Wayfair Financing Landing Page

Introduce users to a first-to-market financing solution so they can pay for their furniture purchases over time with confidence

Overview

Problem

In December 2019, my team launched a new platform approach to consumer financing called Wayfair Financing. Users would submit a single application to be considered for an array of different pay-over-time options, underwritten by five partner financial service providers.

Because the Wayfair Financing feature was a first-to-market solution, we couldn’t assume that users would have past experiences with a tool like this.

We needed a simple way for users to learn about what Wayfair Financing was, how they might benefit from it, and how to use it.

Solution

I partnered with a product designer, product manager, general manager, marketing, creative, engineering, and external financial service providers to develop a landing page that:

  • Onboarded users to the Wayfair Financing application process,

  • Defined consumer financing terms and payment options in plain language, and

  • Directly addressed users’ concerns about security, impacts to their credit scores, etc.

After launching in Spring 2021, the page drove 3,300+ monthly application submissions. Moreover, 77% of users who started their financing application from the landing page completed it.

Project details

Role

I was the lead content strategist for the project, which involved partnering with product design, marketing, product, and other teammates to define the content strategy and hierarchy for the page, as well as to write all copy.

Timeframe

Q2 2021

Project team

  • Product Designer

  • Product Manager

  • General Manager

  • Front End Engineer

  • Graphic Designers

External stakeholders and reviewers

  • Legal and marketing teams at Citibank

  • Legal and partner teams at five different financial service providers

Focus areas

Awareness and discovery

Developed page to introduce and educate customers about our original platform approach to consumer financing.

Stakeholder management

Worked with internal stakeholders on Wayfair Financing team, as well as external financial service providers, to review work and secure approvals.

UX writing

Wrote all page content and FAQs in plain language to educate users about application process and available financing options.

Compliance reviews

Oversaw compliance review process of all of the page’s copy and content hierarchy.

Process at a glance

Define primary user problems to solve

The US Consumer Financing team launched Wayfair Financing in December 2019. Users were completing the application and using available financing options, however:

  • The only place that users could apply for and learn about Wayfair Financing was in Checkout: far down the funnel and in an area of limited real estate

  • Because Wayfair Financing was an early market solution (and consumer financing is difficult!), we couldn’t expect users to know what it was and how to use it

Moreover, a comprehensive UX Research study led by a teammate suggested that we needed to do more to educate and reassure users:

  • Interviewees shared concerns about applying for credit due to the impact of the application on their credit score and the security risks of applying for financing online

  • Interviewees described a lack of understanding about financing in general

Develop content hierarchy

After synthesizing quantitative behavioral data and qualitative research, I co-designed the page’s content hierarchy with a designer that reflected that story, and fulfilled the intentions of the page.

Together, we developed a priority guide for the page that emphasized scannability, simplicity, and easy access to additional information for those who wanted it:

  • Introduction: what is Wayfair Financing?

  • Light user onboarding: Explanation of how Wayfair Financing works, and a list of our partners and overview of the financing products they provide

  • Deep dive: robust FAQs pertaining to the differences among financing options, eligibility requirements, etc.

  • Escape hatch: CTA directing users to learn about Wayfair’s credit cards, for those seeking financing through a credit card

Create, review, and iterate on copy options for each section of priority guide

Once my design partner and I aligned on the page hierarchy, we split off for some heads-down craft execution time. She focused on developing the page design (colors, illustrations, final layout, etc.), while I focused on developing copy for the page, including an FAQ section.

This part of the process was highly iterative:

  1. Develop initial copy for each section, including mild-to-wild tonal options for review.

  2. Submit proposed copy to each financial service provider in the Wayfair Financing platform (Affirm, Genesis, Fortiva, Acima, and Katapult), Citibank, and Wayfair’s Loyalty and Financing team.

  3. After receiving feedback from all providers, either actioned on it directly or discussed further with the provider, typically to understand the spirit or principle behind often-prescriptive legal feedback, so I could ensure the final copy would be comprehensible for users.

  4. Repeat until all copy was approved and met our quality bar.

Develop and finalize FAQ content based on internal and external stakeholder feedback

  • I leveraged our user research and data to shape the FAQ hierarchy: the five most critical questions were at the top, with subsequent questions behind a CTA to reduce cognitive load

  • The first questions introduced users to the Wayfair Financing product in greater deal, a critical job given that this was a first-to-market platform solution

  • Additional questions in the FAQ section that came from known areas of confusion and concern: understanding what different financing options were, and understanding who to contact to ask questions or troubleshoot

    • On a previous project, I conducted a social media sentiment analysis to learn about challenges Wayfair customers faced with financing furniture purchases and used those insights to shape the FAQ hierarchy and content

    • Including a question and detailed answer about the differences among the financing options didn’t get immediate buy-in because it opened up the product to legal risk, but my research showed it was important to users

    • By drawing from my research and iterating and collaborating with all six external organizations, I was successful in implementing the question in the landing page FAQ

Polish and ship final designs for primary landing page, with copy in context

  • The page headline leads with the core user benefit: financing enables customers to pay over time

  • Subcopy emphasizes simplicity and convenience without getting into the weeds of interest rates and APR

  • “How it works” section is designed for scannability and uses relevant spot illustrations to reduce cognitive load

  • “How it works” section copy a) reassures users about security and the minimal impact to their credit score, and b) reinforces the ease of the financing process by communicating that Wayfair will do the heavy lifting of finding a plan for them

  • “Our Partners” section drives confidence through social proof through known entities in consumer financing

What I’d do differently

Engage with external partners earlier to reduce time spent in compliance back-and-forth. While the churn wasn’t enormous, it did slow us down, and aligning earlier on low-fidelity concepts and scrappy copy options could have helped reduced that churn.

Earmark time for usability testing of our mock-ups to ensure users could understand the application process, financing options, etc. as described on the page. We had more than enough up front discovery work to understand user pain points, but didn’t have a chance to validate that what we had built would sole those known problems.