How I dropped off from Flintobox.com and ended up writing this UX note

How would you feel if you went to Maruti Suzuki showroom to buy a brand new car, and the salesman starts pitching you a daily cab service?

Yes, that is what Flintobox.com did on their website.

I was searching for an activity box subscription for my two-year niece. I was going through Magic Crate, XploraBox, and Flintobox. For starters, these are all activity box subscriptions for kids aged 2 to 12 years. They deliver one box to you every month, which contains some 4-5 activities for your kid. The average cost hovers around INR 8K to 10K a year.

While all of these are good activity solutions for kids, Flitobox took me by surprise.

How?

I land on their website (flintobox.com); they ask me to choose the age of the child. I click on one of the age options and boom! I am suddenly on home.flintoclass.com, and the copy reads, "Flintobox Launches Flintoclass@HOME For Everyday Learning."

I was confused to start with as I was expecting a pitch for the 'Product', but here I was pitched a 'Service'. The next question was, how do I go back to the 'box' website? After trying a couple of times, I decided to check this 'class' stuff. I checked prices as well, and I see the range was 3x of other players. And for a fact, Flinto had a similar price range as well but is not there anymore.

For some context, the following is the landing page at Flintobox.com.

And the below is where you land once you choose the age group

At this point, I vaguely remember going through this on my mobile and immediately dropping off a week before; and realized that they seem to have changed their business model and moved to a 'Service' instead of 'Product'. On digging some more realized that it seems the company is in the middle of changing the business model, and there are some ways, I can still reach those old pages to order the 'box' subscription.

Now that I had spent enough time digging this, instead of buying, I decided to write the following note on the UX. I hope this also helps the team at Flinto in some way.

Messaging

I entered their funnel using their 'box' site, and hence they know that following are my expectations

• Looking for a 'Product' subscription
• Price range 7K to 10K per year (yes all players are in similar range)

While the home page talks only about Flintobox, on the next click, I am taken to the 'service' website. Not only that, but the only context given is that they are the same company launching 'class' service. At this point, I am already feeling being in the wrong place. Also, the price is 3x of what I was looking for. Appropriate messaging to address these two shocks may help users a lot.

Answer the curious question first

Here my curious question is not answered. Where is the Flintobox? Do you sell those 'boxes' or not?

If not on the 'box' site, after bringing the user to the 'class' site, inform them that you have stopped selling the box activities (assuming it is stopped). If you don't answer the primary question the user is trying to figure out, they cannot focus on your pitch (in this case, Flintoclass). That is what I did, I went back on the original website, tried to remove all the extension in the URL, instead of reading their pitch about 'class.'

Let go

While not letting customers know that you have stopped the old product helps in keeping the user in the funnel for some time, it does more harm eventually as the user is confused.

A confused user can hardly make any buying decision.

Instead, guide the user, inform and let go if they are not interested in the new service. It will help in cleaning the funnel if not help sell the new service.

Closing remarks

Given the above UX gaps and assuming the team is trying to extract maximum out of the original business, why not cross-sell /upsell?

Keeping the old product alive and upselling the 'class' service on top of it may work out much better if the primary motive is to utilize the traffic to the 'box' site (while you start acquiring customers for 'class' service through the other channels). As a user, I had a price shock as I was expecting a product, but I was pitched a service. I would be more receptive if I were allowed to make a buying decision for the product, and then services are pitched once I am already moving forward. It may be a slow start but helps achieve a smooth transition for Flintobox.com funnel. Also, the price ranges are so different that those are targeting completely different needs and maybe a different segment of customers. In such a case, upselling to users entering through the 'box' site may end up with a higher conversion rate.

Note: Based on the experience of the websites, it is an assumption that they are killing the product subscription and focusing on the new model. If it is not valid, I would be even more shocked about the UX that doesn't allow buying the box subscription.