Vital Proteins

Background

Vital Proteins is the #1 selling collagen supplement brand in the U.S. (Recently acquired by Nestlé).

I was tasked to run a UX audit on the website and provide a set of solutions to improve the conversion rates and increase the overall sales.

After running a series of studies on Usertesting.com, I identified the following 2 areas of improvements:

1. Checkout flow

2. Product definition

1. Checkout flow

Below is the screenshot of the product detail page BEFORE the redesign:

PROBLEM

1. It took customers as many as 5 clicks to add an item to cart

2. “Add to cart” button is below the page fold

3. Customers had to click “10oz with HA + Vitamin C” to discover other sizes and packaging options

4. Customers could not figure out how to purchase the item just one time without the subscription

5. When customers add an item to cart, the website encouraged them to add more items to cart rather than proceeding them to checkout

Below is the screenshot of the product detail page AFTER the redesign:

SOLUTION

1. It takes customers 1 click to add an item to cart

2. Both “Subscribe” and “Purchase one-time” buttons are above the page fold

3. Customers can see the different sizes and packaging options at a glance

4. When customers add an item to cart, the website proceeds them to checkout*

* Because the majority of the customers visiting this page are new customers (returning customers often order from their order history), they prefer checking out with just one item to try out, so automatically proceeding them to checkout saves them a click and improves the conversion rate.

Checkout the improvements on the live website:
https://www.vitalproteins.com/products/collagen-peptides

2. Product definition

Below is the screenshot of the top navigation BEFORE the redesign:

PROBLEM

Products were mostly categorized by their “form factors,” such as powder, beverage, bars, and capsules – which was based on an assumption that most customers look for products by form factors.

However, the study revealed that the majority of customers looked for products based on the following 3 factors, in the order of importance:

1. Recommendations from family, friends, or celebrities

2. Health needs (e.g. Hair & nails, Vegan, Athletic performance)

3. Form factors (e.g. Powder, Beverage, Capsules)

Due to such mismatch between customer expectations and product definitions, customers struggled to find the products they needed. They also struggled to tell the difference between a number products that had similar health benefits and ingredients – which further delayed their purchase decision making process and led to decreased conversion rate.

Below is the screenshot of the top navigation AFTER the redesign:

SOLUTION

Products are now categorized by:

1. Products (e.g. Powder, Beverage, Capsules)

2. Health needs (e.g. Hair & nails, Vegan, Athletic performance)

3. Favorites (e.g. Celebrity picks, Top rated)

Checkout the improvements on the live website:
https://www.vitalproteins.com

Results

Products were now categorized by:

1. Add-to-Cart rate increased by 7.5%

2. Revenue increased by 4.5%