelmall Duty-Free Web Shop

How can we improve the duty-free shopping experience on Travellmall to improve conversion rates?

UX Audit and Recommendations

(6 Nov - 6 Dec)

Client: AirAsia Group (Malaysia)

Role: Team Lead

AirAsia Travelmall Audit

  • Travelmall has had low traffic and low conversion rates and the team was tasked to investigate.

  • Internally, stakeholder interviews, design iterations and attempts to improve information architecture had not yielded results.

  • Our role was to evaluate users’ pain points and design solutions to address them.

Research Focus: User Expectations vs User Experience

  • As we were unfamiliar with the product and market, our research focused on user motivations and the competitive landscape through a broad range of methods, to gain a thorough understanding in a short span of time to give sound recommendations.

  • Based on what AirAsia shared, we explored how their main competitors (KingPower, ishopChangi and Sephora ) compared in terms of product offerings, target audience, unique value proposition and web & app user flow design to emulate their success.

  • Thorough analysis and evaluation of the existing site was conducted based on Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics, to guide our clients to step-by-step to improve the basics.

  • We conducted survey & interviews to learn about users’ expectations & habits around duty-free shopping online and where AirAsia could match them.

  • Live walk-through sessions were conducted to discover how users interacted the website, as well as their impressions and opinions.

Key Insights

  • What was done well?

    • Customers liked that the site tagged discounted products

    • Interviewees expressed pleasant surprise that AirAsia had Travellmall

    • User surveys show that most users are new to duty-free online shopping with - AirAsia has early adopter advantage if the site can improve

  • 1. Pressing Technical Issues

    Basic technical issues stood out as the most urgent to resolve for smooth user experience.

    • Trouble logging in with 3rd party social buttons (mitigated by the team)

    • Products were not shown as expected

    • Flight number could not found

    • Significant wait time frustrated users

  • 2. Improve Error Flows

    • Central contradictory flaw was discovered in user flow, which caused errors when users attempted to change delivery methods

    • Ideally, users should be guided down the most relevant path for them

    • As a stopgap measure, we also suggested an interim path that was longer but would allow for successful checkout

  • 3. Provide More Information

    • Users felt information, especially for delivery methods, was insufficient

    • Priority should be given to delivery method info to help users make a successful purchase

    • For products, users also wanted more information but scale is larger so this could be done progressively

  • 4. Improve Branding & Design

    • Users said the website design was not appealing and seemed untrustworthy

    • Branding and design could be improved to help the site appear more legitimate

    • Addressing 1. and 2. will automatically improve level of trust users have

  • 5. Manage Display of Unavailable Products

    • Unavailable products could be used to collect leads for user interest

    • Instead, users were frustrated by navigating into overly specific categories only to find nothing available, over and over again

Expectations vs Experience

💖🍷💄Duty-free shoppers expect cosmetics, alcohol and limited edition items to be available, citing these as the top products they look for

🛒➡️🚫Difficulties with searching for items and interrupted user flow before adding to cart

✅🪙💎Duty-free sites expected to have authentic and legitimate products, and a broader range of travel-exclusive products

❌❓🚧Often, “no products available” was shown when navigating site - products seemed limited and users said the UI did not feel trustworthy due to navigation issues

ℹ️🏠🛬Users expected more information about different delivery methods (home delivery, airport collection or in-flight collection)

😕📦❓Collection methods were confusing and users had many questions about them

😕🎁❓Promotions were displayed prominently and desirable, but users had difficulty finding items due to site organisation

🎁🥰Most expect duty-free to mean lower prices, more convenience and special items suitable for gifting

AirAsia_Before

Before

  • Users went through multiple loops before being able to add anything to cart

  • Issues of many products not available once a user toggled to a different delivery method

  • Difficulty searching for products as the categories were too narrow

  • Website described as not appealing and difficult to trust from user feedback

After

AirAsia has since made a number of updates to their site

  • Removed option for airport delivery and focused on in-flight delivery

  • Product listings improved to highlight available products and promotions

  • Search and categorisation functionality improved, highlighting branded cosmetics/perfumes and alcohol

  • Rebranded to AirAsia MOVE