Insta-Style is a very popular, rapidly growing, trendy online fashion retailer targeting Gen Z and younger Millennials. Their website is sleek, modern, fully responsive, and looks great on all devices. They rely heavily on influencer marketing and fast-moving inventory.
Insta-Style is losing 70% of potential sales at the crucial transition point between the Shopping Cart and the Final Payment page. Data shows that users frequently fail to proceed past the first step of the checkout process. The problem isn't the aesthetic; it's the flow and cognitive friction in the checkout process.
The above chart clearly shows the huge drop of potential users abandoning their cart.
Data shows that users frequently fail to proceed past the first step of the checkout process, primarily due to "forced decision-making", "information overload" or "Confusion". The checkout is a multi-page flow that is technically modern but critically flawed in its structure and information architecture.
I conducted quick usability tests with 3 participants to understand pain points in their current shopping workflow.
Key Finding:
1. High Friction at Initial Checkout Gate 66.7%
2. Lack of Cost Transparency
3. Flow and Layout Overload
Forced Account Decision: Users were immediately confronted with large Login/Registration forms at the start of checkout, feeling the site was prioritizing data collection over the immediate transaction.
Checkout as Guest:This option is more used by new visitors and casual shoppers.
Missing Guidance:The checkout lacks a progress indicator, leading to uncertainty and cognitive overload
Poor Form Design: Lack of features like address autofill, making data entry tedious.
Trust Deficits: The payment screen lacked prominent security badges and a sticky, final order review, increasing user hesitation.Missing Guidance: The website requires the user's full address before displaying shipping costs, causing "sticker shock" when unexpected fees were finally revealed on the next screen.
I started with rapid sketching the login page, cart, and the product page.
The product page after incorporating optimum measures.
New cart page is easy for the users.
A step by step progressive chekout page.
Before the redesign, the system suffered from a critically high initial cart abandonment rate of 66.7%at the start of the checkout (Step 2 to Step 3), due to forced login and price ambiguity. This low conversion efficiency resulted in an overall Purchase Complete conversion rate of only 12.0% (15,617 orders from 142,972 initial users).
With the introduction of guest checkout and upfront price transparency, the initial abandonment rate is projected to drop to around 25%. This improvement is expected to boost the overall purchase completion rate to 35–40%, effectively doubling site performance. In real terms, sales could rise from 15,617 to approximately 37,800, marking a 142% increase in total orders for the same traffic volume.
This project reinforced the importance of understanding user workflows holistically rather than optimizing individual touchpoints in isolation.
The Insta-Style UX redesign is not merely an interface update; it is a business optimization strategy. By addressing the 66.7% friction point with a user-centric Guest Checkout flow, the company can convert tens of thousands of currently lost customers into loyal buyers, resulting in a substantial and immediate increase in revenue.
"The best design is invisible—it gets out of the way and lets users accomplish their goals effortlessly."
Moving forward, I'm excited to explore how AI and machine learning can further streamline creative workflows while maintaining user agency and creative control.
Ready to see Insta-Style in action?
View Interactive PrototypeThank you for reading! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or reach out via email.
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