Overview
The grocery ordering app traditionally catered to individuals or households ordering groceries for themselves. However, as online grocery shopping become more popular in workplaces, shared living spaces, and friend groups, there was a growing demand for a group ordering feature. This new features enables multiple people to collaborate in a single order, allowing to add their items independently, yet complete the transaction under one checkout process.
The group order feature aims to streamline the group shopping experience, minimize payment issues, and simplify delivery logistics, ultimately enhancing the convenience and usability of the app for various group scenarios.
UX challenge
Designing the group order feature came with several unique challenges:
- User coordination: Ensuring a seamless experience for multiple users contributing to a single cart without overlapping or deleting other items.
- Permission levels: Deciding how to manage roles within a group order, including who can add, edit, and delete items, and who is responsible for finalizing the checkout.
- Notifications and Reminders: Ensuring all participants are updated in real time about the order’s progress without overwhelming them with notifications.
- Delivery preferences: Accommodating different preferences for delivery locations and times, especially when participants are in different locations.
The main UX challenges was to balance collaborative functionality with simplicity, ensuring a frictionless experience for both new and experienced users.
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Solution
To address the challenges of group ordering, we implemented role-based cart management, giving organizers control over checkout and delivery, while Contributors could freely add items to their own sections in a shared cart. Finally, delivery preferences accommodate group locations, letting Organizers set a primary address or allowing alternate delivery locations with an additional fees. This design fosters smooth collaboration with minimal friction.
Final thoughts
Moving forward, potential enhancements include personalized recommendations based on pervious group order, as well as quick reorder option to streamline regular orders. The success of this feature highlights the importance of understanding collaborative behaviors in a traditionally solo shopping experience and terraforming them into digital solutions that users can depend on.