The Problem
I co-located with the agency team intelivita.co.uk to quickly build a collaborative working relationship and tackle the problem as a team because we were working with a design agency and had a defined timeframe (2 weeks) to explore the problem.
How can we save tourists time and money on their shopping through a friendly, easy-to-use app that makes it all more enjoyable helping them skip the long lines and paperwork on their way to get the refund they are entitled to by law.
Most tourists just give up on the refund as they must go through a process that might include: standing in long lines, navigating complex forms, paying high commissions, and, in the end, not always receiving their money back due to a lack of a traceable paper trail.
Digital Tax Free Shopping Solution
OVERVIEW
Tourists who visit the UK but do not live in the EU are entitled to a tax refund on certain goods when they leave the EU. This service begins with retailers, then moves on to VAT operators, and finally to VAT processors at the airport. HMRC(Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) also regulates the entire process.
The aim of this project was to solve the problem of the tourists by making the tax refund process super-fast and easy ensures they have a fantastic payment and shopping experience.
ROLE & DURATION
My role was to collaborate with an agency design through a discovery phase to understand the feasibility and value of an app.
Competitor analysis, Low-fidelity wireframes, and prototypes, High-fidelity layouts
Figma, Balsamiq
PRODUCT
I started by asking "How might be".
“How might we decrease abandonment and encourage tourists to submit the bills?”
“How might we reinforce the link between physical stores and the bank?”
“How might we give complementary gift coupons to encourage customer to upload new bills?”
With the customer journey mapped out, we worked through various interactions between people and technology, essentially capturing all the front stage and backstage activities that would need to happen to power the desired customer journey.
We tried to figure out
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In what order did we need to collect tourist information?
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What information was required to be gathered?
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From where did this information come?
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How did the app journey fit into the context of the tourist's daily activities?
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How could we empathise with both tourist goals and business requirements in order to launch our test into the market and begin learning?
User Flows
As we began to create the low-fi wireframes, we realised the importance of developing robust logic for the various pieces of content that would guide the user through the journey. To initiate different content throughout the app, we took into account the following variables:
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Time remaining until departing the EU.
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Whether or not the tourist had entered any retailer receipts into the portal.
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Whether or not the tourist had chosen a method of payment.
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Payment was received and processed.
Conceptualization
As we started constructing the low-fire wireframes, we realised the need for robust logic to guide the user through the journey for the different content pieces. To initiate different content throughout the app, we took into account the following variables:
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Time remaining until departing the EU.
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Whether the tourist had submitted receipts to the portal for retailers.
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Whether the tourist chose his preferred payment.
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Processed payment.
Web & Mobile
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Outcomes & Achievements
User flows have been completed. Wireframes are created. Approval from product manager, developers, and stakeholders on the mock-ups, we started by combining the content, logic, and user flows into a prototype to test on our users.
The system enables merchants to scan customer IDs in real-time so that immigration authorities can validate Tax-Free eligibility.
The purchase information is then sent to an online system where refunds can be easily tracked and claimed.
Merchants can now verify shopper eligibility in real-time at the point of sale.
Seeing Results
The new system is more efficient, faster, and precisely what customers expect from a modern shopping experience.
1300
New Users in 6 months
18%
Customers can claim tax
30%
Claim completion rates
Around 13,000 new users came on to the new system in the first 6 months of operation, and that's just the beginning.
18% customers can claim tax back without any barriers, then they are happier to spend more money, often choosing to spend their refunded tax as soon as they receive it.
Shoppers can now be issued with transaction requirements in-store within 15 seconds, and be export-validated in under a minute, representing a time reduction of up to 80 percent. The process of claiming VAT back has also been dramatically reduced, from around 30 minutes to just two, a saving of 93 percent that has seen a 30 percent increase in claim completion rates.