Improving Maktabkhooneh’s shopping cart conversion

Goal & role

Help more learners complete their purchase

The goal was to improve a cart conversion rate of approximately 39%. I collaborated with a product manager and a developer to identify friction, test solutions and monitor conversion.

My work covered user interviews, personas, usability testing and behavior analysis through Microsoft Clarity recordings and heatmaps. WebEngage surveys and conversion tracking connected the research to business results.

Research

Seven interviews and around 200 survey responses

Over four days, I contacted 15 users by phone and completed seven interviews. Open-ended questions explored their values, motivations and course-purchase habits.

After observing repeated cart-item removals, we surveyed around 200 participants through WebEngage. We asked whether price, course content, timing, a more suitable course or discount-code issues had influenced their decision.

Personas

Six ways learners approached a purchase

We created six personas from interviews and surveys, updating them as new evidence emerged.

• Discount Seeker
• Course Researcher
• First-Time User
• Impulse Buyer
• Bargain Hunter
• Return Visitor

Usability findings

Unclear actions and distractions compounded purchase concerns

Research identified six issues behind item removal and cart abandonment. Usability sessions highlighted an unclear purchase action and distracting content that drew learners away from checkout.

• High course prices
• Discount-code issues
• Timing preferences
• Content quality concerns
• Page distractions
• Unclear purchase action

Design decisions

A clearer action, a quieter cart

1. 01

   Make the purchase action more prominent

   Clarify the next step and change the accent color to reduce the sense of danger and loss associated with the previous color.

2. 02

   Remove distractions from checkout

   Promotional content sent users out of the cart, while multiple payment options caused confusion and longer time on task. The redesign focused attention on essential actions.

3. 03

   Simplify course cards and price presentation

   Reduce competing information, make course choices easier and show discounts numerically so the savings feel tangible.

Results

From 39.62% to 44.22% conversion

The redesigned shopping cart increased conversion by 4.60 percentage points. My CV reports this improvement within one month.

The supplied conversion screenshots compare October 7–12 with October 14–19, 2024. These reporting dates are separate from the four-week design timeline.

Learning & next steps

Pair qualitative feedback with quantitative evidence

Small design changes, grounded in user insights, can improve conversion. Combining interview feedback with behavior data helped us address real pain points, while close cross-functional collaboration kept decisions connected to measurable outcomes.

We split solutions into two implementation phases. A future iteration would let learners select their learning start date to address timing concerns; this is a planned improvement, not a shipped result.

Broader contribution

Beyond the shopping cart

During my time at Maktabkhooneh (February 2022–January 2025), I also redesigned product cards, increasing click-through rate by 70% within a year, and revamped the student dashboard, reducing account-related support tickets by 30%.

I designed 14+ campaign landing pages, a Maktab Business employee-learning management panel and an instructor panel for creating, publishing and tracking course performance and sales. These are separate projects, not outcomes of the cart redesign.