ChannelActive - Multichannel Management Ecommoerce Platform

ChannelActive's multichannel management system provides sellers with the proper workspace to list on any sales channel efficiently. 

Enhancing customer retention by thoroughly understanding their workflows and providing AI-enhanced solutions.

OVERARCHING PROBLEM

C2C sellers are experiencing frustration due to the significant time investment required for product research and analysis, compounded by the need to switch between multiple platforms.

Competitors leveraging AI/ML tools and channel-specific metrics are setting new standards, highlighting the need for streamlined, intelligent solutions to retain engagement and reduce churn.

My Contribution

UX Design

UI Design

Usability Testing

Heuristic Evaluation

PROJECT-SPECIFIC PROBLEM

How might we improve how users discover and analyze products, resulting in a streamlined, highly confident, decisive listing?

Methods

Internal stakeholder interviews

User interviews

User testing (A/B)

STRATEGIC APPROACH

DISCOVERY

Gaining a holistic view for maximum impact

I employed various discovery methods to effectively identify user needs. Additionally, I needed to familiarize myself with our new AI tech stack and figure out how to leverage partnerships to enhance our platform’s capabilities. Understanding both user needs and the platform’s capabilities was crucial for maximizing our impact.

Diving deep into customer workflow 

I conducted one-on-one interviews with a few C2C Sellers, asking them to walk me through their typical workflow when discovering and eventually listing products.
 

Workflow overview

Journey Map of how sellers discover and evenually list products

Key Findings

• Time spent researching and analyzing products is more than sellers want to dedicate.
• Competitors beginning to take advantage of ML / AI enhancements in the product discovery phase
• Channels-specific tools give a more granular view of product metrics
• Switching between platforms causes frustration.

Methods

1:1 Interviews with users and CSRs
Moderated Walkthroughs
Task Analysis

Define and Ideate

Synthesizing Findings and Connecting our new Capabilties

After getting a good sense of C2C seller sentiment, I created 4 clear themes. These themes correlated with one or more phases of the "product discovery to listing workflow." 

These themes were distilled into a single problem statement and connected to potential capabilities that could help meet users' needs.

Themes:

1. Swift product opportunity identification 
2. Channel performance insights via projections
3. Channel specific insights
4. A gauge of performance against similar businesses 

PROBLEM

How might we improve how users discover and analyze products, resulting in a streamlined, highly confident, decisive listing?

Early Feedback

Gathering early feedback on a possible happy path was key to determining the correct course of action before moving onto screens. To do so, I presented high-level flow diagrams to C2C users and my product squad. The diagram below outlines key steps, device touchpoints, and workflow phases.

Presenting MVPs to understand form and function

After reviewing the flow diagram, I designed an MVP solution to identify relevant data highlighting key product opportunities.

I wanted to better understand the optimal way to present product data and whether or not the data presented increased decision-making confidence (a key qualitative metric we wanted to improve). 

Mobile and Desktop MVP

Key Findings

Mobile Product Oppourtunity

• 40% of the time, users have suggested products they had already sold.
• Users wanted more control over the tool.
  
• Users appreciated that we were meeting them where they were; however, it didn't integrate well into their workflow.

Desktop Catalog of Opportunities

• Some data populated was irrelevant or considered “noise.”
  Users wanted more granular channel data where possible
  Want to understand the “big picture” at a glance
  Some data did boost seller confidence in selling certain products

Final Solution

Mobile product opportunity

Through further testing, we discovered that a mobile device touchpoint was the optimal device for product research and discovery. Our C2C sellers were constantly on the go, meeting vendors, attending tradeshows, and browsing brick-and-mortar retail stores. In the final solution, users use mobile devices to capture images of products they want to evaluate. This offers greater flexibility, allows users to concentrate on specific products, and integrates well into their current busy workflow.

Desktop catalog of product oppourtunities

We understood that the workflow phase from the "catalog" to "listing" was primarily done on our desktop experience, mainly due to the required screen real estate. 

Through Card sorting exercises and moderated walkthroughs, I devised a final solution that enacted KPI cards for an "at-a-glance" experience. This was important because most users wanted to know the high-level business impact of products they were considering listing on channels. 

High impact features

AI powered image recognition

By leveraging our AI image processing capabilities, we provided users with a quick way to gain insights into products by taking photos of them.

AI generated product titles, descriptions, and sales volume projection

After the user takes a photo of the product, they are directed to a product overview page where they can review AI-generated titles, descriptions, and key data provided by our channel partners.

Product opportunity cards - combining partnership and AI capabilties

Users can toggle to opportunities based on the image they take, which is populated with our opportunity cards (1). AI assists in projecting sales volume, and channel partnership data provides live channel availability and current wholesale prices. (2)

Product opportunity listing queue

This essential feature allowed users to save products to a queue for exporting to the desktop catalog. Users could export all items, a chosen few, or swipe to delete products.

Post Launch and Results

Results:

• A key outcome was higher confidence in deciding the right product to list and sell on channels. 
• Users were excited about the ability to capture photos of products no matter where they were. 
• The catalog frequency upload frequency and upload success rate have increased significantly!

Conclusion:

This project highlighted the importance of identifying key touchpoints and having an in-depth understanding of a user's workflow. Through user interviews, moderated walkthroughs, and card-sorting exercises, I identified key needs and expectations that could be addressed using our new capabilities derived from AI and channel partnerships.