Tuning the Experience of Shopping with Barbora
Overview
Barbora.lt is one of the largest online grocery stores in the Baltics. For many, it’s the go-to way to stock up on everyday essentials without stepping into a physical store. The service saw massive growth during the pandemic and has since become a staple for thousands of households, including our own. That’s exactly why we cared about making it better.
Our relationship with Barbora began in 2019, not through a brief, but through us reaching out. As regular users and design professionals, we saw clear opportunities to improve the overall experience. Our first delivery wasn’t a sales pitch, but a self-initiated audit: a thorough review of their product, complete with recommendations and a few early design directions. That initial outreach opened the door to what became a close, long-term collaboration. Over the next year, we were trusted to help evolve key parts of Barbora’s digital journey - from refining cart and checkout flows to launching the Baltics’ first pickup point functionality.
Shaping the Essentials
Cart, checkout, and delivery - these are the steps that matter most. Early on, some steps felt unnecessarily complicated or confusing, and certain design patterns were holding back what was otherwise a strong, reliable service. Together with the Barbora team, we explored countless iterations - mapping out flows, refining, and adjusting every detail, with hands-on user testing guiding the way.
The result was a smoother, more intuitive user journey that served both first-time shoppers and returning customers. New users were met with a clear, easy-to-follow sign-up and setup process, while regulars benefited from features like saved delivery addresses, cart presets, and streamlined checkout - all designed to make the shopping experience quicker, easier, and genuinely more enjoyable.
Pickup Point Integration
One key milestone was helping Barbora launch their pickup point (PUP) functionality - the first of its kind among grocery retailers in Lithuania. It began with temperature-controlled locker pickups introduced in 2018, and by early 2020 had expanded into drive-in stations accross the country’s biggest cities. Rolled out during the early months of COVID, the service offered a safer, more flexible way to collect orders without contact.
Lockers and drive-in stations have been an integral adaptation during COVID, but have since been discontinued.
