Revamping Flashfood: Enhancing User Experience
How can we enhance the sustainable shopping experience?
CONTEXT
In 2024, the Flashfood app became a go-to platform for users seeking affordable, sustainable shopping options. By offering discounted surplus food nearing its expiry date, the app helps reduce food waste while providing significant savings, particularly in a time when grocery prices are rising.
However, users face challenges that hinder the app's full potential. Some aspects of the app, such as unclear product descriptions, limited personalization, and discrepancies in transaction fees, create confusion and disrupt the seamless shopping experience that users expect.
In this case study, I explored how Flashfood can be revamped to address these areas of opportunity. The goal is to create a more user-friendly, engaging platform that not only makes sustainable shopping easy but also encourages users to integrate it into their everyday routine.
If we revamp the Flashfood app to address issues like unclear product descriptions, limited store visibility, and inefficient shopping processes, we can improve user satisfaction, reduce frustration, and ultimately boost retention.
HYPOTHESIS
THE MARKET
What can we learn from competitors?
In the sustainable shopping app market, apps like Too Good To Go and Food Hero set a strong example with features like filter options, clear product descriptions, and streamlined checkout systems, enhancing user experience through efficiency and transparency. By adopting these practices, Flashfood can improve its platform, better meet user needs, and stay competitive.
.
Too Good To Go
Too Good To Go offers a streamlined checkout process with no hidden fees, providing users with transparency and a hassle-free experience. This simplicity builds trust and aligns with the app’s mission to reduce food waste while keeping costs low.
The app also provides clear, detailed product descriptions that highlight the quality and condition of the food. This clarity helps users make informed decisions and enhances their shopping experience.
Food Hero
FoodHero follows a similar pattern. The App features a user-friendly filtering system that allows shoppers to easily find products based on their preferences, such as price or location. This makes the browsing experience more efficient and tailored to individual needs.
Each product is accompanied by a clear description, giving users all necessary information about its quality and condition. This transparency fosters trust and helps users make confident purchasing decisions.
Flashfood users prioritize affordability and convenience, with a significant portion seeking opportunities to save money on groceries while reducing food waste. They value a seamless, transparent shopping experience that aligns with their budget-conscious mindset and busy lifestyles. By addressing these preferences, Flashfood can strengthen its appeal to its core audience while fostering loyalty and trust.
Who are the users driving this growth ?
THE AUDIENCE
Primary Persona:
Savvy, Budget-Conscious Shoppers
Demographics: Individuals aged 25–45, often with middle-income backgrounds, including young professionals, students, and families.
Behavior: They seek ways to save money on groceries while contributing to sustainability by reducing food waste.
Motivation: To find affordable deals on groceries, explore sustainable shopping options, and reduce their environmental footprint.
Challenges: Struggling to find quality discounted food near them, concerns about perishable item quality, and lack of time for lengthy searches.
What are the pain points that these users need addressed?
USER INSIGHTS
5. Lack of Customization and Filtering Options
The app lacks filters for location, grocery store preferences, or expiration dates.
Shoppers find it difficult to quickly locate products that meet their needs, leading to frustration.
The absence of customization creates inefficiencies in the browsing process.
Perishable Food Quality Issues
Customers report receiving perishable items in spoiled or poor condition.
This has led to negative reviews and questions about the reliability of the platform's offerings.
Grocery partners' inconsistent quality standards contribute to this ongoing issue.
Customer Support Issues
Slow response times and limited support channels have caused frustration among users.
Customers face difficulties resolving issues with their orders, including refunds for spoiled items.
The current support system fails to meet the expectations of timely assistance.
Service Fee Introduction
A 5% service fee was added after launch, which users feel contradicts the platform's mission of affordability.
The additional fee raises concerns about whether the app is still a cost-saving option for grocery shopping.
Users have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of upfront communication about this fee.
No Clear Price Transparency
Users struggle to compare discounted prices on Flashfood with regular store prices.
There is no consistent display of the original price or savings percentage, leaving customers uncertain about the value.
The lack of transparency affects trust and decision-making during purchases.
How does a Flashfood user shop for discounted food?
USER JOURNEY
This user journey shows how a Flashfood user navigates the app to make a purchase, highlighting their frustrations with unclear product details and the need for better filtering options to improve the shopping experience.
BIG TAKEAWAYS
BIG TAKEAWAYS
From this research, we can conclude that:
Flashfood users face challenges such as unclear product details, perishable food quality, and lack of filtering options. These issues affect their shopping experience and satisfaction.
By enhancing transparency, providing better product descriptions, and adding filtering options, Flashfood can improve user experience, increase satisfaction, and align with its mission to reduce food waste. This will also help drive customer loyalty and platform growth.
THE PROBLEM
Flashfood users experience frustration due to unclear product information, inconsistent food quality, and a lack of filtering options, leading to confusion and reduced satisfaction.
To enhance the Flashfood app by improving product transparency, food quality consistency, and adding filtering options, ultimately providing a smoother, more reliable shopping experience that boosts user satisfaction.
THE GOAL
We will address key pain points by improving transparency, food quality, and adding filtering options in the Flashfood app. These updates aim to enhance the user experience and support Flashfood’s mission to provide a reliable, sustainable food-saving platform.
