What do you do if you want to know more about a person you just met?
The first impression matters for you?
Do you watch what the person does or talk to him/her to engage?
All above are the way we get to know a person. These are also same with the interaction with a brand. In this age of digital, this process often happens online, needless to say, on mobile as well. Brands must develop a well-designed website to catch users' attention, have them feel easy to browse and make them have fun! A website represents you as a brand, so UX is like how people think about you as a person.
How much is UX important for makeup products brand? EXTREMEEEE! This business is B2C, visual oriented, female-dominated and competitive. Benefit Cosmetics, a subsidiary of LVMH, is a San Francisco-based cosmetics manufacturer specialized in professional makeup, selling at over 2,000 counters in more than 30 countries. This brand is also well-known for its girlish and lovely product designs/packages/ads. Now we know that Benefit has a unique and strong brand image. Then what would its website be like? UX would also reflect its concept well?
Desktop/laptop Version
1. Signup Pop-up
Personally, I don't like pop-ups. As soon as I landed on its homepage, a little pop-up welcomed me encouraging signup. I usually close those first pop-ups not even looking at it to save my clicks and time. But one thing caught my attention, which was free shipping on any order without a minimum. Hmm, that's a very useful piece of information! I would definitely consider that when I check out. Below that Benefit disappointed me again by asking birth date and year. A registration process should be as simple and quick as possible to attract the users who are careful of providing their personal information.
2. Home Page
What a good combination of commerce and contents! In addition to that, no endless scrolling. Best sellers and a category of products with a special theme are displayed on top. Videos on beauty tips and various useful resources on the bottom are engaging. They all are attractive enough to earn my clicks!
3. Structure
Benefit has a well-structured website that allows users to browse easily and intuitively. On the very top of the page, it has a series of main verticals including products shopping, other services provided and offers. On the bottom, typical categories such as contact, help and careers are waiting for someone in need. However, Benefit underestimates a search function which is very important for B2C e-commerce. The search icon missed its original seat, upper right/left corner, and it was too small to be noticed quickly.
4. Design
Benefit shows a consistency of its brand image on the website as well. Cute, simple, pinkish, girlish, lovely and animated designs all over the website make me feel like physically shopping in a store. It reminded me of the first time I met this brand at a department store when I was 18. I was excited and fascinated by this adorable and pretty brand and fell in love with it.
5. Checkout Process
Easy and simple. Benefit absolutely meets the core checkout conditions of B2C e-commerce. There is no confuse, hassle neither click-wasting process. It provides fruitful information about the product with extreme details and rates/reviews. Big-sized high-quality pictures make my shopping more comfortable.
Mobile Version
1. Signup Pop-up & Home Page
It's interesting that the pop-up of mobile version doesn't ask my birth date/year. I'm just happy about free shipping! The home page on mobile is very similar to the desktop/laptop version. Scrolling down the smaller screen allowed me to pay attention to everything on the page. I think it's because I was able to see one content at a time.
2. Structure & Design
I'm glad that the search icon found its original seat, upper left corner, making search easy and quick. The overall structure of mobile is intuitive and easy to browse. All verticals, categories, and menu are inside of a hamburger menu icon. The design itself is exactly same with the desktop/laptop version, but I'd like to add a zoom function to look at the product closely on a small device.
3. Checkout Process
Great job again! Easy and simple. Except for one thing that my cart is not accessible with one click. The shopping cart is inside the hamburger menu icon, which is not user-friendly. We all got used to seeing a shopping cart on the top of the screen or on a floating bar.
Final Review
I'd like to give Benefit a high score on the pretty design that reflects its brand image, easy and quick checkout, and great contents such as detail descriptions of products and useful beauty tips. However, I didn't have fun or fascinating experience at all. It would be recommended to develop a customizing or products-applying tools/games to increase users' time spent on the site and encourage engagement. Let's do not forget - H2H, human to human!
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