When I first started looking into the online tire shopping experience, I realized something surprising: for most customers, buying tires online was not just hard — it was confusing to the point of abandonment. Unlike buying clothes or electronics, tire shopping requires knowing a very specific technical detail: your tire size.

But here’s the catch — 72% of buyers felt overwhelmed by the variety of tire sizes, brands, and specs. Many didn’t even know where to find their tire size. As a result, website adoption rates for tire shopping hovered around just 8%. That was the starting point for this project.

Discovering the Problem

I sat down with customers and quickly saw the frustration:

• They had to dig through their car manual or check the side of their tire for numbers like P215/60R16 94T.
• Even after finding the size, they were confronted with dozens of brands, prices, and technical terms.
• Without guidance, many simply abandoned the cart or called the store.

One manager put it bluntly:

“We’re losing sales because customers are confused before they even start shopping.”

That line stuck with me. If we wanted to grow online, we needed to guide, not overwhelm.

Research & Insights

User Research

From interviews and support call data, I mapped the buyer journey:

• Confusion about where to find tire size.
• Overwhelmed by the range of options.
• Distrust about making the wrong choice.
• The research confirmed the knowledge gap was the bottleneck.