Timeline
Role
Platform
Tool
Problem Discovery
Customers are struggling to find products that truly align with their values amid an overwhelming number of options.
Dure Coop launched Korea's first cooperative e-commerce website in 2008, establishing itself as a market leader. However, the widespread adoption of online shopping and the diversification of consumer values have led to a surge in e-commerce services, including entries from large corporations, resulting in fragmented customer preferences across multiple platforms. As a result, Dure Coop is exploring ways to provide a value-driven shopping experience for customers while strengthening its leadership in an increasingly competitive market.
“How might Dure Coop enhance its e-commerce experience to attract value-driven consumers?”
Key drivers
Value-centered shopping, together with community
To address market challenges, my design strategy focuses on three key drivers: Categories by Values, Personalization, and Community Building. These elements aim to enhance user engagement by aligning with customers’ values, offering personalized shopping experiences, and fostering community through educational content, creating a more meaningful and tailored experience.
Categories by Values
New categories such as "Fair Trade," "Vegetarian Lifestyle," and "Direct from the Source," along with the restructured navigation menu, allow customers to search for products based on their values.
Personalization
By analyzing shopping behaviors, the homepage recommends products and recipes based on users' values, creating a personalized experience. Special discounts are also offered based on membership status.
Community Building
Educational and narrative content highlights product benefits, health impacts, sustainability, and local producers' stories, fostering emotional connections and deeper engagement through shared values.
Cooperative models foster a strong sense of community, encouraging loyalty and long-term engagement. Members are often involved in product decision-making, strengthening relationships.
Members receive benefits like discounts, early access to products, and invitations to exclusive events, which enhance their sense of belonging.
These platforms emphasize food (e.g., organic, local, seasonal produce) and eco-friendly household products, aligning with consumer demands for healthier lifestyles and sustainable living.
What is the current state of cooperative e-commerce services?
Through analyzing the top 5 competitors in the cooperative e-commerce market, including Dure Coop Shopping, we identified their common features and unique functions, uncovering key elements that DureShop can benchmark.
While DureShop has provided content through individual blogs and social media, other competitors offer educational content directly within their platforms. By offering content that users are interested in within the eCOOP platform, we can enhance the user experience and attract traffic generated from external sources (e.g., blogs and social media) into the platform.
Comparison of community and educational content
Over the past 3 years, Hansalim has achieved significant success by focusing on value-based product recommendations and related content, establishing itself as the second-largest player in the industry. An analysis of competitor services revealed that the strength of personalized services plays a key role in influencing platform growth.
Comparison of personalization scores and growth rates across platforms over the past 3 years
Needs
Grace's goal is to find cost-effective, seasonal, and locally sourced ingredients that benefit her family's health. However, she finds it difficult to consistently access fresh local products at regular supermarkets and is looking for an easier way to obtain them online without compromising on quality.
Needs
Emily is becoming more conscious of how her consumption habits affect the environment and local communities. She prefers products that support local businesses over large corporations. However, she struggles to find information about the origin of products and whether they align with her ethical shopping values when shopping through regular channels.
Balancing User Needs with Business Goals
Enhancing user awareness for streamlined campaign completion
Considering the need to adhere to existing brand guidelines and the tight renewal timeline, we decided to focus on personalizing the homepage, pre-order functionality, and enhancing the user experience related to the community aspect of 'Dure Story.' Through this, we aimed to achieve business goals and enhance user satisfaction with the redesign.
User Goal
Find products that align with values.
Easy search and shopping experience for desired products.
Pre-ordering for seasonal products.
Business Goal
Strengthening values of health, sustainability, and community.
Refreshing the brand to shed outdated image.
Increasing site engagement and boosting conversion rate.
We brainstormed ideas broadly to enhance effective reminders and payment features. After grouping similar ideas, we identified three key focus areas and prioritized them accordingly.
Brainstorm
Prototype
Mapping
Feature Prioritization
In order to effectively allocate resources and ensure that the most impactful features are developed first, the following prioritization approach is applied to DureShop’s e-commerce platform. The prioritization is based on customer pain points, business goals, and the overall user experience impact.
Creating connections: personalized shopping for a value-driven journey
Key Driver 2 : Categories by Values
Key Driver 1 : Personalization
Key Driver 3 : Community Building
Redesign of the value-based shopping journey
I designed responsive pages optimized for both PC and mobile environments, adhering to Dure Coop's existing style guide. The final design can be viewed on the Dure Coop shopping site.
By designing a cooperative-based e-commerce platform, I gained a deep understanding of the market through research and user exploration. I learned that customers in this space seek more than just products; they value the alignment of their purchases with their principles.
This experience went beyond just understanding the industry—it helped me learn how to create designs that forge emotional connections between users and services, ultimately reflecting the values of the customers and building their trust and loyalty.
