Cutting Checkout Time by 30–40%: Redesigning Metro Cash & Carry's B2B Wholesale App
Improving the B2B wholesale commerce app experience by identifying usability gaps, understanding diverse buyer behaviours, and proposing user-centred design improvements.
Year :
2025
Industry :
Transportation & Mobility
Tools :
Figma,Figjam,Adobe Photoshop
Redesigning APSRTC’s Booking Flow
Improving the online booking experience for Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) by identifying usability gaps and optimizing user flows.
Year Industry Tools
2025 Education Figma, Photoshop
ENHANCING USER EXPERIENCE FOR METRO CASH & CARRY
DelhiCacies is an Indian catering business based in Australia.
The goal was to design a culturally warm yet modern website that communicates authenticity and encourages inquiries from diverse users.
Year Industry Tools
2025 Food & Hospitality Figma, Photoshop
Project Overview
Metro Cash & Carry's mobile app serves wholesale buyers across India kirana store owners, small businesses, and food service providers. While the platform supports bulk ordering, the experience lacked the clarity and efficiency its diverse user base expected. This project focused on evaluating the Metro app identifying usability gaps, benchmarking competitors, and proposing actionable improvements to support digital adoption and repeat usage.
Problem Statement
How might we simplify ordering with quicker reorders, clearer navigation, and better support to reduce time and dependency on call centres?
DelhiCacies is a catering website designed for an Indian food service in Australia. The aim was to build a culturally rooted and visually rich one-pager that would highlight their offerings, story, and unique identity while improving customer interaction and brand appeal. This project involved full-stack UX from user research to design system creation ensuring the digital experience reflects the brand’s festive, Indian heritage.
Challenges Faced by the
Existing Website
While the platform supported core wholesale ordering, structural inconsistencies created friction throughout the journey.
Key Issues Identified
Inconsistent Iconography
Navigation icons did not change state when selected, leaving users with no positional feedback.
Missing Reorder Functionality
No "Buy Again" widget or reorder shortcut users manually re-searched previously purchased items every time.
Cumbersome Product Discovery
The L1/L2/L3 filter hierarchy was unintuitive. No "Recently Viewed" section meant bulk buyers had to restart searches repeatedly.
Incomplete Product Information
Product pages often lacked delivery timelines, quantity breakdowns, and slab pricing clarity critical for wholesale decisions.
No Assisted Purchase Flow
A significant segment preferred ordering via WhatsApp or phone. The app had no path to support them.
Outdated Visual Structure
Inconsistent spacing and MRP text that resembled wireframe placeholders weakened trust in the platform.
Result:Users experienced a fragmented journey particularly during high-frequency reordering, where speed and confidence are critical.
PHASE 0 / WHOLESALE COMMERCE
Reworking a wholesale experience built for everyday business
Metro Cash & Carry's mobile app serves wholesale buyers across India kirana store owners, small businesses, and food service providers. While the platform supports bulk ordering, the experience lacked the clarity and efficiency its diverse user base expected. This project focused on evaluating the Metro app identifying usability gaps, benchmarking competitors, and proposing actionable improvements to support digital adoption and repeat usage.
PHASE 0 / ORDERING EXPERIENCE
Making wholesale ordering faster, clearer,
and easier to repeat
How might we simplify ordering with quicker reorders, clearer navigation, and better support to reduce time and dependency on call centres?
PHASE 1 / EXISTING EXPERIENCE
Uncovering the friction behind everyday wholesale ordering
Kirana store owners use the Metro app to place bulk orders on a regular basis. The platform supported wholesale ordering, but it made experienced, time-pressed buyers work harder than they should at every step.
Key Issues Identified
01. Repeat ordering was slow
Store owners who order largely the same items each time had to re-search for products they'd already bought. For buyers restocking on a regular schedule, that repeated effort added up quickly.
02. Product discovery was hard
The L1/L2/L3 filter hierarchy was unintuitive, and there was no way to return to recently viewed items. Buyers had to restart their search whenever they wanted to revisit a product.
03. Buyers couldn't evaluate products with confidence
Delivery timelines, quantity breakdowns and slab pricing weren't clear on product pages. Store owners who compare margin and discounts before buying couldn't judge value quickly, and some skipped products or looked elsewhere.
04. No path for assisted buyers
A segment of buyers preferred ordering via WhatsApp or phone, and the app offered them no way in. This kept them dependent on manual channels instead of building digital adoption.
05. Searches ended in dead ends
Buyers don't always remember exact product names, and searches with no results gave no guidance on what to do next. Store owners were left to rephrase and retry, or give up and order another way.
