Background
Mercadona is a Spanish supermarket chain founded by Juan Roig Alfonso, with over 1,600 stores. It is based on a proximity commerce model, selling local products for food, personal hygiene, home cleaning, and pet care through its own brands. Expanding since 2019, the Mercadona supermarket network is present in Spain and Portugal.
Challenge
Mercadona offers an online shopping service that, in just six years, has become the industry leader, generating 540 million euros in revenue in 2023. Now, Mercadona aims to introduce a new express purchase feature, allowing customers to quickly buy any forgotten items and receive them within one hour. This functionality is designed to meet urgent needs, ensuring that essential products can be delivered as soon as possible.
Project Goals
• Add the express purchase functionality, taking into account that the solution is focused on forgotten items in an online purchase that has already been delivered.
• Design the entire process and the product traceability.
• Design the entire process and the product traceability.
• The new functionality will be designed for the Mercadona mobile app.
Overview
ROLE: UX/UI Designer
TIMELINE: 4 days - 15+ hours
TOOLS USED: Miro, Figma
TIMELINE: 4 days - 15+ hours
TOOLS USED: Miro, Figma
This project is a fictitious scenario completed as part of the UX/UI Bootcamp at UXERSchool.
Research
Desk Research | Benchmark
Supermarket e-commerce is experiencing notable growth and is expected to continue in the coming years. More and more people are opting to do their shopping online, whether for convenience, lack of time, or work schedule limitations. This phenomenon has led to a constant increase in the number of people adopting this practice.
According to recent data, a 65% growth in online food purchases is projected over the next three years, driving a market valued at 9.3 million euros by 2027 in Spain[1].
A second study[2] indicates that chains like Mercadona, Día, Carrefour, Alcampo, and Eroski dominate nearly half of the market. This analysis considered aspects such as national coverage, service cost, and delivery time.
In terms of coverage, the 56 most populated cities in Spain were evaluated, finding that Mercadona is present in all of them, followed by Carrefour (55), Día (48), Alcampo (45), and Eroski (17).
How much does the service cost?
The most economical offer is from Dia (4.99 euros per delivery), followed by Eroski (their fee varies between 4 and 7 euros), and Carrefour (7 euros). Starting at seven euros are Alcampo (the cost varies depending on the order) and Mercadona (7.21 euros).
[1] https://www.abc.es/economia/compra-online-supermercado-crecera-proximos-tres-anos-20231129132009-nt.html ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.es%2Feconomia%2Fcompra-online-supermercado-crecera-proximos-tres-anos-20231129132009-nt.html
[2] https://www.elespanol.com/invertia/empresas/distribucion/20240405/supermercado-cobra-rapido-entrega-pedidos-domicilio/845415557_0.html
Based on the findings, I was able to develop insights on how to add the express purchase functionality, taking into account that the solution is focused on forgotten items in an online purchase that has already been delivered, according to the briefing provided.
Then, I began designing how to add the new functionality within the Mercadona app.
high fidelity prototype
next Steps
The next step would be to conduct Usability Tests to determine if the new functionality meets the objectives of the proposal. Additionally, conducting in-depth interviews would also provide valuable feedback from users about the proposed solution.
I also believe that monitoring the number of orders placed after implementing the new functionality could be very beneficial. This would allow us to evaluate if the increase in sales aligns with the new feature, helping us track the progress of online sales rates through the app.
I also believe that monitoring the number of orders placed after implementing the new functionality could be very beneficial. This would allow us to evaluate if the increase in sales aligns with the new feature, helping us track the progress of online sales rates through the app.
Project learnings
After working on this project for 4 days, I learned a few things worth mentioning here:
1. Research is essential.
To achieve my goal, the information provided by research was fundamental. I had no idea how each supermarket chain behaves when selling online, and discovering so much data about the potential of this niche surprised me.
1. Research is essential.
To achieve my goal, the information provided by research was fundamental. I had no idea how each supermarket chain behaves when selling online, and discovering so much data about the potential of this niche surprised me.
2. To make a change, it is not necessary to start from scratch.
During the development of Wireflow, I researched a lot about best practices in UX and, as a designer, proposing the implementation of a new service within an existing application without causing drastic changes in design was a challenge. Working on an already established interface taught me a lot about maintaining the same visual consistency in a product and showed me that, despite having many ideas, keeping the focus on the essentials is the number one priority.