Plantrum: why a plant shop got only 10 purchases a month
A 6-week, research-led redesign: 8 customer interviews, 40 cards sorted into 4 categories, and a plant-finder quiz.
ROLE
Team lead, research & UX
TEAM
4 designers
TIMELINE
6 weeks
DOMAIN
E-commerce
Helping small businesses scale
Team project with a small business
01 / PROBLEM
A working website with no sales.
Plantrum is a family store, created by a mother and her two daughters, selling plants adapted for home care, pots, and care services. Its website didn't show all of its services, didn't stress what makes the business unique, and generated only 10 purchases a month.
02 / GOAL
Improve the experience at every stage of the visit and increase conversion by finding the biggest user pain points.
03 / CONSTRAINTS
Time, product and service variety
Six weeks from kickoff to presentation, limited time for testing (so we used guerrilla testing), and a wide mix of plants, pots, care products, and services to organize.
04 / RESEARCH
Listen to the doubts. Then design around them.
Business interview
Heuristic analysis
Competitor analysis
8 user interviews
User personas
Customer journey mapping
8 INTERVIEWS / 3 RECURRING PAIN POINTS / 5 COMPETITORS ANALYZED
Choosing
"I don't know what plant I need."
Caring
"I don't know how to take care of my plants."
Trusting
"I am afraid of getting a sick or dying plant when ordering online."
My team and I heard the same three worries at different stages of the journey: choosing the right plant, placing an order, and keeping the plant alive.
I built a persona around a buyer who wants a beautiful plant that won't die in a couple of months.
THE PERSONA
Kate Danilova
Age: 32 years old
Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Job: Project Manager
MOTIVATION:
Fill an empty space in the apartment; Create coziness at home; Freshen up the room
GOALS:
Select the right plant for her apartment; Receive a beautiful, high-quality plant that won't die after a couple of months
NEEDS:
Detailed information to judge the plant's condition; The ideal conditions for each plant, before she buys; Help choosing; Guarantees and return options; Many clear, high-quality photos
FEARS:
The plant gets damaged in shipping; The plant is sick or rotten; The store blames her for a plant in poor condition; Buying the same plant that already died; Not being able to judge the plant or soiL
THE JOURNEY MAP:
The worry doesn't end at checkout. After delivery, customers wonder how to care for the plant, and a plant that dies can mean they never buy from the shop again.
I turned the findings into three 'How might we' questions: simplify plant selection, reassure buyers the plant is healthy, and help customers learn plant care.
05 / FROM INSIGHT TO DECISION
Three doubts. Every answer in the design.
01
Users didn't know what plant they needed
A 3-minute plant-finder quiz, category navigation, and care-difficulty tags
02
Users didn't know how to care for plants
A downloadable care guide on every product page, a blog, and an "Ask a question" button
03
Buyers feared the plant would arrive sick
A plant health checklist, a free exchange and return guarantee, and customer reviews
04
Services were hidden on the old site
A prominent services section on the homepage
05
The shop felt like a faceless online store
An About Us section with the family story, and a #plantrum photo community
06 / NAVIGATION
Let customers name the groups.
With plants, pots, care products, gift certificates, and services, the catalog needed a structure that felt obvious. In UXTweak, participants sorted 40 cards into groups and named them. We built the navigation from their groupings, then tree-tested it.
40
Cards
4
Categories
100%
Tree-test success
Plants · Care and accessories · Services · Gift certificate
07 / THE SOLUTION
Less guesswork. More thriving plants.
Plant-finder quiz that helps people find the right plant for their space
Eight services, from repotting to event decor, shown right on the homepage, each with an "Order service" button
Product page with size and pot selection, a care guide, and a health checklist
Filters that narrow the catalog down, with sizes shown in real dimensions, care difficulty, light, pet safety, and more
Care guides for beginners and experts that build trust, help people learn, and help new customers find the shop through search
An About Us section to share the family story, and a #plantrum photo to encourage buyer to be a part of a community, and this way promote the business
08 / TESTING
Three problems. Caught early.
With limited time, we ran guerrilla testing on the prototype before moving to the final design.
Search was hard to find
Users struggled to locate the search bar on the catalog page.
Sizes on the filter were confusing
Users didn't know the real dimensions behind S, M, L, and XL.
Quiz was easy to miss
The hero button's label made people expect the catalog, not the quiz.
I fixed these issues before the final design. Sizes now show real dimensions (for example, S: up to 30 cm), and the quiz has its own clearly labeled button. And search was moved to the navbar.
09 / AI IN MY PROCESS
A little help with the heavy lifting.
I used ChatGPT to prepare question lists for the business and user interviews and to cluster interview artifacts during synthesis.
10 / MY ROLE AND WHAT I LEARNED
Leading together. Learning to prioritize.
I led a team of 4 designers and took part in every stage of research and UX/UI design.
01 / Balancing design principles with client requirements
02 / New skill: UX Workshops
03 / Leading a team
04 / Prioritizing the problems that mattered for both users and the business