Impacts on navigation, purchase funnel, after-sale, account...
The evolution of the global VAT system for our B2B users
UX/UI, User Interviews, Surveys, User Testing, Web and App, 6 countries
My Role
Product Designer
Tools
Figma
Hotjar
Chartermill
Amplitude (Analytics)
DURATION
7 months from first kick off to QA phase
THE TEAM
1 CX / Projet Manager
5 Product Owners
5 Lead devs
8+ developpers
2 stakeholders from finance
MY KEY CONTRIBUTIONS
User interviews
User flows definition
Experiences definition by personas
Wireframing
Mockups
Copy Writing
Emails
Prototyping
Context
VAT System (TVA)
The current VAT system is the following: All products that are shipped from outside of the customer local country have a VAT applied that is not deductible.
This system is applied for all Pros customers independently of their company status, the country or the product. However the VAT in reality should vary depending on this attributes.
The objectives:
1) Remove frictions by applying the right VAT rates by customer, country and products.
2) Allow exemption of VAT when possible so price paid is the real cost for our B2B users.
3) Personalize the experience for each personas on all touchpoints impacted
Problem
Incomprehension
Customers do not understand why VAT is not deductible on certain products
They tend to remove those products from their cart
They are not satisfied and buy their products on other marketplaces or directly on the seller’s website.
ManoManoPro loses customers and sales
Initial UX
The initial user experience was not personalized for each type of users or product type. Basically in France for example there are B2B users who are subject to VAT and some others who are not. But the UX was not different in any point which brought a lot of inconsistencies. Only 2 use cases were addressed at that time:
either the product is shipped from France: local VAT rate was applied (ex 20%)
or the product is shipped from outside of France: default VAT rate was applied but we warned the user about VAT being not deductible everywhere on the purchase funnel which was really unclear and not true for the majority of our users.
DESIGN THINKING
The process I followed
Step #1, 2
Research & Define
Key sources to learn about the topic:
- Use “VAT” as keyword to search within the repository of CS agents conversations : I found several threads with CS agents of customers complaining about the “VAT not deductible” disclaimer that they do not understand and that prices are not competitive due to VAT not deductible.
- Benchmark: Amazon Business and Ankorstore were the only actors that already had a customized VAT system. Amazon Business only cover 2 or 3 use cases while Ankorstore is more accurate with their system but they prevent users to buy if they do not provide their fiscal information.
- Finance / Legal rules per country: The fiscal and VAT rules differs by countries. We had 6 markets to cover so it multiplies the user flows to define. Also one difficulty is that Finance team had a very limited bandwidth so we had to learn also by ourselves
- Data analysis: We checked the behavior of users regarding different type of products (shipped from France, from UE, outside of UE…). We have seen that products with disclaimers presented a drop on conversion rate at checkout.
- Feedbacks from CSAT surveys: I looked for feedbacks on VAT within the CSAT surveys tool. We found a correlation between VAT system and satisfaction. Users were less satisfied when they were exposed to products with “VAT not deductible” disclaimer.
Flows mapping
Defining the flows was the more complex step of the project because there was a lot of use cases multiplied by the 6 markets to cover. Also since we were not expert on the topic we kep learning all along this phase regarding fiscal and VAT rules.
Mapping of flows for new customer once the project is launched
Mapping of flows for existing customers once the project is launched
Mapping of flows for 6 countries
Examples of part of the flows visible on the left side:
Step #4 - Design
200+ screens produced
Example of one screen for the account
Wireframes
I have started by wireframes that have been used as the base for stakeholders discussion. All along the project we learned more about the VAT rules so it was a good way to find an agreement with all stakeholders without taking too much time designing the solution.
Mockups
Then when we were sure enough the logic we wanted to apply follow the law and did not risk any negative business impact I started to create the mockups high fidelity that would be tested. I had to sync with 5 features team because the project impacted a lot of touchpoints as you can see on the first image.
Prototypes
In order to validate my designs: overall comprehension and usability with real users I defined what were the points we were not sure about with a priority score so I was able to define the scenarios to test because I had to choose since 1 hour with a user would not be enough to test all the use cases.
Changes and specs
After I got the learnings from the user interviews I made the ajustements needed and started to spec each use case / screen when necessary as you can see on the second image.
Report of User interviews (Batch 1)
Step #5 - Test
User Interviews
Recruitment
I have recruited participants through CRM and Hotjar which is an online tool to create survey as widgets on the interface.
First batch of test: 6 french B2B users (1h)
Second batch of test: 4 spanish B2B users (45 minutes)
Only users subject to VAT have been selected as panel
Research methodology
2 scenarios for french users, a 3rd one for spanish users
Users were asked to complete specific tasks
Main things to assess: overall comprehension of VAT system, usability with new touchpoints and components
Reports of those 2 batch of tests have been shared to all stakeholders of the project
Step #6 - Deliver
Deliver to development team
I had several synchronisation meetings to onboard the developers of each feature team involved. It was really important that everything is specified properly in Figma / Confluence or Jira depending on the nature of the information. Then the voice over the mockups is irreplaceable to make sure things are clearly understood.
With the final designs adjusted accordingly with the user feedbacks gathered, I had still few things we needed to monitor once launched in production. So I listed our hypothesis that would be assessed thanks to quantitative data (AB Testing, analytics…).
THANKS FOR READING 😊