Client: Empire Company Ltd. (Sobeys, Safeway) • Live as of Aug 2025
Using a Shopping List shouldn’t be this hard
Empire Company Ltd. (Sobeys, Safeway) is one of Canada's top grocery chains.
I was the Lead Product Designer working on the Shopping List feature that was part of revamping their entire online presence.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
Design, Product, Technical, Business
Timeline
Summer 2024, three months
Scope
User interface design, rapid prototyping, cross-functional collaboration, user research, developer handoff
Overview
According to internal company data, less than 5 percent of registered users had created a shopping list.
At the same time, Sobeys' online presence was falling behind its competitors. The time for change had come.
Final design walkthrough — Mobile/Desktop
Problem statement
How might we give users the ability to find top deals in their shopping list, before they step foot in-store?
Constraints
This cannot be a Shopping Cart
Due to technical, timeline, and financial constraints, the Shopping List is just that. A list. Business said we need to be clear about this requirement to users.
The Shopping Cart needed to be designed in future releases.
Research
I conducted 4 user interviews to see how people shopped for groceries
I asked questions about how users viewed the shopping list on Sobeys.com, and how it compared to their typical methods.
Lack of perceived value
4/4 of users did not see the value of using the Shopping List
When I asked them to go through the previous designs, they noticed clear issues in accessing and utilizing the Shopping List.
Identifying MVP Requirements
What would get users to utilize the Shopping List? What would make us unique?
Wireframes
I started off by designing the features in lo-fidelity, and shared the designs with our client stakeholders which received buy-in
Exploration
From a design, business, and technical standpoint, I also explored different variations of the Product Cards, to see which worked best with deals
Final designs
The final designs bring simplicity, easy access to deals, and an eagerness to get users to their end goal
It's as seamless as possible to order for pickup/delivery
The Shopping List is accessible everywhere
Reflection & key learnings
Because the Shopping List touched so many aspects of the website, early alignment within teams on this feature was key
We knew that users would be disappointed with the lack of Shopping Cart in the website, so by adding multiple touchpoints that it would be easy for users to be redirected to Voila, we balanced user needs and financial constraints to provide the best experience possible.