Amazon / Logistics / Retail
$60 million in cost savings through Amazon Return Kiosks.
A major improvement to the customer journey led to a 10x order worth $22.5 million.
- Role
- Founding / Sr Staff Product Designer, end-to-end UX
- Team
- Logistics / Retail
- Duration
- Doddle / Blue Yonder
+69%
Dropout rate improved from 20.59% to 6.58%.
+28%
Journey time improved from 89.94 to 64.47 seconds.
+6%
CSAT improved from 80.2 to 85.1.
1500+
New kiosks ordered in a 10x expansion worth $22.5M.
Project overview
Problem, approach and outcome.
Queues were building up in stores, staff were turning kiosks off or asking for more. The data pointed to major issues in high volume stores: high drop-out rates, offline kiosks, scanning friction and low CSAT.
Onsite research showed customers struggled to find the scanner, started the flow before finding their QR code, tried to return parcels that did not fit, and sometimes processed up to 20 orders in one visit.
A redesigned consumer journey achieved significant improvements across journey time, drop-out, CSAT and kiosk uptime.
The work helped secure a 10x unit order worth $22.5 million and supported more than 40 million returns over three years.
Challenge
What needed to be solved.
Process and product decisions
Solution
Improving scanning, journey time, drop-outs and uptime
The home and scan screens were combined, removing a step and ensuring customers were ready with their QR code before entering the flow.
- Removed a step by enabling scanning from the home screen
- Added warning messaging for unsuitable items
- Added tooltips to reduce hesitation
- Added a scan-success animation
Solution
Supporting multiple returns without slowing everyone down
Multiple returns were added for users with more than one QR code, reducing repeat journeys and improving queue flow in high-volume stores.
- Added multiple returns to the decision screen
- Designed a dedicated multiple-return journey
- Used a dark theme to signal the user was still in-flow
- Sped up animations throughout
Tradeoffs
Balancing revenue pressure with the happy path
One stakeholder group wanted to add a screensaver to drive revenue, while another wanted to protect the core journey. The compromise was a QR code on the final screen that linked to a discount voucher in the customer’s Amazon account wallet. It increased sales without affecting happy-path completion.
Process
Research, design, prototyping and testing
- Opportunity solution tree
- Data analysis
- Stakeholder interviews and staff survey
- User interviews and onsite field research
- Affinity mapping and value / effort matrix
- Sketched wireframes, flows, UI design and interaction design
- High-fidelity prototypes, usability testing, development handover and QA
Quantitative impact
- 40 million returns taken in three years
- Journey time improved to under a minute
- High CSAT in high-volume stores
- 10x order worth $22.5 million
Qualitative impact
- Significantly improved customer experience
- Reduced store staff intervention
- Improved queues
- Increased kiosk uptime
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