Intro

Discovery

Define

Develop

One Price

A/B 1

A/B 2

A/B 3

Home page

Delivery

Intro

AliExpress is the largest online marketplace in the CIS region. When I joined AliExpress, the platform was popular, with 30 million users per month. However, it faced a critical issue—the design was outdated, and user reviews were less than favorable.

I was tasked with “improving the design” and essentially leading a redesign without a complete overhaul. The goal sounded promising, but the specifics were unclear. What did “improve design” actually mean?

Discovery: Understanding the Problems

The first step was to define the main problems. I began with a deep dive into user feedback, analyzing hundreds of reviews to understand their main frustrations.

Analyzing User Feedback

Why are there so many pop-ups
Every time I open a new page, I get bombarded with pop-ups for deals or new products. It’s annoying and makes the site feel spammy. I just want to browse without being interrupted constantly. It’s really distracting, and I’ve almost left the site several times because of it
Customer service is hard to reach
I had an issue with an order, and trying to get in touch with customer service was a nightmare. There’s no clear path to contact someone for help, and when I did manage to find a link, the response time was incredibly slow. The whole experience made me not want to shop here again
Misleading product information
It’s so frustrating when the product description doesn’t match what’s actually being sold. I bought a shirt that looked great in the pictures, but when it arrived, it was completely different. There’s no consistency in the way information is presented, and it makes me hesitant to trust anything I see
Mobile experience is awful
I mostly shop from my phone, and the mobile version of the site is terrible. Buttons are too small, and sometimes they don’t even respond when I tap on them. The product images take ages to load, and I can’t even use the filters properly because they’re hidden in some tiny dropdown that’s hard to find.
Why is it so hard to leave a review?
I tried leaving a review for a product I bought, but the system kept kicking me out or making me re-log in. By the time I figured it out, I didn’t even care anymore. I’ve never had this much trouble leaving reviews on other sites.
Product details are all over the place
There’s no clear layout for product details. Sometimes I have to scroll down through a ton of unrelated information before I even get to the sizing or shipping details. It’s chaotic, and I end up missing important details because everything’s just thrown together
It takes forever to load
Pages take so long to load! Sometimes I think it’s my internet, but other apps load fine. It’s like the marketplace is bloated, and every time I click on something, I have to wait for images and buttons to appear. It makes me want to abandon the whole thing
Searching for specific items is impossible
I was trying to search for a specific brand, but the search bar kept giving me irrelevant suggestions. And when I tried to filter by brand, the options were either too broad or didn’t apply to what I was looking for. It made me feel like I couldn’t find anything I needed, even though I know it’s sold here
Ugly design makes me not want to shop
Honestly, the site looks so outdated and messy. There’s no consistency in the design, and it’s overwhelming to navigate. The product images are often low quality, and there’s just too much going on on every page. It doesn’t feel like a professional marketplace
Checkout is confusing
The whole purchase process feels complicated. It’s not clear when my payment has been processed, and I kept getting bounced back to the cart page for no reason. I almost gave up on buying because it’s just too confusing to figure out where I am in the process
Too much scrolling!
The font is so big and the layout is clunky. I have to scroll forever just to read basic product descriptions or see reviews. Why can’t all the important information be visible at once? I’m used to other shopping apps that are so much easier to navigate. This is exhausting!
Finding products is a nightmare
The filters are completely useless. I tried narrowing down my search for shoes by size, and the results were just as random as before. It feels like the filters are broken or don’t actually work, so I end up scrolling through hundreds of irrelevant products. It’s super frustrating and time-consuming.

From the feedback, I identified five main pain points:

Visually outdated design

Complicated navigation

Hard-to-Reach Customer Service

Poor Mobile Experience

Dark theme

Analyzing Business Needs

To make sure the redesign supported the company’s goals, I gathered insights from the directors and reviewed the main KPIs and objectives. This helped me align the redesign with business priorities. Through these talks and KPI review, I identified several key business needs:

Inconsistent design

Limited promotional spaces

Weak brand identity

Ineffective homepage

Prioritizing the Problems

After reviewing both user and business needs, I selected two top priorities, or P0 issues, to tackle first:

Visually outdated design

Ineffective homepage

Here’s why:

1. Outdated design was a major issue for users, affecting trust and engagement across the site. Updating it would improve the user experience and modernize the brand’s image.

2. Ineffective homepage directly impacted conversions and user engagement. Redesigning it would provide a more welcoming, engaging entry point for users and improve key business metrics.

By focusing on these priorities, I could make changes that would benefit both users and the business.

Visual Appeal

Though aesthetics are subjective, we could still measure them objectively. I used VisAWI (Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory) methodology and measured key dimensions: Simplicity, Diversity, Colorfulness, and Craftsmanship

Old app

I conducted a survey, asking 300 respondents 12 questions focused on main sections: homepage, search, product page, checkout, and cart. Here’s where we stood:

• Simplicity: Average score = 5.45

• Diversity: Average score = 5.29

• Colorfulness: Average score = 3.88

• Craftsmanship: Average score = 3.86

Colorfulness and craftsmanship were our weakest points.

Users survey

Who is our core audiece

Our primary audience includes middle-aged adults and young women, but it lacks the typical FMCG demographic. AliExpress serves unique purposes and use cases.

Core audience

What do we sell

Five main product groups generate 90% of our gross merchandise value (GMV).

Electronics
23%

Parts
16%

Home organization: 18%

Fashion
31%

Hobby
10%

Define: Setting the Redesign Goals

With insights into our audience, design measurement criteria, and key issues, I was ready to set the redesign goals. Since there were many problems to solve, I tackled them one at a time, starting with an isolated project as a test case.

I wanted to try a new design approach to one separated project — then measure it — then spread over other parts

Develop: Crafting the Solutions

One Price Design

For the test, we chose the One Price channel. This channel was a good starting point since the current design was outdated, and it lacked a distinctive concept.

Old app

One Price is a channel where all products share a fixed price. We experimented with a coin theme, symbolizing uniform pricing. Tested it in product and aligned with our brand vision

One Price brand and app redesign

It was time for A/B tests!

A/B #1. Overview

We made list of changes:
-replaced “add to basket” button to a basket icon to make more clear intention (like Ikea does)
-added price of selected products
-made a UI redesign (a new colors and shares)

So, after first A/B test we found a 7.65% drop in orders. This outcome was surprising, as users had shown a strong preference for the new design in surveys. However, the “devil was in the details”. We reviewed the issues and refined the design with new hypotheses

A/B #2. Overview

We made list of hypothethis:  
- move back “+” icon instead of a basket icon  
- don’t show summary in the button to basket  
- show the price in the product deskription page  
- don’t show summary amount in basket  

Some hypothethis were confirmed, but not all and total orders were still less for 4%

A/B #3. Overview

In our final iteration, we:
- Revised button copy
- Made CTAs more prominent

This time, total orders increased by 7.3%!

Home Page

Encouraged by the results, we moved on to the homepage. It needed to balance sales from the recommendations feed with driving traffic to other channels and promotions.

We analyzed every aspect of the page: 43% of revenue came from the search field, 35% from recommendations (even though it wasn’t in the first viewport), and 15% from other channels like One Price. Promo banners took up a large portion of the screen but received little interaction. Business stakeholders wanted to retain these banners, but we also needed to optimize the layout.

Visually outdated design