Book a Courier.

Trade Me has a varied types of sellers from casual sellers who on average sell a couple of items a year to our expert pro sellers who have tens of thousands of listings on-site at any given time. To insure we tackle the right problems we targeted the friction for our casual sellers. We discovered in routine user interviews the biggest friction point was in the process of shipping items to their buyers. This prompted us to better understand the metrics which we uncovered that items with shipping we were more likely to sell first time and for a higher price which outlined both the business value and the user problem. This research directly lead to the goal or problem to make shipping for our casual seller and SMEs simple and painless to drive more sales.

This lead to the goal to make shipping for our casual seller and SMEs simple and painless to drive more sales.

My role in this project was as Sr UX designer focused on the web and latter a new responsive experience while working closely with the native mobile app designers to insure we had a unified solution. I took the lead in this process by initially designing the front end solution on the web while helping define the API which the mobile apps would latter use. In this process we created several solutions that was evaluated through usability testing that allowed us to turn a complex problem into a simple front end flow. One of the many challenges is to ensure it was simpler and more convenient than going down to the post office. 

There were many hurdles that needed to be jumped the biggest was making it simpler and more convenient than going down to the post office. 

There were many problems that needed to be overcome including the dramatic change in the perception on how you can courier items around NZ from the post office to online. The two most rememberable was insuring we had an end to end experience from listing the item to the package arriving at the door of the buyer and insuring our members had the nessacarry tools throughout process. We addressed both of these as we iterated towards an Industry leading experience. 

The first phase of the solution was to allow our user to book a courier after the sale was completed. This did reduce friction post purchase with simple ability to book a courier and have it picked up right from their door step without the need to go the post office. This was a good first step but didn’t fully solve the end to end problem and we weren’t seen a dramatic uplift in casual seller listing with shipping options. I identified this issue in the flow was due to the inability to add courier quotes when listing an item. I ran a journey mapping examine to communicate this back to my team and allowed us to have a shared understanding of the pain points. We came to the realisation that we needed a way to quickly add courier quotes directly in the process of listing an item and again I could tie this back to business goals. The solution was to create a courier costs calculator in the sell process that was linked to the courier booking solution post purchase.

When we embarked on the native mobile app solutions we discovered in interesting issue. The desktop solution required the user to print the shipping label which was standard for couriers who offered a similar online solutions. Firstly we needed to fully understand the size of the problem and send a survey out to thousands of member asking them if they had access to a printer. We discovered the over 50% of respondents didn’t have easy access to a printer and needed to work towards an alternative solution. We came together as a team the designer on native mobile apps, product owners and the courier companies to discuss potential solutions. This lead to our solution to simply write the tracking number on the package and have the courier print out the label on site or back at the courier depo. 

These were a couple of interesting problems we faced when creating and with the use of user research techniques we were able to understand these pain points and clearly communicate this back to the team and our stakeholders to create the successful solution used my thousands of people daily.

The solution that was delivered improved the listing process for hundreds of thousands of users helping increase the amount of casual listings sold. The feature as been pivotal in Trade Me's point of difference as other marketplaces in NZ have been established in the last 5-6 years.  Book a courier continues to provides some of the most competitive courier prices in the country for casual users due to the use of multiple couriers on the platform driving wholesale prices and purchased at wholesale prices. The features as now sends 3.5 millions items every year to all corners of NZ. But for me most important metrices is that it has some of the highest 30 day reuse sitting at 66% showing the simplicity of this process and changing peoples perception of how to courier items around New Zealand.

The features as now sends 3.5 millions items every year to all corners of NZ. But for me most important metrices is that it has some of the highest 30 day reuse sitting at 66% showing the simplicity of this process and changing peoples perception of how to courier items around New Zealand.