Designing the “Best Point of Sale They’ve Ever Used”

Wayfair, best known as an online furniture retailer, opened their first physical store. They needed a custom checkout system: fast enough for retail, visual enough for furniture, and capable of handling millions of customizable products. I led design and coordination for their fully customized point of sale.

$3.7M

revenue per year

client satisfaction and retention

"Single handedly the best Point of Sale system I've ever used in my career"

Wayfair store management and staff

My Role

Design Lead & Interim UX Director

Team + Stakeholders

Toshiba
1 VP of Product · 4 Developers · 3 Designers

Wayfair
2 Lead UX Designers · 2 UX Researchers

Action buttons are simplified and relevant to the current status of the screen. Additional buttons can be accessed if needed
Overall design language is more cohesive and modern. Color language is toned down to highlight the most important information
Item information is now grouped more naturally. Item level discounts or other actions can be applied through a more button
Quick toolbar is simplified
Total is easy to read, pay button is located immediately nearby
There is no need for an “Add Delivery Info” button; it can contextually appear if needed once the “Pay Balance” button is tapped

Modernized UI

The original UI for this project utilized a legacy design system, which can be seen throughout the rest of this case study. Below is how I would design this interface without constraints of a legacy design system or needing to maintain alignment with legacy point of sale systems.

The following updates were made:

The overall design language is more cohesive and modern. Color language is toned down to highlight the most important information.
Item information is now grouped more naturally. Item level discounts or other actions can be applied through a more button.
At the bottom, the quick toolbar is simplified.
Action buttons at the top right are simplified and relevant to the current status of the screen. Additional buttons can be accessed if needed.
In the subtotal, there is no need for an “add delivery info” button; it can contextually appear if needed once the “Pay Balance” button is tapped.
Purchase total is decoupled from the pay button which makes it easier to read, with the pay button is located immediately nearby.

Problem

Wayfair needed a point of sale system quickly, but doubted Toshiba could deliver. Tensions were rising.

Wayfair was opening their first brick and mortar on April 1. Wayfair felt that Toshiba’s out-of-the-box solution for high volume retail would not fit their needs, and earlier friction with Toshiba's product leadership had strained the relationship. Toshiba’s UX team was brought in to work with Wayfair and create a custom solution; however, because the UX team was not brought in until December, both the UX Director and Principal Designer were out of the office for the full duration of the project.

I became the interim UX Director, client liaison, and project lead, managing the strained relationship, leading the custom solution, and delivering designs.

Problem

Neither Wayfair nor Toshiba’s solutions were set up for a retail furniture store

Initially, Wayfair wanted the Toshiba UX team to recreate flows they had provided. However, the flows provided were geared more towards online, web-based patterns and not meant for in-person point of sale or touch-based use. Toshiba’s original point of sale platform was geared towards high volume transactions and simple items that were scanned quickly. For a retail furniture store with hundreds of item variations and customizations, both solutions needed significant changes.

Solution

A custom checkout experience for a highly visual, highly configurable product catalog.

The new solution combines the customizability of a robust online furniture catalog with a touch-based point of sale for in-person purchasing. Originally built for a 16:9 format, Wayfair’s custom point of sale solution needed to fit a 4:3 aspect ratio for use on a tablet as well as point of sale hardware.

Detailed item and customization information at a glance.

With a reduced focus on speed, the action palette was condensed. Due to lower transaction volumes and furniture being highly visual and customizable, item rows are now expanded to show images and configuration details to ensure accuracy. Cashiers can easily upsell a customer into a protection plan or item assembly add-on from the main screen, prioritizing a large source of revenue for Wayfair.

Cashiers can find anything Wayfair sells, not just what's on the floor.

Search now covers not only the physical store's inventory, but the entire Wayfair website. Wayfair's wireframes initially listed every item configuration as its own line in search, a problem for both scannability and loading speeds. The redesign instead can group item variants under a single parent item based on SKU.

For item details, Wayfair originally wanted to send cashiers to their website; now item details can be seen directly in the system, with a link to the online catalog if a cashier needs more information.

Customers can determine whether each item is a Carry Out or Ship to Home.

Research during the project revealed a new requirement: large items could be purchased in-store, but may need to be delivered to the customer’s home.

For these items, cashiers can choose the Ship to Home option where a shipping address can then be added or chosen from a customer’s loyalty account. Items shipping at different times are automatically grouped, each group with its own delivery method and date.

Loyalty, addresses, and payment methods follow customers into the store.

Research also showed that Wayfair’s app-based loyalty program was vital for in-store success. Customers can now scan a QR code to link their Wayfair account, bringing in their loyalty rewards and saved delivery addresses, saving time and avoiding errors. Linking the app also unlocks Customer Wallet, a new payment option only available to linked accounts.

Impact

From a doubtful client to "the best point of sale I've ever used."

This custom solution was completed and on the floor of the first Wayfair store on April 1st. Wayfair executives provided feedback that it looked great, with cashiers praising the usability. The previously strained relationship turned into an ongoing partnership. Instead of walking away, Wayfair kept working with Toshiba, requesting updates in April 2023 and further in-store research in September 2023.

$3.7M

revenue per year

client satisfaction and retention

"Single handedly the best Point of Sale system I've ever used in my career"

Wayfair store management and staff