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Lowe's Enterprise | Backroom | Released

SOS Printed Labels

Role

Product Designer

Product

Product Designer

Team

Design

Design

Research

Research

Store Ops

Store Ops

Skills

Product Design

Product Design

Prototyping

User Research

User Research

User Testing

User Testing

Labor & Label Cost Savings

$2.5M/year


$2.5M/year


$720K/year


$720K/year


The Landscape

When receiving SOS and SOE orders, Lowe’s associates were handwriting labels by hand and sticking them to product. It cost our business over 30,000 FTE hours per year.

The Solution?

We saw an opportunity to remove an entirely manual step from the process.

Print Labels seamlessly integrated label printing directly into the existing mobile receiving flow. The result was immediate and measurable: pure mobile PO closing jumped from 55% across the chain to 88% during pilot, ultimately stabilizing at ~73% cross-chain after rollout.

What we delivered:

  • A redesigned SOS/SOE label optimized for backroom workflows

  • Automatic printing with a standardized, repeatable process

  • A tedious handwritten task replaced by a fast, mobile-first experience

Discovery

We started on the floor, literally and metaphorically, interviewing backroom associates about how labeling actually worked day to day.

The feedback was pretty consistent:

1) Handwritten labels were very hard to read at times.
2) Label size didn't match how products were handled or staged.
3) Writing labels burned time and broke workflow.
4) Inconsistent data made sorting and fulfillment harder than it needed to be

The problem wasn’t just printing… it was what we were printing and how it fit into the existing workflow. That insight pushed us to rethink both the experience and the label itself.

Design Process

After early alignment, we designed a mobile printing flow and a V1 label concept, then tested it live in five stores. We worked directly with supervisors and clerks, running A/B tests between printed and handwritten labels.

The biggest learning came fast:

We assumed the PO number was the most critical piece of information. Associates told us otherwise. What they look for first is customer name, fulfillment method, and order type, that’s what helps them move quickly.

We iterated immediately, shipping a v2 label that reflected real-world priorities. The impact was clear: the updated designs earned a 6.25 / 7 composite ease-of-use score and significantly reduced hesitation and rework on the floor.

Final Designs

The final experience is intentionally simple. Associates can quickly connect to a printer, select label types and quantities, and get back to work without breaking their flow.

By embedding printing into mobile receiving and redesigning the label itself, we eliminated unnecessary friction and replaced it with a fast, reliable system that scales across stores.

Valuable Learnings

Assumptions aren’t the enemy - untested assumptions are.

Our initial hypotheses gave associates something concrete to react to, unlocking more honest and actionable feedback than conversation alone ever could. Showing beats telling every time, and the results proved it.