dsdlink + paylink
Role
Lead Designer
Company
Encompass Technologies
Timeline
3 months
Background
Encompass provides itself on creating "maker-to-market solutions for the modern beverage industry." Their retail ordering platform, dsdlink, gives beverage retailers a single place to order product from all of their distributors at once.
I was approached to design an integrated payment platform into dsdlink called paylink, to address distributor's concerns with outstanding payments from their retailers. After auditing the current retailer experience, I advocated for a redesign of the entire platform to help address falling sentiment from our retailers surrounding Encompass products.
Background
Encompass provides itself on creating "maker-to-market solutions for the modern beverage industry." Their retail ordering platform, dsdlink, gives beverage retailers a single place to order product from all of their distributors at once.
I was approached to design an integrated payment platform into dsdlink called paylink, to address distributor's concerns with outstanding payments from their retailers. After auditing the current retailer experience, I advocated for a redesign of the entire platform to help address falling sentiment from our retailers surrounding Encompass products.
Background
Encompass provides itself on creating "maker-to-market solutions for the modern beverage industry." Their retail ordering platform, dsdlink, gives beverage retailers a single place to order product from all of their distributors at once.
I was approached to design an integrated payment platform into dsdlink called paylink, to address distributor's concerns with outstanding payments from their retailers. After auditing the current retailer experience, I advocated for a redesign of the entire platform to help address falling sentiment from our retailers surrounding Encompass products.
Problem statement
Problem statement
Problem statement
Beverage distributors are struggling to collect payment efficiently from all of their retail customers that order online. How can we encourage retailers to pay their distributors on time, while being sensitive to the funds they might have available?
Audit
It didn’t take me long to realize that designing only a payment flow wasn’t going to cut it. After reviewing the entire ordering experience, it was obvious that dsdlink was built as a series of individual pages, rather than a full experience for retailers.
Audit
It didn’t take me long to realize that designing only a payment flow wasn’t going to cut it. After reviewing the entire ordering experience, it was obvious that dsdlink was built as a series of individual pages, rather than a full experience for retailers.
Audit
It didn’t take me long to realize that designing only a payment flow wasn’t going to cut it. After reviewing the entire ordering experience, it was obvious that dsdlink was built as a series of individual pages, rather than a full experience for retailers.
With completely different headers and ways of representing products, each page seemed as if it was designed completely independent from the rest of the product.
dsdlink was incredibly outdated, with inconsistent branding and lackluster organization of information.
The retailer experience was incredibly outdated, with inconsistent branding and lackluster organization of information.
There was no real onboarding experience for new users. This is an example of the first page new retailers would land on.
There was no onboarding experience for new users. This is an example of the first page new retailers would land on.
Design principles
After mapping the entire user experience for dsdlink and hearing about how it was developed, I put together a list of core objectives that a redesign would need to accomplish.
Design principles
After mapping the entire user experience for dsdlink and hearing about how it was developed, I put together a list of core objectives that a redesign would need to accomplish.
Design principles
After mapping the entire user experience for dsdlink and hearing about how it was developed, I put together a list of core objectives that a redesign would need to accomplish.
Focus on bringing the core journey to the forefront of the experience.
Make actions predictable by giving system objects (products, orders, etc.) a consistent visual design across the product.
Update the product styling to be consistent with the Encompass brand.
The new approach
Simplified navigation - The core shopping experienced was simplifed to three pages: Home, Shop, and Orders
The platform was brought to modern e-commerce standards, but also optimized for a retailer's unique experience. Features like "Recent products" and managing multiple orders from the cart gave dsdlink a competitive edge.
The new approach
Simplified navigation - The core shopping experienced was simplifed to three pages: Home, Shop, and Orders
The platform was brought to modern e-commerce standards, but also optimized for a retailer's unique experience. Features like "Recent products" and managing multiple orders from the cart gave dsdlink a competitive edge.
The new approach
Simplified navigation - The core shopping experienced was simplifed to three pages: Home, Shop, and Orders
The platform was brought to modern e-commerce standards, but also optimized for a retailer's unique experience. Features like "Recent products" and managing multiple orders from the cart gave dsdlink a competitive edge.
Payments - A "first of it's kind" payment experience provided retailers a quick way to pay what they were able to week to week.
Giving retailers control gave them trust in the dsdlink experience, and kept them coming back to pay instead of writing physical checks to their sales reps.
Payments - A "first of it's kind" payment experience provided retailers a quick way to pay what they were able to week to week.
Giving retailers control gave them trust in the dsdlink experience, and kept them coming back to pay instead of writing physical checks to their sales reps.
Payments - A "first of it's kind" payment experience provided retailers a quick way to pay what they were able to week to week.
Giving retailers control gave them trust in the dsdlink experience, and kept them coming back to pay instead of writing physical checks to their sales reps.
Impact
After the redesigned was launched in 2021, a huge chunk of distribution customers have adopted dsdlink + paylink for their retailers, and saw significant business benefit:
Impact
After the redesigned was launched in 2021, a huge chunk of distribution customers have adopted dsdlink + paylink for their retailers, and saw significant business benefit:
Impact
After the redesigned was launched in 2021, a huge chunk of distribution customers have adopted dsdlink + paylink for their retailers, and saw significant business benefit:
Distributors who had their retailers pay using dsdlink + paylink saw a 7% increase in revenue year over year.
Distributors using paylink to process payments save an average of 11 hours weekly on payment processing and reconciliation.
Large business entities in the bev-alc sector have endorsed dsdlink as the platform of choice for their distributors.
Large business entities in the beverage industry have endorsed dsdlink as the platform of choice for their distributors.