Macy’s: Why & How do men buy suits?
I developed a user-friendly app for Macy's that simplified the suit-buying process by integrating insights from detailed customer interviews into a streamlined digital experience. This project resulted in a platform that offers tailored suit recommendations, educates on fit and style, and facilitates easier decision-making, significantly enhancing customer satisfaction and encouraging repeat business.
What I did
UX Lead,
Research
Prototype
Testings
Learning Highlights
Most buy for an occasion.
Not all fits are suitable for certain body types.
3D suit builders were more of a gimmick than a useful tool.
The most common reason a man buys a suit is for a wedding.
Loyalty has long-term profit potential for the organization.
Situations
A microsite was needed for custom suits to leverage an existing business relationship with Macy's. The stakeholders envisioned a 3D custom suit experience, aligning with their perception of men's shopping habits.
Task
As the UX Lead, my responsibilities were to research, prototype, and test to create an optimal suit-buying experience
tailored for men aged 20-40, making the process uncomplicated and ensuring customer satisfaction and repeat business.
The overarching goal is to achieve the best full retail conversion.
Understanding online vs. in-store experience preferences.
Understanding the pain points of a repeat suit buyer.
What can be done to make the experience easy and motivate the customer to return?
Understanding the pain points for a first-time suit buyer.
What can be done to make the experience easy
Learn what is the common taxonomy in both groups.
The focus will be on using research to cover multiple pain points, focusing mostly on navigation and site experience, accommodating the customer’s needs, and gaining marketing insights.
Competitive Analysis
These were the top brands mentioned in the interview that I would use to conduct my research.
Indochino
Hockey
Mewn warehouse
Zara
Macy’s
Takeaway
Some of these stores had online 3D suit builders, which are seen more as a gimmick than a useful tool. The builder did help with education to understand things in real time, but it had many steps and was overwhelming to the user.
Users still prefer in-store for final purchases.
Ways to Buy a Suit
From interviews, we learned customers prefer ready-to-wear and an in-store visit is vital for customer confidence in their purchases.
This video is under a 1 min
Optimized User Journey
Shopping key terms identified in interviews and feature prioritization were written on cards and presented to four users. They were asked to sort terms into the order they would prefer when selecting a suit and what they thought of the terms.
The cards present body type, suit fit, measurement, size, style, occasion, pattern, color, recommendations, and the number of pieces.
This journey's order of steps resulted from evaluating several variations on card sorting and customer interviews.
This video is 1 min
Learning
Suit recommendations should be by occasion.
Most buy for an occasion.Fit recommendation for body type
Not all fits are suitable for certain body types.Education is offered but not forced.
Education should be offered throughout the experience to those who want to dig further, but it’s an option.Only available suit selections are offered if they are off the rack.
Consistently in interviews, they wanted to be able to try on to make a final decision.Added feature
Online appointment booker to try on selection or save for later.
During interviews, all the participants mentioned that they only purchased suits for special events or occasions.
Interestingly, none had jobs that mandated wearing suits, so only a few men in the interviews owned tailored suits due to their high cost. Instead, they all had at least one off-the-rack suit, which is more easily accessible and affordable.
Final Prototype Evaluation
With this tool, we can address all major points raised in user interviews to improve the suit shopping experience.
Suit recommendations by occasion.
Fit recommendations for body type.
Education & suit etiquette.
Only offer available selections that can be tried on and tailored.
Potential benefits: Loyalty and customer acquisition.
It was mentioned multiple times during user interviews. After the customer has established their ideal fit and size for their body type, they rarely stray into new territory. Loyalty has long-term profit potential for the organization.
Collecting user data on needs and wants will help the organization better serve clients.
Examples of client needs include sizes, fabrics, and brands. Surprise marketing insight: Ready-to-wear was the most popular option overall.:
Setting up a straightforward customer journey.
Work with a copywriter to fine-tune the language. Throughout the experience, there must be better indicators of what to do next or expected interaction.
Customer behaviors.
Further testing is needed for current and future interactions. Things to focus on are the ability to zoom images and clarifying confusion about CTAs’ meaning or whether they stand out enough to call attention.
First-level information structure.
Further testing is needed to understand how much information users are comfortable with if they don’t want to click more information.
Evaluating photography.
A deep dive into image selection and photography styling. Users realigned on the images more than reading content.