Mobile Point of Sale
A technological and UX upgrade for all of Gap Inc.'s stores that increased revenue and reduced Checkout wait times by 50%.
Challenge
Gap's Legacy POS systems limited transactions to fixed registers, causing bottlenecks and long lines during peak hours. More urgently, the manufacturers of these cashwrap components announced that they were soon ending technical support.
Solution
Designed a new mobile POS experience that enabled associates to complete purchases anywhere in-store. Created simplified payment flows, returns, and promotions logic optimized for handheld devices.
Impact
The implementation of this technology not only brought the stores inline with modern modalities, but also increased both purchase and customer satisfaction rates. Hailed by a leader of Store Operations as "a breath of fresh air."
Role
Principal Product Designer
Contribution
Owned UX from concept to launch and beyond, collaborated with Store Ops & Retail teams, conducted user research in stores, ran user tests, drove novel requirements.
Collaborators
UX team, Visual Design, Product Management, Engineering, Store Ops, Retail Management, Change Managment.
Timeline
5+ years
The Challenge
The aging Point of Sale ("POS") software and hardware used in all of Gap Inc. brands' stores was slow, clunky, and bulky (see below). More urgently, the manufacturers of these cashwrap components announced that they were soon ending technical support; Gap Inc. needed to come up with a new solution.
As a part of Swim Interaction Design Studio, my colleague and I led an effort to redesign the store POS user experience from the ground up.
BEFORE: Old Screen UI and Physical Cashwrap
A Deep Dive into Gap Inc.'s Retail Ops
We conducted research in stores — observing store associates, store managers, and loss prevention personnel — and interviewed product managers and internal stakeholders. We spent hours learning about the intricacies of the current software and hardware, including time in the training lab to experience it physically.
We identified where the existing software was overly complicated to use as well as opportunities for new functionality that could provide powerful ways to meet customer needs. Swim also participated with developers in the Inception process, learning about the myriad technologies that underpin the POS.
Designing for the Future
We initially designed the vision for a platform-agnostic, responsive, cloud-based user experience. We built clickable prototypes and delivered detailed behavioral specs (192 pages!). That vision served as the foundation for a series of progressively more functional MVPs that have been deployed on iPods and, subsequently, iPads (shown in the hero image at the top of this page).
The project spanned many years, and throughout we continued to observe, design, validate, and improve on the original vision, working closely with developers and internal Gap designers to meet new and unexpected developments. As Gap's visual designers implemented a new design system, the evolving POS designs adopted it for a fresh new look (shown in iPod screens below).
iPod POS: Selected Screens
AFTER: Mobile Point of Sale
Gap Inc began by piloting the new POS in a few Bay Area Old Navy and Athleta stores. The iPod MVP only supported simple sales transactions using a credit card. While this was only a fraction of the total experience, it allowed stores to quickly solve issues around WiFi, accessories, receipt printing, cash drawers, and customer line control. Over the years Gap continued building out the POS functionality on both iPods and iPads, until they eventually replaced all legacy cashwraps. This new POS is now used in all North American Gap Inc. stores, as well as in international markets like China.
The implementation of this technology not only brought the stores inline with modern modalities, but also increased both purchase and customer satisfaction rates.
The new mobile checkout was hailed by a leader of Store Operations as "a breath of fresh air."
