Gumtree Transactional Platform
The Opportunity
Since its inception, Gumtree has been a successful online classifieds marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers to complete the trade offline. As consumer habits changed, there was an increasing demand for marketplaces to facilitate more of the transaction.
The goal was to create a safe and seamless way for people to pay for items online and get it shipped to them, leading to more successful transactions and convenience for buyers and sellers.
I was the designer in the Trade & Transact team responsible for building this new transactional capability.
Design Sprint
The strategy would touch all steps in the buyer and seller user journeys and it was crucial to have a holistic picture of the transformation.
We conducted a 5 day design vision sprint and formed cross-functional teams across Design, Product, Engineering, and Marketing.
Each team delved deep on one particular phase of the transactional funnel (Ad Insertion, Search & Discovery, Negotiation, Pay & Ship, Post Purchase)
We ideated on possibilities without constraint and produced high level mockups and flows.
Discovery Methodology
The design vision sprint was just one element of our discovery process. We employed multiple different techniques, including:
• Best practices from peer marketplaces who had undergone similar transformations
• Competitor analysis for the Australian market
• Ideation sessions
• User interviews and testing early prototypes
• High fidelity end to end prototype to visualise buyer and seller interactions in tandem
Phased Approach
We quickly realised that we needed to take a phased approach. This allowed us to deliver value to the users as early as possible, learn from feedback, and avoid a large parallel initiative that could conflict with other improvements on Gumtree.
• Phase 1 signposted ads with shipping information. It required no external integration points.
• Phase 2 added payments capability, allowing buyers to pay online and sellers to receive payment as part of completing the trade.
• Phase 3 added shipping partner integration for users to calculate, pay, and track the shipment of their item.
Delivery Methodology
The Delivery lifecycle consumed user stories generated from the Discovery process and launched chunks of functionality to Gumtree"s users. The team worked in a Scrum methodology.
Individual user stories were placed on a user story map to ensure that functionality aligned with interaction points for buyers and sellers.
Phase 1: Signposting
The first phase allowed sellers to prominently display their willigness to ship the item.
Analysis of listings and user surveys revealed that users were already working around the lack of a signposting feature, by co-opting the title or description to say "Shipping offered".
This new feature built up shippable inventory and familiarised users with the visual elements that would signal more advanced features in subsequent phases.
Crucially it allowed us to gauge appetite from sellers to ship their item. The desired outcome was achieved with high uptake of 42% of all new listings.
Feedback from customers revealed that signposting was insufficient and they desired more capabilities (payments & shipping), which validated the our original roadmap.
Phase 2: Buy Now (Payments)
After validating our initial hypothesis, we set out to design and build the next phase: Payments. We arrived at the concept of Buy Now through further discovery work.
Buy Now was an opt-in feature that enabled buyers to pay & claim an item instantly and get it shipped to them.
Benefit for sellers was guaranteed payment and expanding their reach Australia-wide.
Benefit for buyers was to seal the deal and the convenience of receiving the item via post.
The offering was simple and at the same time a big change in trade behaviour and expectations from Gumtree users.
I created multiple prototypes and we conducted a total of four rounds of user testing related to Buy Now, testing questions such as:
• Do sellers understand their obligations to commit to the sale?
• Are buyers comfortable paying online?
• Do buyers place enough trust on the seller to carry out the shipping process?
• Do buyers feel covered if something goes wrong?
Feeling safe and secure in the purchase was extremely important as revealed in our early discovery. I endeavoured to place trust signals all through the buyer journey to address this.
Learnings
The project was complex and impactful. By responding to the challenges that arose, I gained some wonderful learnings.
In particular, establishing a good cadence & process to continuously resolve product questions is paramount. Having a crisp understanding of the product leads to greater ease in interaction and visual design.
Conversely, producing & bringing prototypes to product discussions expedites the resolution process, by visualising the implications of different options.
This was one of the most rewarding design projects I have worked on. The synergy between Design, PM, and Tech was outstanding. Our extensive discovery work gave me confidence that I was designing the right product for our users and it was incredibly exciting to hear the positive customer feedback after launching our first set of features.
Buyer Flow Prototype
To close off, here are the prototypes that I produced in collaboration with two other designers. They visualise the end to end buyer and seller interactions on the payments platform.
Prototype demonstrating the buyer flow:
• Searching for item
• Viewing and enquiring
• Buy Now checkout
• Receiving tracking number
Seller Flow Prototype
Prototype demonstrating the seller flow:
• Listing an item
• Specify shipping details
• Receiving an offer
• Shipping the item and providing the tracking number