Pets at Home
Eliminating those pet peeves
As a Product Design Lead at Wunderman Thompson, I was tasked with improving the Pets at Home digital experience, specifically the Product Listing Pages (PLP), Product Detail Pages (PDP), Basket and Checkout, and Subscriptions. The company was undergoing a major rebranding, and a complete digital overhaul was essential to align with its new identity.
The main challenge was to create a seamless shopping journey that integrated Pets at Home’s multiple services and brands, reduced decision paralysis, and optimised conversions.
Research & Discovery
Understanding the Pain Points
Pets at Home had a fragmented online experience due to:
● Too many landing pages and disconnected service offerings.
● Overwhelming calls to action (CTAs), leading to decision paralysis.
● High drop-off rates in the checkout process due to fulfilment issues.
To gather insights, my team conducted:
➤ Customer support analysis – examining complaints and service issues.
➤ Client interviews – understanding business needs and constraints.
➤ Remote user testing – observing real users navigate the site.
➤ Surveys & video recordings – uncovering behavioural patterns.
We compiled a comprehensive user journey map to identify friction points and prioritise design improvements.
Ideation & Design Process
Streamlining the Sales Funnel
The existing eCommerce journey suffered from too many distractions.
To address this:
● We simplified navigation, making it easier for users to find complementary services.
● We reduced the number of competing CTAs, preventing decision paralysis.
● A/B testing revealed that reducing CTAs on PDPs improved engagement by 450%.
Optimising the Basket & Checkout Experience
The checkout process was plagued by unexpected removals of items, leading to user frustration. Our approach included:
➤ Conducting a full assessment of delivery scenarios and basket rules.
➤ Introducing clear messaging when an item was out of stock, instead of silently removing it.
➤ Validating this approach through Maze prototype testing, which showed higher user satisfaction and improved task completion rates.
Final Design & Implementation
Enhancing Information Hierarchy
One major issue was cognitive overload, especially with pricing details.
Our solution:
● Applied text hierarchy to guide user attention, ensuring clarity in pricing breakdowns.
● Kept necessary details (e.g. subscription savings) prominent but non-intrusive.
Improving UI for a Cohesive Experience
The UX and UI teams collaborated closely to refine the final designs, aligning them with the company’s new brand identity while maintaining usability.
Key UI optimisations included:
➤ Adhering to digital brand guidelines while ensuring usability.
➤ Iterative high-fidelity testing to validate design choices.
➤ Live A/B testing on checkout flows to confirm the most effective approach.
Results & Impact
The final rollout of the new design led to significant improvements:
● 7.9% increase in revenue in 2023, attributed in part to the optimised eCommerce experience.
● Higher engagement and completion rates in checkout flows.
● A more cohesive and premium digital presence, reinforcing Pets at Home’s position as a market leader.
Key Takeaways
✅ A simplified sales funnel reduced friction and decision fatigue.
✅ Clear messaging minimised confusion around basket and checkout errors.
✅ Stronger UI and text hierarchy made pricing and subscription models more intuitive.
✅ Stakeholder collaboration was key, aligning UX, UI, and business needs effectively.
✅ Pets at Home saw a significant increase in user satisfaction and revenue post-launch.
Conclusion
This project was a testament to the power of thoughtful product design, user research, and cross-functional collaboration.
By identifying key friction points, simplifying decision-making, and refining the UI, we helped Pets at Home create an intuitive, high-performing eCommerce platform.
The successful results underscore the value of a human-centred design approach in improving business outcomes.
“Alex was a trusted and reliable member of our team with one of our major clients. In a complex blended team his ability to deal with ambiguity, stay calm and ‘roll up his sleeves’ was exactly what we needed.
His experience shone through in the execution of his work, leading the UX of a squad, supporting more junior designers and presenting design work on a weekly basis. Alex works in an intelligent and meticulous way , championing the best solution for the user whilst understanding the stakeholder objectives and technical constraints. I would absolutely recommend working with him.
— Nicola Jenkins, Experience Director, Wunderman Thompson (now VML)