Web guest checkout
Designing for trust, not just conversion
Context
A checkout redesign that helped Mercari, a peer-to-peer marketplace, recover lost sales and build user trust.
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Role
Product designer
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Team
Content designer, PM, BI, Eng
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Duration
Nov 2023
The problem
25% of users abandoned checkout with faced with force account-creation - costing ~$30M/month.
I was asked to reduce drop-off by letting guests complete purchases.
The Shift: Solving the right problem
We launched a direct to checkout flow to quickly meet the brief. However, I paused and asked: was I solving the right problem?
Direct to checkout flow
With further research, it revealed that friction wasn’t the real blocker - trust was.
I reframed the problem and led improvements to form UX and strategic flow design.
Challenge #1
How might we design for trust for guest users?
Audit checkout flow, test for optimization and trust
Working with cross-functional teams, we audited the checkout flow together and identified 3 opportunity areas to optimize UX.
The optimized checkout form was A/B tested against the original form. Result showed Optimized version increased order conversion by 20%.
Demonstrated that users checkout with more confident, and trust-diven UX moved the needle.
Challenge #2
How might balance user needs and business opportunity?
Users need frictionless checkout
BUT business needs retention
Direct-to-checkout flow suffers because there’s no way to convert guests into registered users, and Mercari’s success depends on customer lifetime value.
I led competitive analysis to look for industry guest checkout pattern, and saw an opportunity to address registration prompt.
I designed 2 variants to A/B test: Button-based login vs Streamlined login. Results showed that Streamlined login performed better in registration rate.
🧠 Ask me how I reframed the problem - and what we learned from testing two different flows.