UX Report for Sezzle: Interviews Team 16: 4U Authors: Alexa YoonSeon Yi, April Shin, Jesi Zhang, Sunny Kim March 1, 2019 Word count: 2487 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Methodology 5 Target Population Recruiting Method Interviewee Demographics Interview Instrument Analysis Method Findings & Recommendations 8 Key Findings 1 Recommendation 1 Key Findings 2 Recommendation 2 Key Findings 3 Recommendation 3 Key Findings 4 Recommendation 4 Discussion 12 ​ Conclusion 14 ​ Appendices 16 ​ Appendix A - User Interview Protocol 17 ​ Appendix B - Interview Transcriptions 20 ​ Appendix C - Personas 46 ​ Appendix D - Scenarios 49 1 Executive Summary This report aims to analyze and examine experience of buy-now pay-later (BNPL) payment method for the millennials, particularly for our client’s product, Sezzle. After the initial stakeholder meeting with the client, the scope of this research is focusing on analysis of omni-channel user experience of both the client’s and competitors’ BNPL products and conducting tailored competitive analysis of industry key players. In this report, our team addressed the challenge by conducting in-depth qualitative interviews with the target users. The method used was 6 in-depth interviews; one stakeholder interview and five user interviews. The general recruiting process of each interview started from screening and recruiting optimal interviewees; we particularly aimed to interview users who are 1) BNPL users, and 2) non-BNPL users. Based on interview processes, we found insightful findings and recommendation through numerous team discussion and interpretation sessions. This report documents our methodology, key findings, and final recommendations. Key findings and recommendation summary are as follows: The results of our analysis show these findings: 1. Users consider benefits, perks, convenience, and reliability when it comes to choosing their primary payment method. 2. Non-BNPL users do not like the feeling of having more payments to make overtime. They would rather prefer to pay the entire amount upfront or not purchase the product at all. 3. Non-BNPL users believe they would end up spending more money when using the BNPL method. 4. Purchase motivation depends on which merchant websites are partnering with what types of payment methods. 2 Based on the findings, we recommend Sezzle to consider these four areas: 1. Focus at least one of these considerations as users did not see great benefits of using Buy-Now-Pay-Later payment: benefit/perks, convenience, or reliability. 2. Diversify payment period options for users; current bi-weekly 4 payment installment plans would not satisfy various users’ needs. In this regard, add more options where users can choose the billing cycle catered to their personal finance situation. 3. Provide convenient ways for users to be in control of their budget and spending. 4. Be more specific when defining target population; millennials are too broad, and we found there are many different behavioral or motivational patterns among millennials. 3 Introduction Sezzle is an alternative payment platform that increases sales by providing interest-free installment plans at online stores. When consumers pay with Sezzle, their purchase is split into four interest-free installments. The customer must pay 25 percent of the purchase cost upfront to eliminate risk of fraud or non-payment. The remaining 75 percent is paid biweekly over the next six weeks. Currently, Sezzle is directly competing with global split payment products such as AfterPay, Quadpay, Affirm and Klarna as they try to capture the installment payment platform market. After the initial client meeting with stakeholders from Sezzle, we learned that Sezzle seeks to 1) provide seamless omnichannel experience and 2) improve usability of the ecosystem in order to provide a best-in-market experience for shoppers. In this stage of the project, we approach to the problems by understanding the target population through interviews. Thus, we aim to examine shopper flows of target population, the millennials from age 18 to 35, and delve into their shopping experience with different payment platforms. The following three key questions were developed to be answered over the course of the six interviews (one stakeholder and five potential users): 1. How do people at age 18-35 usually pay for stuff in general when purchasing products online? 2. How do people at age 18-35 think of buy-now pay-later payment? 3. What motivates people at age 18-35 to use buy-now pay-later payment? 4 Methodology To achieve our research goal of discovering how to motivate novice “install payment method” users to use Sezzle, we conducted 6 interviews, including one stakeholder interview and five user interviews. Target Population To understand payment and online shopping behavior and values of millennials, we recruited interviewees who are between 18-30 years old and regularly shop online. Additionally, to explore behaviors at different financial status and lifestyle, we recruited people who are both students and working full time. All interviewees have previous experience purchasing products online. They use credit card, debit card, and Paypal as their main method of payment. Recruiting Method The research team recruited participants within its members’ social groups, based on a collaborative effort to ensure a diversity of interviewees. While the team initially considered contacting interviewees in other ways, they found the most effective way to find interviewees that meet the criterias and ensured a group who shop online often and currently use various payment methods such as Paypal. Interviewee Demographics We chose five participants from our potential user list with different demographics, job title, and online shopping experience. The fundamental information of participants is listed in Table. 1. 5 Gender Nationality Title Age Description 1 Male American Architect 27 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle 2 Male American Engineer 25 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle 3 Male Korean Engineer 29 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle 4 Female Chinese Architect 25 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle 5 Female American Student 20 Credit card & Paypal user, Never used Sezzle Table. 1. Participants information Interview Instrument We created an interview protocol (Appendix A - User Interview Protocol) before conducting ​ ​ interviews. This helped us to clearly organize what questions to ask in what sequence. First, we wrote three overarching key questions for interviewers to clearly understand the goal of the interviews. Then, we asked warm-up questions to encourage participants to tell the story of their online shopping experience. We asked participants about their past online shopping experience and preference on different methods of payment. To end the interview, we expressed our gratitude for participating in the interviews. Analysis Method To organize findings and insights, we transcribed all interviews (Appendix B: Interview ​ Transcriptions). To obtain valuable information from the transcriptions, we each read through ​ the interview transcriptions and highlighted insights. 6 We conducted several team discussion sessions as a group to generate key insights and categorize those into higher-level groups to understand the overall perspective of non-users and to come up with recommendations. We created a set of personas and scenarios representing the target population in their diversity across online shopping experience, value, and preference. (Appendix C: Personas & ​ Appendix D: Scenarios) ​ 7 Findings & Recommendations Key Findings 1: When choosing primary online payment methods, users consider benefits, perks, convenience, and reliability the most. Non-users provided the feedbacks through the interviews that they did not see any great benefits of using buy-now pay-later payment. Interviewee X stated that her shopping preferences and frequency highly depend on the benefits that she will be getting, such as discount coupons or special rewards. She prefers to use credit card when making online purchases as she would like to build credits and receive cash back offers at the end of each month. Interviewee G stated that she would be willing to try installment payments only if the payment process provides her better experience such as shorter time required to make purchases. Interviewee G also mentioned that she rarely shops on the unknown websites, and further, is not willing to provide her bank account information to the platforms that she believes are not reliable. Recommendation 1: Focus at least one of these considerations as users did not see great benefits of using Buy-Now-Pay-Later payment: benefit/perks, convenience, or reliability. Also, make the overall process faster - especially when users are setting up the account. 1. Add benefits/perks such as an additional discount coupons, rewards or the possibility of building credits. 8 2. Improve the payment process with more conveniency such as initial account set-up (entering bank/card information). We suggest incorporating new technology such as QR code to help users experience faster payment process. Alipay can be a good reference. 3. Partner with well-known or reliable merchants, especially those who are popular among our target users. Key Findings 2: Non-users do not like the feeling of having more payments to make overtime. They prefer to pay the entire amount upfront or not purchase the product at all. Non-users believe that