Delivering speed and convenience at scale
Pets at Home is the UK's leading pet care business, offering a wide range of products, services, and advice for pet owners, including pet supplies, grooming, veterinary care, and more.
  • Contributions

    • UI & UX
    • Research
    • Prototypes
    • User flows
    • User testing
  • Team

    The team comprised:
    • 6 Engineers
    • 1 Product Owner
    • 1 UX Designer
  • Outcomes

    • £1 million in annual turnover
    • Same day delivery rolled out to 132 stores
    • 2% reduction in WISMO enquiries
The Problem
During peak periods, the distribution centre was overwhelmed by online orders, click & collects, and store fulfilments. This caused significant delays, resulting in 32% of customer support inquiries being “Where is my order?” (WISMO). The system was unsustainable and customer trust was eroding. A solution was needed to reduce DC (Distribution centre) pressure and improve delivery reliability.

Understanding our users needs
To unpack the complexity behind our checkout experience, I mapped out the different delivery scenarios users could receive based on basket composition. This revealed 7 distinct scenarios, which I validated early with engineering and logistics to uncover dependencies and edge cases.
Analytics showed 42% of users abandoned the checkout at the delivery step, despite having completed product selection and basket review, a clear signal of friction at a critical stage. To uncover the root cause, I conducted usability testing with 8 participants via UserTesting.com, focusing specifically on the delivery section of the checkout flow.

Findings:
  • 6 out of 8 participants found the delivery section confusing or overwhelming
  • Too many options and unclear terminology caused decision paralysis
  • 5 users paused for over 8 seconds at the delivery selection point
  • 4 users thought they had to interact with both date selections (Radio buttons & carousel)

Key Insight:
Users wanted fewer, clearer choices, smart defaults, and reassurance that their delivery decision matched their needs. Even with strong purchase intent, complexity was eroding trust and causing drop-off.

Impact:
This validated our hypothesis: checkout clarity and guidance directly affected conversion. These insights laid the foundation for a redesigned delivery flow focused on clarity, context, and confidence.
To cover all bases, I interviewed the Head of Customer Support who confirmed that WISMO made up 32% of contact, pointing to a broader issue of delivery trust, not just confusion at the point of purchase.

Recognising that pet retail lagged behind in rapid delivery expectations, I also benchmarked against adjacent industries such as florists to set a clearer reference point for evolving user expectations.

Stating user needs and problems
The research surfaced two core problems:
  • Cognitive overload: Users struggled to understand delivery options, encountering unclear language, repeated choices, and an overall lack of guidance.
  • Mistrust in delivery accuracy: A disconnect between promised and actual delivery times led to user frustration, reflected in the 32% of support tickets related to WISMO.
We saw an opportunity to reframe delivery not simply as a logistical step, but as a trust-building moment in the customer journey.

To guide solution exploration, I framed two core problem statements:
  • User perspective:“When I reach the delivery step, I feel confused about which option to choose and unsure whether it will actually arrive when I need it.”
  • Business perspective:“If we don’t improve clarity and confidence at delivery, we risk losing high-intent users and overloading customer support.”

As we explored solutions, it became clear that clearer communication alone wouldn’t suffice, we needed to reinforce the delivery promise itself. Looking to adjacent industries (e.g. grocery, pharmacy) where rapid fulfilment had become standard, we saw an opportunity to:
  • Introduce same-day delivery for eligible orders
  • Improve perceived reliability through speed and local fulfilment
  • Reduce pressure on central distribution centres by shifting fulfilment to stores

Designing a seamless and trustworthy delivery experience
Clarifying Delivery Options
To reduce cognitive overload at checkout, I redesigned how delivery choices were presented. I created a dynamic UI component that adapted to 10 fulfilment variations without overwhelming the user. Working with marketing, we rewrote option labels in plain, actionable language, and added inline guidance to reduce friction and clarify trade-offs (e.g. speed vs. cost).

Introducing Same-Day Delivery
At the same time, I collaborated with my PO, engineering, and logistics stakeholders to define how same-day delivery could be added without overpromising. We created logic-based eligibility rules using proximity, inventory, and cut-off time data. This option only appeared when fulfilment was guaranteed, helping build trust and confidence with users.

Testing the experience
I designed a prototype to test whether clearer communication, improved defaults, and simplified UI could reduce confusion and improve conversion.

The first round of prototypes focused on three areas:
  • Checkout flow redesign with dynamic delivery options based on fulfilment feasibility
  • Inline delivery guidance using plain-language microcopy, reassurance copy, and visual indicators
  • Introduction of same-day delivery as an option

I ran moderated usability tests with 8 participants via UserTesting.com to assess:
  • Whether users could confidently understand and select a delivery option
  • How the new layout affected comprehension and conversion intent
  • Initial reactions to the addition of same-day delivery

Results:
  • All 8 users successfully selected a delivery option on the first try
  • 6 out of 8 preferred the same-day delivery option over standard delivery options
  • 7 participants described the redesign as “clean” or “easy to follow”
  • 4 users voiced that they would have been more likely to purchase had same day delivery been visible earlier in the journey, particularly on the PDP
These insights led to a key design update: we moved delivery messaging further up the journey, surfacing estimated delivery dates on PDPs to build trust earlier and reduce cognitive load at checkout.

Phase A results
Phase A was our 4 week learning period where we rolled out to 46 stores
118k in order value

3500 orders placed using same day delivery
Phase B results
Following the success of Phase A, we rolled out Phase B which led to:
£1 million in annual turnover

132 stores set up to deliver from store

2% reduction in WISMO enquiries
Previous case study
Pets at Home - Pets Club
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