06. Building a bulk basket took too many steps
Checking a product's details meant leaving the listing and losing their place, and wishlist items could only be moved to the cart one at a time. For someone assembling a large order, these small interruptions repeated across dozens of items.
Result:Store owners experienced a fragmented journey, especially during high-frequency reordering, where speed and confidence matter most.
PHASE 1 / RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
Understanding how kirana owners actually buy
Digital adoption among kirana store owners is still maturing. The challenge was not to reinvent the ordering model, but to identify where the app was creating unnecessary effort. Key user groups: price-conscious kirana owners, low-tech assisted buyers, and digitally engaged store managers. All groups centred around speed, pricing clarity, and minimal navigation overhead. The end-to-end flow was mapped to surface friction points forming the foundation for redesign.
PHASE 1 / FIELD RESEARCH
Seeing how wholesale buying happens in the real world
To understand the challenges faced by wholesale buyers, I combined field research, heuristic evaluation, and competitive analysis to identify usability issues across the ordering journey.
1-User Observation & Field Research
Conducted on-site visits and interviewed 15 store owners to understand real-world ordering behaviours. Insights were gathered through contextual inquiries, informal conversations, voice notes, and short transcripts.
PHASE 1 / EXPERIENCE AUDIT
Uncovering the friction beneath the interface
2-Heuristic Evaulation
The app was assessed against Nielsen's usability heuristicsto identify where the experience broke down.
The most recurring theme was a lack of feedback icons that didn't respond to taps, searches that ended with no guidance, and MRP text that looked unfinished. Visual inconsistencies across spacing, alignment, and icon styles made the interface feel patchy rather than polished. Small issues individually, but collectively they created an experience that felt untrustworthy for a platform handling bulk business orders.
PHASE 1 / COMPETITIVE SCAN
Looking beyond wholesale for better buying patterns
3-Competitor Analysis
Metro was benchmarked against Flipkart Wholesale, Udaan, Hyperpure, Jumbotail, BB Saathi, and Tezz across reorder widgets, navigation, listing page actions, smart search, and filter depth.
These insights informed design decisions to improve efficiency, clarity, and the overall ordering experience.
User research and competitive analysis were conducted to understand bulk buying behaviors and key pain points.
PHASE 2 / DESIGN DIRECTION
Reducing friction across the everyday buying journey
—Introduce reorder shortcuts to reduce repetitive search loops.
—Implement sticky bottom navigation with clear active states.
—Enable add-to-cart directly from the product listing page.
—Surface recently viewed products for faster revisiting.
—Simplify filters for quicker product discovery.
—Add visual browsing cues to reduce decision fatigue.
—Enable multi-select wishlist for efficient bulk cart transfers.
PHASE 2 / DESIGN STRATEGY
Designing around faster decisions, fewer steps, and repeat buying
The redesign focused on reducing ordering friction and aligning with industry-standard B2B commerce patterns.
1. Streamline the Reorder Flow
A "Buy Again" widget surfaces past purchases from the home screen, eliminating the need to re-search known products.
2. Improve Interaction Consistency
Sticky bottom nav with 5 core actions- Home, Category, Offers, Orders, Account and icon active states for clear positional feedback.
3. Reduce Listing Page Friction
Add-to-cart on PLP. Quick view modal on long press shows slab pricing, profit margin, delivery ETA, and Add to Cart without leaving the listing.
4. Strengthen Visual Hierarchy
Contextual badges (Bestseller, New, Low Stock, Bulk Discount) and colour-coded tags help users skim and decide faster.
5. Align with Industry Standards
Smarter search suggestions, intuitive filter groupings, and offer progress bars to reduce discovery friction.
PHASE 2 / STRUCTURE
Restructuring the journey around how users shop
Based on audit insights, the booking flow was restructured to reduce redundancy and improve clarity:
Boarding and dropping selection consolidated into a single step
Filters repositioned with visible applied tags
Seat layout improved with clearer labelling
Payment methods grouped for easier comparison
Wireframes were created to validate the improved structure before moving to high-fidelity designs.
PHASE 3 / SOLUTION
Turning everyday friction into simpler buying flows
Quick View on PLP
Problem: Entering the PDP and going back breaks browsing flow.
Solution: Long press triggers a modal with slab pricing, profit margin, delivery date, and Add to Cart without losing place on the listing page.
2. Recently Viewed Products
Problem: Revisiting a product means re-searching from scratch.
Solution: Homepage section with thumbnail, title, and quick Add to Cart. Absent on all benchmarked competitors a genuine differentiation opportunity.
3. Sticky Bottom Navigation
Problem: Too many taps to return to core actions; no positional feedback.
