What is the User Onboarding experience?
When we sign in to an app/ product for the first time, it shows us its key features or how-tos on the first couple of screens. That is onboarding. It helps new users understand and experience how the product is going to help them achieve their objectives. Onboarding gets users past the awkward uncertainty of trying out a new product. When done right, it should give users an’ Aha!’ moment of satisfaction, a sense of achievement, and build trust around the product.
Retention of mobile users is very hard. For 70% of the time, We use a maximum of five apps. These five apps vary from person to person and their profession. Depending on the type of usage of the app, it is very hard for an app to brand itself to a specific use so that users trust you with that task. Here, the first impression, the onboarding experience comes in handy. A study says a mobile app can lose up to 80% of its users in the first three days. Only an effective onboarding experience, an ‘Aha!’ moment can safeguard the product.
What are the parameters to consider while creating a user onboarding experience?
The onboarding experience is the first-hand experience users get. Depending on the objective and the type of product, the experience can educate users on how to use it, can build trust by showing some numbers, or show users value and success. The quicker users taste the success, the chances of them sticking with the product increase.
Understanding the used car market space in India
The Indian used car market is expected to reach a size of over 70 lakh vehicles by 2025-26, up from 38 lakh in 2020-21, growing at around 12-14% over the next few years. During the pandemic, the supply crunch and increased demand impacted the used car market, increasing the sales by 20-30% after the unlock.
While unorganized channels dominate this market by almost 75% of the market share, the organized market is also improving its presence by bringing transparency, digital forms, and quicker execution to the table. The major players in the organized channel are Cars24, Maruti True Value, OLX, and Mahindra’s first choice. Spinny is comparatively a new player with a lot of promises.
Target audience
For this case study, I am going to consider two types of users
- Informed users who seriously want to sell or buy cars
- Casual strollers or future potential customers
Competitive Analysis between Cars24 and Spinny onboarding experience
Cars24 asks for a mobile number straight away. The opening statement is “Buy refurbished cars – largest collection of fully inspected, refurbished cars across brands and budgets”. After signing in the app takes me straight to the “Buy Car” tab. The tab has steps explaining how to buy a car from the platform.
The first statement for Spinny is “Trusted by over 1 lakh customers. Choose from 5000+ Spinny Assured Cars” with options to choose either buy or sell. Once you select one, the app asks for a mobile number. There is also an option to skip. When I choose to buy a car and skip the log-in process, the app asks me about my location and then showed available cars. I move back and log in using my mobile number and decide to sell a car. At the top, the app shows its top 3 promises for selling a car.
Positives
Positive things about Spinny’s onboarding experience as compared to Cars24 are
- The first statement shows the number of satisfied customers and encourages trust in the brand.
- They have a skip button to the login page, casual strollers don’t need to sign in.
Scope of improvement with Wireframes
Spinny asks for a mobile number right after a user chooses whether to buy or sell a car. If Spinny wants to contact users manually, right from the beginning, then it makes sense.
However, Spinny can create hooks to engage users, even before signing up, and might get better results. A hook consists of 3 parts, trigger, action, and reward. I recently sold out my car, so I’ll begin by selling section.
As a user, I install spinny to get an estimate of my car. This is my objective. Spinny provides instant quotes, which is great. But it asks for my number at the beginning. If I provide the necessary data and get a quote without sharing my number, that will be my ‘Aha! moment’. I have managed to achieve my objective with three clicks. Spinny can increase the price range to motivate customers to sign in and book a home inspection. On the flip side, this might cause lower mobile registrations. But the registered ones would have a genuine interest in the product offerings, so the conversion rate would improve.
When it comes to buying a car, again, sharing some data and getting a list of cars before sharing a mobile number can give the users that ‘Aha! moment’ and motivate the genuine customers to sign in.
Metrics
The metrics that I am going to monitor are
- How many users are skipping to the login page?
- How many users are completing the experience?
- How many people directly book a home inspection after completing the onboarding steps?
- Change in conversion rate, people making a purchase vs. people signing in.
- Is there a drastic change in number of people signing in?
- Ratio between casual strollers and genuine customers
Minimum Criteria for success
- I am certain that the conversion rate will improve. I’ll consider at least 10% improvement in the first quarter as success.
- Users generally buy/ sell cars once in a long time. But the impression should last. In the long run, the retension/ number of re-sign in should improve.
Onboarding is a continuous process
For an evolving product, the audience, the market is changing continuously and so should the onboarding process. It is the first impression a product makes. However, the goal is the same, to give the users the moment of satisfaction of figuring out something new with the least possible commitment. I tried to understand Spinny and Cars24 as an audience and shared my opinion. Let me know how you have enjoyed it.
Here are some other case studies.
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