Redesign of the bag/cart page on the River Island website and app, with a focus on improving conversion rates and checkout progression.
Challenge
Customers were not being provided with enough context or information to make confident purchasing decisions, leading to drop-offs—particularly on the bag page. Customers weren't given vital information such as delivery costs up front as well as customisation within the bag so they can tweak their options before commiting to checkout.
Hypothesis
By surfacing key delivery information to the customer within the bag as well as adding in more customisation tools within the bag so customers can delete and add more quantities will lead to customers making more confident purchasing decisions leading to better conversion rates and less returns.
UX Analysis
We started by zooming in on the current UI of the bag page to pick apart what was causing issues for our customers.
We picked many small UX and UI issues with the bag page that we felt could be improved for the customers. By analysing the current experience I could start to map what was going wrong and why. Making a really good foundation to start designing from.
Exploring Designs
Building on our analysis, we quickly moved into early conceptual designs, translating insights into rough ideas to get something visual on paper. Our focus was clear: how might we help customers edit their bag with ease, surface the right information at the right time, and ultimately enable them to make smarter, more confident decisions.
While the primary focus was the bag page, we knew the checkout experience doesn’t exist in isolation. To get a full picture, we extended our research to include the mini bag, product detail pages, and later checkout screens. This helped us uncover inconsistencies and usability gaps across the entire journey, not just on the surface.
As scope began to grow, we had to make some strategic decisions. With tight timelines and limited resources, we chose to zoom in specifically on the bag page for this phase. To maintain momentum and stakeholder buy-in, I focused on demonstrating the immediate value and impact of redesigning this screen, with the plan to scale insights into other parts of the journey later.
We ran usability tests with a diverse group of customers to validate early designs. A standout theme emerged around quantity selection. Many users found it unintuitive or unclear, which led to several design refinements. These iterations were captured and continuously tested, ensuring we were solving real usability issues, not just polishing visuals.
To maintain alignment with our broader design system, we integrated core elements like colour, typography, and iconography from the existing style guide. Any new components or UI enhancements were documented and flagged for inclusion—ensuring that the bag redesign would fit seamlessly into the wider product ecosystem without introducing friction or inconsistency.
A more trustworthy, bag experience where customers could confidently checkout with all the key bits of information like totals and delivery details presented to the customer before the checkout
Final Designs
We arrived at a design that aligned closely with our original hypothesis: make the journey clearer, more actionable, and more trustworthy. Key improvements included:
Editable quantities surfaced directly, no longer hidden behind a button
Simplified delete functionality
Clearer delivery price messaging
Better visual hierarchy in the totals section
These changes created a more transparent and user-friendly bag experience, one where customers could quickly scan, update, and proceed with confidence.
Results
The redesign on the app and web features a clean, clutter-free interface, making it easier for users to make more informed decisions before purchasing and in initiating the checkout.
Conversion rate increase