Solution: Persistent nav bar with active state colour changes across Home, Category, Offers, Orders, Account.
4. Smart Search
Problem: Users may not recall exact product names; dead ends on no results.
Solution: Popular Searches shown before typing. "Can't Find This Product?" prompt on zero results lets users request items directly.
5. PLP Filters & Sorting
Problem: L1/L2/L3 filter structure is unintuitive.
Solution: Five clear filter groups — Category, Pack Size, Availability, Brand, Discount — with a persistent Show Results button.
6. Multi-Select Wishlist to Cart
Problem: Only one wishlist item can be moved to cart at a time.
Solution: Multi-select checkboxes with "Move Selected to Cart" one tap to transfer multiple items.
Before
After
PHASE 3 / REDESIGN
Bringing the new buying experience together
The final redesigned screens present a simplified and intuitive bus booking experience. The improved layout and flow guide users smoothly from search to payment, creating a faster and more user-friendly journey.'
PHASE 4 / IMPACT
Turning a simpler journey into measurable efficiency
Faster Checkout → Improved Transaction Efficiency
Prototype testing indicated a 30–40% reduction in task completion time after simplifying the checkout flow and removing unnecessary steps. Participants completed bulk orders with fewer interactions and less backtracking, resulting in a more efficient ordering experience.
Better Product Visibility → More Confident Purchase Decisions
Surfacing slab pricing, pack sizes, profit margins, and delivery timelines earlier in the journey helped users compare products more effectively. During testing, participants reported greater confidence in product selection and bulk purchasing decisions.
PHASE 5 / LEARNINGS
What real-world users taught me about friction
Usability isn't always about big changes. Sometimes it's the ten seconds lost because an icon didn't respond, or the frustration of searching for something ordered last week. Those small moments add up. Field research made this real in a way no audit could — talking to store owners showed how little patience users have for anything that slows down their day. The other takeaway: you don't have to do everything better than competitors. You just have to do one thing they haven't thought of.
PHASE 5 / REFLECTION
Designing for the reality behind the screen
Working on this project made one thing clear you can't fully understand a B2B user by looking at screens alone. Visiting kirana stores brought the real context to life: the constant interruptions, the speed at which decisions are made, and how little room there is for confusion in a working day. Metro has strong brand recognition offline. The challenge is carrying that trust into the digital experience. Users weren't struggling because the product catalogue was lacking they were struggling because moving through it took too much effort. If taken further, the next step would be putting the proposed designs in front of real users across all three personas not to validate assumptions, but to find the next layer of friction that only shows up when someone actually uses it.
VIEW OTHER PROJECTS
Project Research & Discovery
Digital adoption among kirana store owners is still maturing. The challenge was not to reinvent the ordering model, but to identify where the app was creating unnecessary effort. Key user groups: price-conscious kirana owners, low-tech assisted buyers, and digitally engaged store managers. All groups centred around speed, pricing clarity, and minimal navigation overhead. The end-to-end flow was mapped to surface friction points forming the foundation for redesign.
UX Audit
A multi-layered audit combined heuristic evaluation, persona development, competitive benchmarking, and on-site field research to uncover usability issues across the ordering journey.
1-User Observation & Field Research
On-site visits to local kirana stores in Bangalore surfaced real-world ordering behaviours and pain points through informal conversations, voice notes, and short transcripts.
2-Heuristic Evaulation
The app was assessed against Nielsen's usability heuristicsto identify where the experience broke down.
The most recurring theme was a lack of feedback icons that didn't respond to taps, searches that ended with no guidance, and MRP text that looked unfinished. Visual inconsistencies across spacing, alignment, and icon styles made the interface feel patchy rather than polished. Small issues individually, but collectively they created an experience that felt untrustworthy for a platform handling bulk business orders.
Research insights on bulk buying guided design improvements for efficiency, clarity, and ordering experience.
3-Competitor Analysis Metro was benchmarked against Flipkart Wholesale, Udaan, Hyperpure, Jumbotail, BB Saathi, and Tezz across reorder widgets, navigation, listing page actions, smart search, and filter depth.
Metro was benchmarked against Flipkart Wholesale, Udaan, Hyperpure, Jumbotail, BB Saathi, and Tezz across reorder widgets, navigation, listing page actions, smart search, and filter depth.
Redesign Goals
—Introduce reorder shortcuts to reduce repetitive search loops.
—Implement sticky bottom navigation with clear active states.
—Enable add-to-cart directly from the product listing page.
—Surface recently viewed products for faster revisiting. —Simplify filters for quicker product discovery.
