Usability Testing on "Buy Online & Pick Up in Store" (BOPUS) feature for Nordstrom Rack
Overview
Institution: University of Washington
Duration: January 2025 - March 2025
My Role: UX Researcher. I contributed to research planning, participant recruitment, test moderation, data analysis, and synthesis.
Team Members: Shay Duan, Tess Matthews, Amy Lee
Advisors: Angela Sharer and Annelise Schuler (Nordstrom)
Context & Objective
The "Buy Online & Pick Up in Store" (BOPUS) service is a feature designed to enhance customer convenience by allowing Nordstrom Rack shoppers to purchase items online and pick them up in store the same day or the next day. The objective of this usability study was to identify the pain points in the user journey on the Nordstrom Rack desktop site and provide actionable insights to improve the BOPUS process, ultimately aiming to increase user satisfaction.
Heuristic Evaluation
I began by conducting a heuristic evaluation of the website’s BOPUS feature. This evaluation followed Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics to identify key usability issues that I further explored through moderated usability testing.
Key findings from the heuristic evaluation include:
Visibility of System Status: Conflicting messages about item availability created confusion. For example, items displayed as available for pickup but were actually unavailable at the selected store.
Match Between System and the Real World: The term “pickup only” was unclear, and some users might not understand it meant in-store pickup.
Error Prevention: Users were able to add unavailable items to their cart, which led to confusion during checkout.
Consistency and Standards: The wording around pickup and shipping options was inconsistent, leading to further confusion.
Help and Documentation: Users unfamiliar with the pickup-only process could not easily find help documentation.
These insights from the heuristic evaluation set the foundation for the research questions and usability testing that followed.
Analysis
For each task, I documented observations and outcomes for every participant. I then synthesized these individual observations across participants to identify recurring patterns and summarized them as overall themes for each task, applying thematic analysis to highlight key usability insights and pain points.
Adding “Pickup Today” Items from Multiple Stores Causes Unexpected System Behavior
When users add “Pickup Today” items from one store and switch to another store, all items in the cart are reassigned to the new store, even if they were unavailable for pickup at that store. This caused confusion, as users were not informed that the store switch would affect item availability, and some items were said to be sold out.
Recommendations:
Increase visibility of system status when switching store locations. Possible solutions include:
A notification at checkout when items are reassigned to a different store.
A warning when switching stores with “Pickup Today” items from another store (e.g., “Changing your store will update the pickup location for all items in your bag.”).
The “Sold-out” message could be changed to clearly indicate item availability (e.g., “We moved your items available at other stores to Saved for Later.”).
Pickup logistic information is hard to find
Participants had difficulty finding pickup logistics information, such as when their items would be ready for pickup and how long they would be held. This information was not easily accessible on the checkout page, product pages, or the FAQ section. Users were frustrated by having to navigate multiple pages or even search online to find this information.
Recommendations:
Add information on when the pickup order will be ready and how long it will be held to the checkout and shopping bag pages, perhaps in a blue information bubble next to the pickup date.
Consider changing the “Shipping” section of the FAQ to “Shipping and Pickup”.
Add pickup logistics directly to the FAQ page instead of linking to a separate page from the FAQ.
Figure 1: Heuristic evaluation on the BOPUS shopping flow. (link)
Research Questions
From the heuristic evaluation, I developed the following research questions:
How easily and successfully can users navigate the Nordstrom Rack desktop website to find and purchase same or next-day pickup items?
Do users understand the difference between same-day pickup items and other fulfillment options (eg: shipping items)?
How easily and successfully can users purchase same or next-day pickup items available at different store locations?
What key pain points are preventing users from successfully completing their purchase without confusion?
How clear and understandable is the information around item availability and pickup locations on the website?
Moderated Usability Test
I designed and conducted a moderated usability test using the think-aloud method, which allowed participants to verbalize their thoughts and decision-making as they navigated the website. This approach provided valuable insights into user behaviors, frustrations, and overall experiences.
Participants:
I created a screener survey to recruit participants who were active online shoppers living near a Nordstrom Rack store offering same-day pickup. After distributing the survey and screening responses, I selected 8 participants based on the following criteria:
Regular online shoppers who live near a participating Nordstrom Rack store.
Shop for clothing, makeup, or home goods at least 3 times per year.
Excluded participants who work in retail or UX research to avoid bias.
Test Scenarios:
Three scenarios were developed to evaluate participants’ ability to navigate the "Buy Online & Pick Up in Store" feature:
Find an item available for same-day in-store pickup, add it to the shopping bag, and proceed to checkout.
Find an item available for same-day pickup at a different store, add it to the shopping bag, and check out.
By the end of the second scenario, participants should have two different items from two different stores in the shopping bag.
Find information on how long Nordstrom Rack will hold purchased in-store pickup items.
Data Collection:
Pre-Test Interviews helped gather insights into participants' shopping habits and online behavior.
Think-Aloud Method allowed me to observe participants’ decision-making and frustrations as they interacted with the website.
Post-Test Questionnaires provided additional feedback about the participants’ experience, highlighting specific pain points and areas for improvement.
Figure 2: Analysis Spreadsheet
Findings & Recommendations
Below is the severity scale provided by the Nordstrom UX team.
"Available Today" Filter Does Not Work as Expected
The "Available Today" filter does not work as expected even when combined with other filters such as size and color, which led to items being displayed that were not available for next day pickup. Participants expected the filter to show only items available for same-day pickup in their selected size and color, but this was not the case. The filter often displayed items that were unavailable for pickup, causing confusion and frustration.
Recommendations:
Refine filter logic to ensure that when the "Available Today" filter is applied, only items available for same-day pickup in the selected size and color at the chosen store are shown.
Clarify product availability by adding labels on the product page indicating whether an item is available for pickup today or needs to be shipped.
Visually distinguish unavailable items by graying them out or marking them clearly in search results to reduce confusion.
Figure 3: Despite having the 'Available Today' filter on, this specific pair of shoes was not available for next-day pickup. However, the same shoes in a different color are available for next-day pickup.
Figure 4: Current flow for finding information on the FAQ page.
Result
This study identified usability issues that directly impacted customers’ ability to find and purchase items for same or next-day pickup. Stakeholders gained a deeper understanding of user needs and pain points through clear, evidence-based findings, and the research findings and recommendations closely aligned with the company’s own observations and priorities, reinforcing the value of a user-centered approach.
Reflection
I learned a great deal through this process, and a few things I would do differently are:
Improve Data Collection & Tracking: To gain a deeper understanding of participant efficiency and pain points, I would measure time spent per task, clicks per task, and error rates. These metrics would help provide a clearer picture of task efficiency and usability.
In Scenario 3, while participants expressed a desire for more logistical information on the checkout page, asking about their expectations in advance would have allowed me to better understand user needs before introducing the scenario. This would have provided insights into potential gaps in the experience earlier in the process, enabling us to better target improvements.