Work / Alcohol Sales

Request

The demand for florists to sell alcohol products in their physical stores and online shops for local delivery has been on the rise. However, our current ecommerce solution and point of sale (POS) system do not adequately support this feature. As a result, we are faced with the challenge of designing and building a solution within a tight one-month timeline to ensure readiness for Valentine’s Day, the busiest floral sales day of the year.

Solution

The project commenced by conducting thorough research on state laws pertaining to alcohol delivery, followed by a comprehensive competitive analysis. The design phase involved multiple iterations, with a strong emphasis on user-centric simplicity and minimal changes to the overall checkout experience to prevent any adverse effects on the conversion rate. 

Ultimately, the solution involved the addition of age warnings on the product page, add-on page, and during checkout, along with an “I agree I am of age” check box and age input fields. Furthermore, the delivery slip was modified to include space for the recipient’s signature.

The project achieved remarkable success. It was launched a week ahead of the initial schedule, and no negative impact on the conversion rate was observed. Additionally, the implementation resulted in increased sales for florists offering alcohol products.

Challenges

Due to significant variations in state laws, and even further disparities in city laws within the same state, it was imperative for the designs to accommodate the most stringent regulations. To address situations where delivery was not feasible, appropriate prompts were incorporated into the system. These prompts served the purpose of briefly explaining the limitations and also offering alternative gift ideas. Our aim was to ensure compliance while providing helpful suggestions to users in such scenarios.