What should be included in the MVP?
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION & MVP DEFINITION
For a successful Flashfood app launch, these user stories are key to addressing pain points and enhancing user experience.
-
Pain Point Addressed: Lack of customization and filtering options.
Solution: Advanced filtering options allow shoppers to easily navigate and find items tailored to their needs, enhancing the overall shopping experience.
-
Pain Point Addressed: Confusion caused by the service fee introduction.
Solution: By integrating the service fee into the product price, shoppers enjoy transparent pricing while still benefiting from affordable deals, ensuring a seamless checkout experience.
-
Pain Point Addressed: Lack of transparency in product descriptions.
Solution: Enhanced product descriptions provide key details such as original and discounted prices, expiration dates, and quality standards, enabling informed decision-making.
-
Pain Point Addressed: Concerns over the quality of perishable food items.
Solution: implemented strict quality standards for perishable items, including temperature controls and vendor audits, ensuring that all products are fresh, safe, and meet high-quality standards before they reach the user.
-
Pain Point Addressed: Delayed customer care responses.
Solution: Round-the-clock customer support through chat, email, and phone ensures timely assistance and builds trust with reliable service.
User Stories
Flashfood Key Features Enhancements
Current Experience Enhanced Features
FINAL SOLUTION
The new features we’ve integrated into the app—advanced filtering, clear product descriptions, perishable food quality standards, and the "Favorite" option—address key pain points and enhance the user experience. By streamlining the shopping process, improving transparency, and ensuring food safety, we’ve created a more intuitive and reliable platform for users to confidently shop for fresh, discounted food. This approach not only meets users' needs but also drives greater engagement and satisfaction.
MEASURING SUCCESS
A/B Test Metrics
NORTH STAR METRIC
Average Purchases Per User Per Week
If successful, we should see an increased Average Orders Per User Per Week value, as users engage more frequently with the revamped Flashfood app to purchase discounted, near-expiry groceries.
Discounted Item Impressions: Measures user exposure to and interest in discounted groceries.
Discounted Item Conversion Rate: Tracks the percentage of impressions resulting in purchases.
New User Signups Per Week: Monitors growth due to improved user experience and marketing.
LEADING INDICATORS
ARPU Per Month (Average Revenue Per User): Reflects revenue growth driven by higher order frequency.
3-Month User Retention: Indicates sustained user satisfaction and loyalty to the platform.
Monitoring Metrics
COUNTER METRICS
Average Grocery Store Orders Per Week: Ensures overall grocery sales remain stable and are not negatively impacted.
Order Abandonment Rate: Identifies potential friction in the purchase flow.
One potential unintended side effect of emphasizing discounted groceries is that users may purchase fewer regular-priced items, which could affect store profitability. Monitoring these metrics will help ensure balance and prevent adverse effects on grocery partners.
Discount Redemption Error Rate: Tracks issues with applying discounts.
Out-of-Stock Error Rate: Measures the frequency of unavailable items in demand.
Checkout Flow Errors: Ensures users can complete orders without technical disruptions.
These metrics will help Flashfood achieve its goals of improving user engagement, promoting sustainable shopping, and increasing operational reliability.
Lagging Indicators
A/B Test Universal Search
LAUNCH & GTM STRATEGY
To ensure we are enhancing Flashfood's user experience by introducing the revamped features, we will be testing these updates to evaluate their impact on user satisfaction and app engagement.
Test Plan
Versions
Control: Current Flashfood app without the updated user interface and feature enhancements (Start at 90% of the audience).
Variant: Flashfood app with revamped user interface and added features for improved grocery shopping and waste reduction (Start at 10% of the audience).
Audience
Users who:
Live in Ontario, Canada.
Are between the ages of 25–45.
Actively use the app for grocery shopping at least once a week.
Primary Metric
Average time between app open → successful grocery purchase.
Secondary Metrics
Reduction in cart abandonment rate.
Percentage of repeat orders within two weeks.
Impact on sustainable shopping metrics (e.g., reduced grocery waste measured via inventory consumption).
We will include both new and existing users in the experiment to ensure the updates improve user engagement and top-of-funnel metrics (e.g., app setup and usage). The A/B test variant will start with 10% of the Ontario user base to gather insights without disrupting the majority.
If the results are positive, we will expand the test to 50% of Ontario users and, if successful, roll it out to all users in Ontario. The impact on sustainable shopping habits will be assessed and compared to 2024 metrics. If results are negative, we will iterate and re-test.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
SUMMARY
The enhancements made to the Flashfood app, including better product descriptions, advanced filtering options, and a streamlined checkout experience, address key user pain points and improve overall engagement. By focusing on user convenience and transparency, these changes aim to drive higher retention and reduce food waste. If successful, the next step would be to expand these features and assess their broader impact on shopping behavior.
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF
I discovered my growing passion for using design tools like Figma, Tableau, and Canva to bring ideas to life and solve complex challenges. This project sharpened my problem-solving abilities and reinforced my love for product management, where I can combine creativity and strategy to drive impactful results.
Thank you for taking the time to explore my work!