Recently, I bought a few clothes for my daughter from Myer.
The whole thing started because some of my credit card reward points were about to expire.
So, as someone who almost never shops at Myer, I was basically forced to open their website.
😂
From the moment I landed on the homepage, I didn't really like it.
Maybe I'm just naturally drawn to darker, simpler and more minimal designs.
To me, the Myer website felt a little like walking into a big sale event.
Red signs everywhere.
30% OFF.
50% OFF.
Countdowns.
More offers.
I hadn't even started shopping yet and somehow I already felt under pressure.
Eventually, I ignored everything and went straight to the kids' section.
I picked a few things for Lisa and bought two pairs of shorts for myself.
A few days later, the order arrived.
One pair of my shorts was the wrong size, so I needed to return it.
Simple.
Or so I thought.
This is where things became very strange.
I went into my Myer account, opened my order history and looked for a Return button.
Nothing.
Based on more than a decade of online shopping, the process in my head was very simple:
Open the order.
Select the item I want to return.
Get a return label.
Pay the postage.
Print it.
Drop it at the post office.
Done.
Except...
I couldn't find the return button.
So I called a friend over.
Now there were two of us looking for it.
😂
We searched through the website and eventually found the returns policy page.
There were instructions.
Different return methods.
Lots of information.
We read it.
Then closed it.
Half an hour later, with some help from ChatGPT, we finally realised that the actual return entry point was hidden behind a small piece of text inside that information page.
Click that.
Choose the state.
And there it was.
The return portal.
My friend and I just stared at each other.
In our minds, a Returns Policy page was somewhere you went to read about returns.
We never expected it to be the place where you actually started a return.
Then came the next problem.
I only wanted to return one pair of shorts, not the whole order.
But at that point in the process, I couldn't find a clear way to select just that one item.
Then I had to pay the return postage through their system.
I already have an Australia Post Business account, but I couldn't use it there.
Eventually, after what felt like far too many steps for one pair of shorts, I finally packed them up and sent them back.
At the time of writing this...
I'm still waiting for the refund.
😂
And that entire experience made me think about my own website.
For me, it wasn't really about whether Myer's system was right or wrong.
It was about friction.
If two people who shop online all the time can spend half an hour trying to work out what to do next, something about that experience didn't feel intuitive to us.
And that's exactly what I don't want for Luna & Ray.
I can never experience my own website exactly the way a first-time customer does.
I already know where everything is.
I know what every button does.
I know which product is which.
I know what happens after checkout.
So the best I can do is keep trying to put myself in the position of someone visiting Luna & Ray for the very first time.
I click through it.
I test it.
I read it again.
I look for anything that might be confusing, misleading or simply require one step too many.
And when I find something...
I change it.
Because I want buying a gift from us to feel simple, quick and clear.
And if you ever need to return something, I want that process to feel just as clear.
Just like our products:
Premium. Simple. Thoughtful.
If you've ever found something on our website confusing, or there's a part of the shopping experience that simply doesn't feel right, please tell me.
I genuinely want to know.
You can always reach us at sales@lunaandray.com.au.
And if you'd like to see the website I'm constantly testing, changing and occasionally obsessing over:
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