Closing up shop for the holidays

Project overview

Client: Daye is a tampon subscription service. Customers create their custom tampon box according to their needs, and set the delivery frequency based on their cycle length. Tampons are delivered directly to their door just in time for their period.
Project: Multi-channel content strategy to inform eCommerce customers of early order shipping and operational closure during the festive period.
Role: I developed the content strategy and designed the UX and content across web and email interactions.
Skills: Content strategy, UX writing, UX design

Design problem

Leading up to December, we became aware of two looming operational factors that would affect customer orders:

Royal Mail loses around 30% of parcels during the busy festive season.
The Daye office would be closing from the week before Christmas until after New Year (December 20 - January 6)

In order to mitigate these factors, it was decided to pre-ship all orders due for delivery over Christmas and New Year, by December 15th.

Getting to the solution

The initial brief was to place a simple banner on the eCommerce site saying that the office was closed and orders would be pre-shipped.

However, I resolved that a more targeted approach would provide a better customer experience; since pre-shipping would only be affecting a small number of customers, blanket messaging to all site visitors may be more confusing than anything else.

In addition, since we billed customers two days before shipping their order, I realised that we would need to let customers know that due to the early shipping, they may also be billed significantly earlier than usual (for some customers, three weeks early), to allow them to cancel or change their order if they were not ready to be billed. This was important for customer trust and would also minimise risk of failed payments, especially in the run up to Christmas where budgets can be particularly tight.

Finally, since we planned to still keep the checkout open during this timeframe, allowing any newly acquired customers to subscribe, I identified the need to set expectations about delivery of their first order, which usually would be within a couple of days, but could now be up to two weeks.

Content requirements

After discussing these considerations with the Operations Manager (who managed packing and shipping of boxes) and the Community Engagement Lead (who managed customer support and customer communications), we decided on a three-pronged content strategy.

Notify affected customers that they will be billed earlier than usual, in advance for them to cancel or change their order.
Inform affected customers (those with orders due within the timeframe) that their order will be shipped early.
Inform new customers (those about to check out for the first time) that their order will not be shipped until the New Year.

Content deliverables

Working in Figma, our design tool of choice, I made copies of the design files for the pages we would be putting messaging on. This allowed me to experiment freely with copy directly in context, using our design system, without disrupting the main design files. It also gave me visibility of UI constraints such as character limits which helped me develop designs that would work across web and mobile versions.

I then worked with our product designer to check any other design considerations and finalise the assets to hand over to the developers.

Primary audience: Logged in users with an order due between 15 December and 6 January.
Scope: Messaging should set the expectation that deliveries due between Dec 15 and Jan 6 will be shipped early.
Call to action: Check order details on account page.

I employed a witty headline, in line with brand voice, to grab the user’s attention, and used a clear, explanatory tone for the main copy.

Homepage at yourdaye.com with a banner that reads: "We’re preparing for the festive period, so you can be ready for yours. Orders due for delivery between between December 15 2019 and January 6 2020 will be shipped early to accommodate for the busy postal season. Visit your account page for more details."

Account page

Primary audience: Customers who are returning to check or edit their order/subscription.
Scope: Messaging should set the expectation that deliveries due between Dec 15 and Jan 6 will be shipped early and customer will be billed early.
Call to action: Check for an email from Daye, or contact us for information.

Since the homepage banner sends people to their account page, but users might also navigate to the account page directly, I used largely the same copy from the homepage to ensure users had the same context, but included further details to avoid repetition and provide a logical conclusion.

Checkout flow

Primary audience: New signups who are about to check out for the first time between 20 Dec - 6 Jan.

Scope: Messaging should set the expectation that the user can place order but will not receive it until January.

Call to action: Complete purchase having accepted later shipping date

Since so much of the Daye product offering is about timing things perfectly, it was important to set expectations and be transparent. To ensure maximum visibility, I decided to place a notice at a strategic point of the checkout flow, on the shipping page where the user would normally select the delivery date.

Again, I used humour in the headline to grab the user’s attention, and ensured the main copy provided clarity and logical conclusion for the user, while also being reassuring and friendly (it is Christmas, after all).

Checkout page with a single “Delivery Date” option of “Ship them as soon as possible - Delivery in early January 2020”. Tooltip reads “Just like periods, Christmas deliveries can be unpredictable. Between 15 December and 6 January we won’t be shipping boxes due to the busy postal season. You can still place your order now, and we’ll send your box in the New Year. Happy holidays!”