One of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, Sainsbury’s have been dedicated to helping their customers live well for less since 1869. However, research showed that customers’ perception of their food quality was low.
To change this, they challenged us to create the UK’s number one online food network. Our approach was to build a community designed around the emotional and practical cookery needs of consumers.
Leading the UX and UI teams, we began with extensive research into both consumers and the food network industry, mapping the journey people take as they interact with food-related content - from inspiration to recipes to meal planning to how-tos.
Shoppers have become increasingly active online, searching for ideas and products before buying. And while we found that there was a great deal of content available, what consumers are missing is a food content provider that understands their core needs and considerations: budget and time.
As well as hosting great content that took into account user needs, the design of the Recipe Hub had to be practical for consumers, and the business. Working closely with Sainsbury’s and their partners, we incorporated ‘buy now’ functionality, favourites, and Scrapbooks (a way to collect and organise recipes), allowing people to not only personalise their content but easily turn inspiration into real, home-cooked meals.
To ensure the platform is always relevant we tested these features throughout development, and continue to test optimise as we learn more about people’s tastes and behaviours.
The final result? A fully responsive site that makes the reality of everyday home cooking aspirational and achievable with a mix of fun, practical content, and tools. Recipes Hub caters for what consumers need today and builds on Sainsbury’s core message: live well for less.
In the first quarter of 2018, from January to March, the new Recipes Hub gained 1.3 million unique visitors and 3.9 million page views, with people spending between 1-3 minutes on the site. Once on the site, these shoppers not only spent more on groceries than those on other pages of the site, they were also more likely to add ingredients they hadn’t purchased before to their basket.