Reimagining the In-Store Printing Experience for Multiple End-Users
“When it comes to actual deliverables, Katlan has exceeded stakeholder expectations. Product managers and National Bid Center (NBC) stakeholders have been impressed with her ability to create thoughtful designs in record speed, and they have called this out on multiple occasions. She has folks stirring with excitement with the solutions that she's come up with.”
— LE REING, FEDEX ENGAGEMENT LEAD
Role
Lead Designer
Client
FedEx Office
Timeline
6 Months
PROBLEM EXPLAINED
FedEx Office, a leading printing company with over 2,000 locations, offers customized printing solutions. For complex projects, customers often seek competitive quotes, leading to a “bidding” process where FedEx competes with other retailers to win the customer sale.
This existing functionality lived within a legacy system, that was set to be retired by the end of 2024. I lead the initiative to completely redesign the bidding experience within an internal FedEx built system called, FUSE. FUSE (FedEx Unified Store Experience) is the platform that allows employees to manage printing and shipping transactions across their 2,000 storefronts.
What is “Bidding”?
Bidding describes the in-store experience of a customer requesting a quote for high-volume or complex project and the store team member building the project & collaborating with the NBC to apply significant discounts, in efforts to win the sale.
Why was a redesign needed?
Bidding was functionality that existed in a legacy system that was set to retire soon. Due to the upcoming system retirement, this functionality needed to be rebuilt and designed for an internal tool.
IMPACT SNEAK PEEK 🪄
Keep scrolling to see more about the following achievements.
Introduced an omnichannel revenue generator.
Decreased time gap between quote request & checkout.
Improved discounting efficiency.
Understanding the goals of all users
Store Team Members
Goals
Configure and deliver accurate projects tailored to customer needs
Communicate effectively with NBC while maintaining strong customer relationships
Maintain visibility into quotes and updates to help win and retain customer business
Concerns
Customers are often unhappy with the original FedEx quote price and may express hesitation or frustration when told they’ll have to wait 24 hours or more for an accurate quote.
FedEx Bid Center
Goals
Offer competitive pricing while maintaining FedEx profitability
Enable fast, clear communication across store team members working on the same quote
Provide visibility into quote details, history, to provide proper customer support.
Concerns
They need to significantly cut down the time it takes to discount a quote, in order to get quotes back to the customer faster. Currently, it can take to 2 days for complex projects—by this time they’ve likely lost the sale.
Customers
Goals
Receive a quote within their personal or company budget.
Get their project printed and completed in a timely manner.
Receive discounts based on project volume.
Concerns
They are unconcerned with brand loyalty and looking for the best price. If shoppers leave the store unhappy with the quoted price, they are very unlikely to come back and complete the sale.
Key Pain Points Across All Users
We’re always racing against the clock just to apply discounts. It takes 45+ minutes to discount something down to a price the customer will be happy with. If we’re working on a project for 1 school with 20 departments, a project that size can take us up to 3 days to get it discounted correctly. We’re discounting, but also trying to prevent revenue leakage. We have to remain profitable.
Angela Davis
National Bid Center
A lot of times, customers are not happy with the original price, so that’s when we bring in the NBC. Customers are typically happy with the NBC price, but it’s just the timing that’s the biggest factor. Depending on the season, it can take a couple days to get a quote back, and by that point, we’ve typically lost the customer.
Charles Jennings
FedEx Office Store Manager
The Journey of the Discount Modal
Discounting is too complex in functionality to limit to a pop-up modal. The limited size may negatively impact page load, performance, and efficiency.
Limited amount of space for such a complex task may lead to user frustration.
No way to review discounts in table view.
Abundant amount of white space; Inefficient use of space Could lead to an unnecessary amount of eye tracking across the entire width of the screen.
Discount reason was no longer a “mandatory field”; unnecessary step for user to take every time.
Certain discount types would only be available at certain discount levels. This meant, we would need to introduce active/disabled discount input fields for the different tabs.
The design underwent 4 different versions during workshops with stakeholders and cross-functional partners to get to the final design.
Users are able to discount at a variety of discount levels such as quote level, project level, and SKU level enhancing their overall capabilities within the tool..
Users are able to discount with a variety of discount types such as percent off, dollars off, promotion codes, and price overrides.
Closing the gap for undecided customers
What is the Problem?
During the design process, I realized we hadn't addressed a common in-store issue: customers getting a quote and leaving with just a piece of paper. Most customers tend to lose or toss paper easily.
Once customers have left the store, they are highly unlikely to return to continue with the quote in most cases. We needed a solution for customers to continue the quote approval process from home, without needing to call or return to the store.
The Solution
My proposed solution was, instead of offering the customer a printed bid letter on their way out, we would save their quote to their customer profile online and allow them to view, manage, and request edits from the comfort of their homes.
Impact
Team members can communicate directly with customers regarding their quote from FUSE to the eComm platform.
Customer can preview their products from their devices and request changes online, avoiding travel to their nearest store.
Customer can approve the quote and checkout for store pickup online.
Allowed for an additional stream of revenue for bidding (eCommerce + Store).
DESIGN WINS
✂️ OLD DESIGN
Legacy System Design (Old Design)
OTP was functional in usage, but had flaws in design effectiveness and efficiency. Many users experienced:
Cognitive Overload
Difficulty locating key functionality
Time-consuming functions
Unnecessarily complex user flows
Confusion on how to perform key tasks
✨ NEW DESIGN
Fuse System
Qualitative Outcomes:
Defined clear mental models for team members by providing a split discount modal.
Opened new stream of revenue through eCommerce bidding
Decreased time spent on creating & discounting a bid/quote through efficient workflows
Shortened time gap between quote request & quote approval through simplifying the design
Enabled customer autonomy by allowing quote review & checkout online.
Improved filtering capability for team members needing advanced searching functionality to identify key quote details.
Improved team communication & visibility into quote details, allowing team members to provide real-time updates to customers on the progress of their quote.
Improved discounting effectiveness & efficiency by allowing team members to discount at quote, project, and SKU levels with a simplified interface.
This feature is now live in stores as of late 2025.
MY INTERNAL IMPACT
Over three years, I partnered with FedEx Office to deliver meaningful product and experience improvements while leading internal change management initiatives. By building trust with stakeholders, managers, and executives, I identified opportunities to optimize processes and create lasting organizational impact.
Presented 4 Executive Feature Presentations
Led three collaborative design workshops to iterate on designs, resolve technical constraints, refine user flows, and ensure seamless integration into FUSE.
Jonathan Reyes, FedEx Senior Manager Design & Research
Organized & Led 3 Design Workshops
“Katlan and I work great together! She quickly understood the vision for bidding and nailed it on first attempt and has been a trooper in support. Love her amazing attitude and willingness to be open when suggestions are made.”
John Scott, FedEx Digital Product Manager
