Peloton: an incredibly well-known, popular fitness brand.
With their unique online workouts and classes and state-of-the-art equipment, user experience is pivotal to their success, but how does that affect their approach to eCommerce?
On the latest episode of The eCommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives podcast, host Kailin Noivo is joined by Ben Standahl, Former Director of Engineering at Peloton Interactive, to discuss the brand’s innovative approach to eCommerce.
Peloton’s Approach to eCommerce and Customer Experience
A lot of Peloton’s current tech stack centers around powering the front end for the user.
On the front end, they have bespoke reactive experiences managed by engineers to ensure users are always getting the optimum experience. On the back end, they run an order management system and content management system. The latter includes the bulk of the content that is unique to Peloton, such as the workouts and classes, all of which feed into powering the front end.
As a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand, Ben explains that it is imperative for Peloton’s online services to always be accurate and speedy. They utilize different sources of back-end data and GraphQL to guarantee this.
Managing Functionality for Considered Purchases
Peloton products are not bought on a whim; they are very much a considered purchase:
Thus, the website must be functioning consistently and reliably so that whenever a customer is looking for more information on the product, they can access it straight away.
Ben explains that the site has to be durable, resilient, and ready for a large influx of traffic, particularly when there are press releases or new launches. To help manage this, they use dashboards with automated alerts and indicators for when any aspect of the site is running slow or crashing.
When Users Abandon Their Carts
A big issue Peloton encounters is abandoned carts and user sessions, with the true underlying cause often being unclear and unknown. The team goes into troubleshooting mode, trying to establish the reason users are leaving the website. One trend they have noted is that abandoned sessions and carts rates increase in areas with significant public transport routes, such as New York City:
Although only a theory, the team constantly had to consider these potential reasons for site issues. Ben shares that it’s like becoming Sherlock Holmes with the digital sleuthing that goes into ensuring the site is performing.
Peloton’s Take on The AI/ML Revolution
Having been in the tech sphere for almost twenty years, Ben has seen many trends come into play, including the current AI and ML revolution.
Although there have been many attempts to harness the new technologies in ways that are both productive and protective of data, there are still problem areas. One such area is deep personalization as every user is unique. Peloton has been trying to tailor their experiences as much as possible but is struggling with the current state of the software.
Personalized and unified experiences are important to the Peloton brand. They are now looking to unify their offerings across platforms to ensure that users are getting the best experience possible.
One crucial aspect of the best user experience? Avoiding modal overlays that feel intrusive and frustrating, but we’ll let Ben explain that in the episode.
Speaking of, Tune in to the Full Episode Below!
Tune in to this episode of The eCommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives with Ben Stendahl to find out more about the importance of user experiences to the Peloton brand.
👉 Apple: https://apple.co/4a1u2vF
👉 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/40YtNx0
As the Director of Engineering (Web Content and Web Platform) at Peloton Interactive, Ben oversaw all non-fitness web technology in support of the company’s director-to-consumer business, including eCommerce, web frameworks, shared resources, and the deployment principle. Prior to Peloton, Ben held positions as the Director of Digital Media Technologies at iHeartMedia; Product Technology Manager at Google; and Development Manager at Tonzof.
