Challenge
At the beginning of this project, MikMak was expanding from supporting grocery brands to other
categories, specifically alcohol. In order to best support the sales of alcohol, we needed to
provide a better in-store product locator because most sales of alcohol happen in stores.
We would need better in-store data, and identified the interest to integrate the leading alcohol
retailer and distributor data source provider called VIP (Vermont Information Processing) into the
MikMak platform. This would expand our retailer data providing a better user experience for shoppers
and allowing our customers, and brands, to learn more about shopper behavior.
Our challenge was to identify the best way to leverage this new data source so that we could provide
the following for our customers:
- Enables shoppable experiences across an omnichannel strategy
- Consumers can shop from big box stores, restaurants, and even to small local retailers
- Enables beverage brands to drive the shoppers to the closest locations to where consumers are
shopping
- Changes how our customers leverage their omnichannel experiences
Solution
I conducted extensive user testing to truly understand the problems customers were facing. I also
uncovered additional points of friction along the way. With this feedback, I redesigned the flow and
continued testing iterations until ultimately landing on a final design geared towards usability and
desirability.
I kicked off the research by learning how VIP data was being used in existing alcohol brand websites.
We quickly
found clear patterns and a range of existing implementations to choose from. I focused on
identifying the key
patterns we would need to leverage the data, and performed user testing to identify the most usable
solutions,
and then compiled them together. By pulling the best patterns we would create something new, yet
familiar.
To expedite feedback I simply ran user tests on actual websites (stonebrewing.com, etc) to find out
which
patterns are most intuitive.
I began research by finding existing examples of the default VIP data filters
as seen on an actual brand site. This design appeared to be the default and was common across
multiple brands.
We audited the existing MikMak page for potential opportunities to
incorporate and leverage the new VIP data. We kept in mind the existing product and sought to make
improvements in areas most beneficial to people in real life.
I searched for existing alcohol websites with VIP data integration and
analyzed the design patterns. I narrowed it down to 3 websites, each representing common filter
patterns to find the most intuitive and easy to use. Next, I ran user tests on mobile and desktop.
I analyzed the user tests and separated out nice to haves from the must
haves. I built this interactive prototype for the next round of tests. Distance dropdown was
important, and I utilized common single-click filters.
Finally, I began testing different scenarios such as no retailers available
because that was causing confusion in the testing. The clickable prototype was built from a single
frame and utilized interactive variants in Figma for efficiency. Upon further review, this may have
been overengineered, and it's something I have learned from.
The final production version as seen on sierranevada.com incorporates many of
the elements discovered early on, while also adding new features as found to be important throughout
the user testing.
Results
The launch of this project was extremely positive for the company and the customers. "Positive market
energy and feedback about VIP - “OMG I need this” “The next big thing for sales to lean into”.
Diageo and Annheiser Busch are like WHAT?! Others said this was "The Holy grail - we can finally
explain the full customer journey"
Continued expansion and demand for this integration have significantly given MikMak a leg up in the
alcohol space
and plans to expand this functionality to more verticals are already in the works at the time of
this posting.
