Having been in business since 1988, Adorama Rental Co has become the industry source for professional cinematographers, videographers, and photographers.
Peak business is with larger productions, but the new mission highlights their commitment to smaller productions and individual creatives.
The main problems defined were the high cart abandonment, lack of accessibility/confusion with the rental period selector, and customer service being overwhelmed with UX questions/problems. A couple of secondary problems we also prioritized were the resources being hard to find (i.e. “How to Rent”) and Customer Service experts not being utilized.
Like many projects, there were challenges we anticipated before beginning and a couple of unexpected ones that could affect our timeline. Immediately, I noted the inconsistent design system—or lack of a design system—and how we would need to make some visual brand decisions as we tackled the business goals. We were also faced with an accelerated timeline and working with an offshore team. The most unexpected challenge was the integrated codebase with other brands owned by the parent company. Technically, there were many problems that we needed to address while continuing the active build. This project required the creation of many pro/con lists for treating symptoms vs. repairing the root problems.
The main point of business for Adorama Rental Co is to rent gear for a specific range of time/dates. The ability to see—in real-time—what inventory was or was not available was a tertiary feature added onto the pre-existing User Flow. The user could get to checkout only to find some of their items aren't available. We developed an ideal user flow with this as one of the primary features throughout the entire experience. Now, users could change their rental period at any time and immediately see which items were affected by the change. The biggest lift for this proposal was the technical implementation of the new module while keeping site performance in mind.
We found that customers were more likely to complete checkout if they connected with an expert at some point in the experience. As we reviewed the data, we found a wide range of questions for the CS team—from renting logistics to suggested products to how to put together a rig for production. After user testing, we added banners throughout the shopping experience to encourage the customer to connect with our experts. We found that customers who connected with an expert were much more confident and satisfied with their experience.
After reviewing the existing data, I worked with our Data Analyst to create a new data tracking system that would better align with the defined goals of the business. In addition to updating the architecture, I set up heat maps and A/B tests to measure the placement of banners and copy changes. One of our findings was that users preferred getting a quote through a Quick Quote side modal.
