UX Case Study

JC Penney | Optical App

Introduction

JC Penney Optical is your one-stop-shop for all your family’s eyewear needs. Whether you need an eye exam, sunglasses, contact lenses, or a great set of frames, JC Penney has got you covered every step of the way. You’ll find a wide selection of fashionable designer and trusted brand name frames, prescription lenses, sunglasses, and contact lenses all at low prices. In addition to the rest of the JC Penney Optical digital experience, the JC Penney Optical in-store kiosk app helps educate the consumer on many of the amazing eyeglass lens packages JC Penney Optical has to offer.

Project goals

How might JC Penney Optical create a simple educational native iOS app that can both raise knowledge and awareness of the consumer around the many eyeglass packages offered?

Problems

The main consumer problems mostly gravitate around the consumer’s knowledge of specialty lens packages that can both save the consumer money and give them a quality product. Most transactions do not include purchases of these lens packages, not because they are not desired but rather because there is a lack of consumer awareness.

Business objectives

JC Penney Optical has found great business value within selling these packages to their consumers from a revenue standpoint and overall trying to serve a quality product/service to their consumers. The business at launch set an aggressive goal of raising eyeglass lens package sales by 25% by year-end.

Targeted persona

The targeted consumers for this digital experience were middle-aged family mothers. Through research, she was found most likely to buy the eyeglass packages for her young family, especially around school season.

The solution

Simple & user-centric

The objective of the initial release of the app was to keep it as shallow as possible. We wanted users to easily navigate through packages and find the right pair of eyeglasses for themselves or a member of their family.

A useful tool for the customer

After releasing the app and letting it live out in the wild we found that as much as it was helping educate the user the app also served as a great marketing tool. The store’s ophthalmologist found the app to be a useful tool for explaining and selling lens packages.

What’s Next?

The number one functionality request from consumers that we have learned so far is that they would like to be able to purchase lens packages through the app. Unfortunately, right now, we are unable to connect the app to an eCommerce service due to technical infrastructure problems. JC Penney is currently investigating how to integrate this functionality but in the meantime designs have been started for the eCommerce platform and hopefully, soon consumers will be able to purchase packages through the app.