AliExpress tracking page revamp

TLDR: Created a clear content governance process and redesigned the tracking page using research and content design best practices that improved the overall user satisfaction of the tracking page.

AliExpress (an international e-commerce business) and Cainiao (an international logistics business) started a cross-business collaboration in 2020 to empower shoppers with a great delivery experience.

My role & responsibilities:

As the lead Content Strategist on this project;

I created a user journey map and conducted workshops to educate stakeholders on the need for content design.
I created content structure & templates to reuse and scale the content by pair writing with the business team, and customer service teams.
I trained stakeholders and the tech team on how we can unify internal code creation and publishing to follow a defined pattern of consistent tracking content
I set up a workflow between the two business units (Cainiao & AliExpress) by defining who would have ownership, who would review and who would publish the content.

The Problem

1. Content and information didn't meet user expectations:

As part of our quarterly internal scorecard review, the AliExpress tracking page showed the lowest score in our key markets of Spain, France & Brazil. I further did an app walk-through in key 7 languages and spotted unlocalised content, poor source text, inaccurate and complex error states, etc.

2. User research report showed poor tracking experience and low return shoppers rate:
From our user research reports, we found that we were losing our customer base due to poor tracking and after-sales services. A lot of our first time shoppers weren’t coming back on the platform.

Challenge 1: Convince stakeholders

Business never worked with a content designer/strategist before. They thought I would help them translate an excel sheet of over 4000 strings in 18 languages and deliver all the content to them in a week.
I would be redirected to the designer to work on the design. But the design part wasn’t the only part we had to cover.

Asking people to change how they work over the years is tricky……

Solution 1: Bring user voice to business

I found out the journey of a package once an order gets placed from warehouse to delivery in logistics terms and created a user journey map.

Found some user comments online and mapped out pain points, and opportunities we had in each phase.

By creating an empathy map, conducting user tests, and putting in user quotes in there, the business was able to effectively see which part of the delivery leg, the users struggled the most. That led them to open up and participate actively in KFC workshops and I was then able to work with them to build Job to be done stories and key actions we could work on together to help the users.

Challenge 2: Building workflows

There were more than 4000 strings that needed to be put in the design at different stages. And I needed all the context I could get.
These content/tracking updates would be used in emails, pushes so we had to keep them short and consistent to not impact other data results.
No clear way of working, no headcount so I was leading, writing, POCing, editing all on my own.

Solution 2: Creating templates

By this time, I had already started gaining trust and business was more responsive to my questions. Business was subject matter expect as I had no experience in logistics so I started pair-writing sessions with the business where I would write content together with them. This made everyone feel informed in making decisions, improved collaboration and improved trust.
I created a internal glossary as we worked on strings together and also started creating flows and steps/journeys for each code we used internally and how they should replicate online for user-facing content.

Results & Achievements

Achievements:

I was able to improve UX maturity within the Cainiao organization.
Increase in tracking page user satisfaction by 12%.
Create a workflow of content governance for both the organizations.

Learnings:

I helped the business define goals, I was able to see how content can impact business goals closely.
Business can be won over by user voice.
Delegate & collaborate and ask for help when needed.

AliExpress tracking page revamp

1. Content and information didn't meet user expectations:

As part of our quarterly internal scorecard review, the AliExpress tracking page showed the lowest score in our key markets of Spain, France & Brazil. I further did an app walk-through in key 7 languages and spotted unlocalised content, poor source text, inaccurate and complex error states, etc.

2. User research report showed poor tracking experience and low return shoppers rate: From our user research reports, we found that we were losing our customer base due to poor tracking and after-sales services. A lot of our first time shoppers weren’t coming back on the platform.

2. User research report showed poor tracking experience and low return shoppers rate:
From our user research reports, we found that we were losing our customer base due to poor tracking and after-sales services. A lot of our first time shoppers weren’t coming back on the platform.