Accelerated Checkout

Increased pay-online rates by 22% by redesigning checkout and introducing a faster, single-item express purchase flow

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Client

Publix

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Timeline

24 weeks

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Year

2023–2024

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Role

Lead Designer

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Context & Challenge

The Publix app's checkout only accepted credit or debit cards, creating friction for customers and limiting conversion. After leading a payment-preference study, the Product Manager and I advocated for adding Apple Pay. Leadership quickly approved the proposal and requested a three-month launch.

The expectation was to layer Apple Pay into the existing flow. However, as I began working with product, engineering, and analytics, it became clear the issue wasn't just payment—the checkout experience itself was fundamentally broken.

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Research

Research

Analytics, usability testing, and competitive research revealed two critical problems that were causing significant customer friction and revenue loss.

Key Findings

High abandonment at the final step 30% of users backtracked from Step 4 → 3, and 10% abandoned entirely.
Slow completion times (5–10 minutes) Customers selecting the earliest pickup time often exceeded that window while reviewing their order, triggering an error and forcing them to restart checkout.

To deliver on leadership's timeline while addressing the broader opportunity, I implemented Apple Pay within the existing system—then used that momentum to reframe the problem and advocate for deeper improvements.

Solution

After delivering the Apple Pay launch, I partnered with the PM to define two follow-up initiatives that addressed both immediate wins and structural issues. Both were approved by leadership.

Solution screens

➊ Express Single-Item Purchase

Enable single-item purchases directly from product detail pages using Apple Pay.

Insight86% of sub orders contained only one item
Business GoalIncrease pay-online adoption
Customer GoalFaster checkout

➋ Checkout Redesign

Move toward a near 1-click checkout by removing unnecessary steps and preselecting reliable defaults (store, pickup window, payment).

Business GoalIncrease conversion, reduce time and abandonment
Customer GoalSimpler, faster checkout
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Key Design Decisions

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Results

Express Single-Item Purchase Adoption

28%

of sub orders now use express

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Checkout Time

-2min

Reduced completion time

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Pay-Online Adoption

43% → 65%

Significant increase

After delivering the Apple Pay launch, I partnered with the PM to define two follow-up initiatives that addressed both immediate wins and structural issues. Both were approved by leadership.

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Reflections

While impactful, releasing multiple changes at once limited our ability to isolate cause and effect.

What I'd Do Differently

  • A more staged rollout with focused A/B testing
  • Clearer performance attribution across initiatives
  • Stronger decision validation through isolated testing
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