Tradesy UX Lab
Tradesy is a peer to peer marketplace where buyers can shop directly from sellers. Each purchase experience can vary due to the shipping method that the seller selected, when the seller can ship, and many other factors. We received a lot of customer service contacts from both the buyers and the sellers, especially for the first time experience. Because of this high volume of contact around order fulfillment, we discovered that there was a huge opportunity around re-thinking the post purchase transactional communications for both the buyers and sellers.
GOALS
Provide buyers and sellers with the right information at the right moment during each phase of their journey while making sure there is a Tradesy presence to ensure both parties that we have their backs.
Understanding the User Journey
The first thing that we wanted to understand was the current journey and uncover all the pain points for each of the different variation and flows (i.e. order shipped/received, returns, cancellations, etc). We mapped out triggers, feelings and questions that the users might have during each phase.
Example of one of the user journeys we created - buyer on top and seller on the bottom
User Pain Points
After doing the user journeys, we came across a few common pain points across all the journeys.
- We don't set any expectations
- We aren't consistent across emails
- We don't reassure customers that we have their backs
- We aren't apologetic or empathetic to their situations when things go wrong
- We aren't clear about who to contact during each phase in the journey
- We don't provide sellers with any tips or recommendations around how to ship their items
Customer Service RESEARCH
We also looked into customer service contacts. We sorted through all of the different contacts for a specific time period to understand the most frequent questions from buyers and sellers around their orders/sales.
Main Questions from Buyers
23.98% around shipping
(i.e. where is my item, I haven't received my order, etc)- 14.18% around cancellations
(i.e. how long does a refund take, how do i cancel my order, etc) - 10.14% around returns/misrepresentations
(i.e. I'd like to request a return, the item isn't authentic, etc)
Main Questions for Sellers
- 12.35% around earnings
(i.e. when and how do i get my earnings, etc) - 11.21% around shipping
(i.e. how do I ship, where can i print my label, etc) - 3.62% around returns
- 1.68% around cancellations
- 1.56% around trust
- 1.19% around how to confirm a sale
IDeation
Once we finished the research, we started by creating recommended flows with the different content needs for each of the paths and variations.
Example of a flow for a basic purchase path with no shipping delays, returns or cancellations
From that, we determined that the best way to construct each template would be to have modules that we could re-use across all the different templates which would bring consistency to each email and make it easier to update in the future. We focused on each template and identified the hierarchy and flow of information that would be most important to the customer and started sketching/wireframing out each of the emails and states for all the different flows for both buyer and seller. Once that was completed, we worked with the copywriter to help with the content for each of the points of communication and any additional help articles that needed to be added to the site.
Another thing that we focused on was delivering the right content at the right time with the right method so for each phase of the journey, we recommended when we should send an email, a push notification or an sms.
Once we updated all the transactional emails, push notifications and sms, we were able to drastically lower our customer service contacts around orders and our Net Promoter Score went up which measures customer satisfaction. We were able to use the learnings and email components to influence the re-design of our iOS Sales Management ui.
User Experience Designer: Emily Tong
Product Designer: Julia Kim, Terry Song
Product Owners: Bijan Bina, Daniel Sposito