—Add visual browsing cues to reduce decision fatigue. —Enable multi-select wishlist for efficient bulk cart transfers.
Wireframing & Iteration
Low-fidelity wireframes tested improved layouts across key screens Homepage, PLP, Quick View Modal, Filters, Wishlist, Smart Search, and Bottom Navigation. Multiple explorations refined hierarchy and CTA placement before moving to final designs.
Final UI
The final redesigned screens present a simplified and intuitive bus booking experience. The improved layout and flow guide users smoothly from search to payment, creating a faster and more user-friendly journey.'
Before & After
Before: The original interface lacked clear hierarchy and contained repetitive steps, making the booking process confusing and inefficient. After: The redesigned screens introduce a cleaner layout, streamlined flow, and clearer interactions, enabling users to book tickets more quickly and confidently.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
Before
After
Before
After
Information Architecture
Based on audit insights, the booking flow was restructured to reduce redundancy and improve clarity:
Boarding and dropping selection consolidated into a single step
Filters repositioned with visible applied tags
Seat layout improved with clearer labelling
Payment methods grouped for easier comparison
Wireframes were created to validate the improved structure before moving to high-fidelity designs.
Key UX Improvements
1. Quick View on PLP
Problem: Entering the PDP and going back breaks browsing flow.
Solution: Long press triggers a modal with slab pricing, profit margin, delivery date, and Add to Cart without losing place on the listing page.
2. Recently Viewed Products
Problem: Revisiting a product means re-searching from scratch.
Solution: Homepage section with thumbnail, title, and quick Add to Cart. Absent on all benchmarked competitors a genuine differentiation opportunity.
3. Sticky Bottom Navigation
Problem: Too many taps to return to core actions; no positional feedback.
Solution: Persistent nav bar with active state colour changes across Home, Category, Offers, Orders, Account.
4. Smart Search
Problem: Users may not recall exact product names; dead ends on no results.
Solution: Popular Searches shown before typing. "Can't Find This Product?" prompt on zero results lets users request items directly.
5. PLP Filters & Sorting
Problem: L1/L2/L3 filter structure is unintuitive.
Solution: Five clear filter groups — Category, Pack Size, Availability, Brand, Discount — with a persistent Show Results button.
Multi-Select Wishlist to Cart
Problem: Only one wishlist item can be moved to cart at a time.
Solution: Multi-select checkboxes with "Move Selected to Cart" one tap to transfer multiple items.
Design Strategy
The redesign focused on refining existing interactions and removing friction not introducing unnecessary features.
1. Streamline the Reorder Flow
A "Buy Again" widget surfaces past purchases from the home screen, eliminating the need to re-search known products.
2. Improve Interaction Consistency
Sticky bottom nav with 5 core actions- Home, Category, Offers, Orders, Account and icon active states for clear positional feedback.
3. Reduce Listing Page Friction
Add-to-cart on PLP. Quick view modal on long press shows slab pricing, profit margin, delivery ETA, and Add to Cart without leaving the listing.
4. Strengthen Visual Hierarchy
Contextual badges (Bestseller, New, Low Stock, Bulk Discount) and colour-coded tags help users skim and decide faster.
5. Align with Industry Standards
Smarter search suggestions, intuitive filter groupings, and offer progress bars to reduce discovery friction.
Business Impact
Faster Checkout → Improved Transaction Efficiency Reduced purchase completion time by simplifying the flow and removing unnecessary steps. This led to an estimated reduction in task time (30–40%) during testing, enabling users to complete transactions quicker and improving overall throughput.
Reduced Friction → Better Conversions Streamlined navigation and improved visual hierarchy to reduce confusion. This resulted in smoother user progression and an increase in successful task completion observed during usability testing.
Key Learnings
Usability isn't always about big changes. Sometimes it's the ten seconds lost because an icon didn't respond, or the frustration of searching for something ordered last week. Those small moments add up. Field research made this real in a way no audit could — talking to store owners showed how little patience users have for anything that slows down their day. The other takeaway: you don't have to do everything better than competitors. You just have to do one thing they haven't thought of.
Project Takeaways
Working on this project made one thing clear you can't fully understand a B2B user by looking at screens alone. Visiting kirana stores brought the real context to life: the constant interruptions, the speed at which decisions are made, and how little room there is for confusion in a working day. Metro has strong brand recognition offline. The challenge is carrying that trust into the digital experience. Users weren't struggling because the product catalogue was lacking they were struggling because moving through it took too much effort. If taken further, the next step would be putting the proposed designs in front of real users across all three personas not to validate assumptions, but to find the next layer of friction that only shows up when someone actually uses it.
