Monro

Problem We Are Solving

This case study represents app designing from e-commerce. This endeavor provided us with modern strategies, emphasizing the importance of making informed decisions based on quantified research for this project

Role

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), Competitor Grid Analysis, Personas Development, Alexa Analytics Overview, Conversion Metrics, Journey Maps, Wireframes, and Design App for company

Team

Urvil Soni

Ruben Chavez

SWOT analysis

One of the many strengths that I discovered from monro is that it is a well-known skateboarding brand that has been around since 2002. They have a reputation for creating durable and stylish shoes. One of the apparent weaknesses of the site (when I researched) was that there were no evident incentives to be able to promote a customer to shop outside of standard free shipping with a minimum amount of purchase. The weaknesses presented mass opportunities on where to take the app. Pushing forward on incentives is critical to be able to drive sales. Examples of these opportunities are to present sale items and target specific consumers outside of the desired skateboarders or extreme athletes. Threats are apparent to monro through their competitors such as Vans, DC, Supra, Converse, and more. These competitors have also crossed over to everyday lifestyle shoes and apparel as well as mainstream media. monro seems to have a niche in the market of extreme athletic sportswear and should make more of an effort to crossover to obtain a broader consumer base.

Strength

monro is a well-known skateboarding brand that has been around since 2002. It is trusted as a quality (durable) shoe brand within the skateboarding community. Their website has beautiful photography, as it showcases the skateboarding lifestyle. They have a professionally sponsored skateboarding team that is great for marketing at events and professional competitions.

Weakness

The website does not seem to show any obvious incentives to shop with the company. They seem to only be focused on active athletes as opposed to a broader market. Outside of free shipping with $100 plus orders, there isn’t anything to push the consumer over the edge for a potential buy. There are no obvious sales. And also user experience is not up to the mark, user could be lost during check out time

Opportunities

Through the weaknesses, there is a lot of potential for opportunities. Providing incentives, presenting sale items, and targeting more of a lifestyle outside of athletes can be a useful experiment to properly continue the drive for sales

Threats

The skateboarding market has a lot of competition. Morno competitors range from skateboarding shoe competitors (vans, DC, Supra, Converse, ETC) that have also crossed over to everyday lifestyle shoes and apparel and main stream media. monro seems to have a niche in the market of extreme athletic sportswear and should make more of an effort to cross over.

Competitor Grid Analysis

After the SWOT analysis, We conducted a competitor analysis. Direct competitors to the monro brand are known lifestyle brands such as DC Shoe Company and Vans Skate Company. Vans started as a skate shoe company and has been able to transition towards a mainstream audience and present itself as a lifestyle brand. Evidence of this can be shown with its collaborations with Disney, as well as its cross-nation tour in the Vans Warped Tour festivals. Other factors that help differentiate them is their personalized shoe creation service. By using this competitor analysis, I discovered that morno’ vegan line was one of the main differences that set them apart from their competition.

Research Data Analytics

Usability Factors

Learnability: App is easy to navigate with clear categories.
Efficiency: Quick to navigate after learning navigation concepts
Memorability: Easy, simple navigation.
Error Recovery: Errors don’t seem to be obvious, app is well constructed. A user should not run into a lot of errors.
Satisfaction: Pleasant Graphics, beautiful to look at.
Accessibilities: Tab Function works, Clear large text and proper hierarchy seems to be applied.

Persona Development

Conversion Metric

Conversion metrics are the analysis of figuring out the data of the base users to see what actions they are doing to be able to go through a task. A few of these tasks can be email signups, checkout processes, and navigating a site. Currently, the site only targets young male skateboarders. The website has a bounce rate of 45.70%, and a customer spends a time of 2:28 seconds. It should accept the newfound research and go towards a design update that includes the primary audience that is consuming their site, and that is women from age twenty-five through thirty-four. This is unsurprisingly high because the website does not target the actual users that are landing on the site. The checkout process seems pretty repetitive and is broken up into three different pages when it should be only in one page. Each page that the user goes into raises the chances that they will leave.

User Journey Map

A customer journey map writes a story of the user's experience, represents the user's initial contact, and tracks their engagement levels throughout the site. Journey maps are used to help contextualize users and gain a clearer picture of their goals. I created the journey map for the personas that focuses on the experience and the different channels/methods used to reach monro. I was able to conceptualize the way a user thinks to understand their experience. Overall, the maps gave me a broader perspective of the individuals.