(Currently in closed Beta)
Cheqli
Get the best price on Amazon. Every time.
UX & UI
Web Design
Branding
Wireframes
project Overview
I joined Cheqli early on, as the first (and only) product designer. I designed the application's flow as well as the logo, color scheme and all others aspects related to branding.
The problem
Shopping on Amazon is easy, but doing it right is far from it. People mostly take a one site-one order approach, browsing Amazon.com, adding what they want to their basket and checking out when they're done.
Comparing your basket against all Amazon stores? considering how to best split products to separate orders? taking into consideration all taxes, shipping fees and discounts?
Doing all that to get the very best price - now that's easier said than done.
The Solution
Cheqli does all the heavy-lifting for you, it looks at all the various options for purchasing your basket of products and shows you which one costs the least.
Whether it means purchasing certain products on Amazon.com or a different Amazon store, splitting your basket to multiple orders or more, Cheqli tells you exactly what to do and how, so you get the absolute best price possible.
Preliminary research
target audience
The intended target audience are people aged 20 to 60, belonging to middle-upper middle classes who frequently buy online, trust Amazon's brand and want quality products but not pay more than they should.
competitive analysis
I conducted a survey of the competitive landscape during which I researched alternative solutions already available today:
DIRECT COMPeTITION
Amazon Comparison sites
PricesZone, HaggleZon, Heidoc, etc.
Sites that provide a price comparison service for Amazon provide value by allowing one to compare the price of a specific product across various Amazon stores, but pricing information they provide does not include discounts or shipping and tax costs. In addition, one can only compare a single product at a time, and not a basket of products. Often they are also limited to a small subset of Amazon stores.
Price Comparison Sites
Shopzilla, Zap, Google Shopping, etc.
Such sites allow one to compare the price of a given product across the various sellers they work with, they do not include Amazon stores and often have limited offerings due to the number/identity of sellers they work with. In addition, most suffer from the same issues that Amazon comparison sites suffer from (e.g. only comparing a single product, not including additional costs etc.)
INDIRECT COMPATITION
price tracking sites
CamelCamelCamel, Keepa, Honey etc.
Price tracking services for Amazon provide alerts when a target product’s price drops. Some also help a customer better understand when an actual purchase should be made, in terms of optimizing for price. On the other hand, such trackers are for often not relevant when the intent to buy is immediate nor do they provide final price (i.e. including taxes, shipping etc.)
social media
Facebook groups, influencers etc.
Groups and communities that offer deals on selected products are useful for finding great deals but they have extremely limited selection and are intended for buying that’s more opportunistic in nature, they are not very useful when you already know what you want.
Differentiation
Get the final price (including discounts, taxes, fees etc.)
Optimize for more than just the price (e.g. delivery time, or combination thereof)
Compare a basket of products (and not just a single product)
Cover all Amazon stores globally
challenges
My research showed people buying on Amazon are not aware of hidden costs, misleading product pricing and savings that can result from purchasing different products from different stores, and splitting a basket of products to multiple orders.
misleading pricing
Prices shown are misleading as they often exclude costs such as shipping and local taxes but include irrelevant foreign taxes. Getting the final price for a basket of products is not simple.
unclear availability
Many times a product is unavailable at a certain store but is available in a different one, also it is not possible to know if a product can actually be delivered to you until checking out.
when to buy
It is difficult to predict when is the best time to make a purchase. It could be that a price drop is just around the corner, or maybe a price hike? knowing when to buy can affect the price dramatically.
how to buy
There are many ways to go about purchasing a basket of products, it is impossible to manually go over all the various combinations to find the best price.
Happy path
Cheqli is extremely simple to use, all the user has to do is paste an Amazon link for each desired product, then click “Let’s Go!”. That’s it.
The Product
monetiziation
Cheqli's main revenue stream comes from the Amazon affiliated marketing program, earning commissions on referrals. A secondary monetization channel is by having ad placements in various sections of the website.
easy to use
Using Cheqli is very easy, there are only two steps:
1 Add products from Amazon.
2 Click "Let's go" and see how to purchase your basket of products for the best price.