Project
Take a fresh, holistic look at the checkout process to reduce errors, pain points, and customer service calls.

Recommendation
After extensive competitive research and stakeholder reviews, replace the single long page with a step-by-step accordion checkout.

UX Components
Competitive Audit
Audience Personas
Contentsquare Videos
Customer Service Audio
Wireframes
Stakeholder Reviews
Requirements

Redesigning the Orchard Brands checkout

Orchard Brands (part of Bluestem Brands) contracted an agency to migrate its three clothing sites to the Salesforce platform, which set the stage for easier future improvements. Leadership flagged cart abandonment and checkout-related service calls as high, which made checkout the area most in need of a thorough overhaul.

Goals

  • Decrease cart abandonment

  • Decrease customer service calls caused by checkout confusion

  • Guide customers step by step through a logical process

  • Conform to industry best practices

Starting Point

Understanding the pain points in the current design beginning with “where do I begin?”

Defining distinct steps with validation

  • Accordion drawers stay closed until actively used

  • Checkmark shows completed section

  • Active section highlighted with colored bar

  • Steps are numbered so you can see where you are at in the process

  • Can return to a completed section by clicking on “Edit”

  • Can only move forward after successfully completing prior section

  • Collapsed accordions facilitate less scrolling on mobile

Simplify and Consolidate the Complex Payment Section

  • Consolidated Promo Code, Gift Card, and Rewards into the payment step

  • Those optional sections are sub-accordions to cut down on visual and cognitive load

A Checkout Summary to Inspire Confidence

  • The four previous steps summarized for review

  • Ability to return to a previous section to edit or review

  • Clear call to action

Summary

Checkout is the most critical step of any retail site, and leadership flagged both cart abandonment and checkout-related service calls as high. Customer calls, feedback, and Contentsquare session recordings pointed to the same cause: customers weren’t sure where to start or what to do next. Because every purchase passes through checkout, even a small reduction in abandonment was expected to have an outsized effect on revenue.

The redesign introduced numbered, validated steps, a consolidated payment section, and a final review screen. It took months of reviews and presentations to win stakeholder approval and was specified for build. Bluestem Brands, Orchard Brands’ parent company, ceased operations while development was underway, closing Orchard Brands and Fingerhut as well. There are no launch results to report. The metrics we planned to track were cart abandonment, checkout-related calls, and drop-off at each step.

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