C2C e-commerce application
Tiny Treasures: An end-to-end iOS marketplace app that connects the buyers and sellers of preloved kids' and mothers' products.
Overview
Parents of young children face challenges when shopping for their needs, as their growing children require frequent purchases of new items. While they want to save money and get good value for their purchases, the constant demand contributes to waste, as items they have outgrown are often discarded. Finding affordable options can be challenging, leading parents to resort to expensive new items or limited alternatives like garage sales or second-hand stores. This process can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially for busy parents.
Solution
By connecting potential buyers and sellers of pre-loved kids' products, Tiny Treasures aims to offer a convenient, cost-effective, and sustainable alternative to the cycle of buying and discarding products, benefitting both parents and the environment.
How might we create a sustainable and convenient shopping solution for parents?
Research and Analyze
Growing Demand for Pre-loved Products
The global second-hand market is projected to reach 64 billion by 2024, from $28 billion in 2019, showing a significant shift towards pre-loved products. (Source: ThredUp Resale Report)
According to a survey conducted by BabyCenter, a leading parenting website, 85% of new parents say they are willing to buy or have bought used baby gear. (Source: BabyCenter)
Decoding competition to shape the Product Roadmap
Through an in-depth analysis of the leading second-hand e-commerce platforms such as ThredUp, Poshmark, Toycycle, Kidizen, and FB Marketplace, I gained a comprehensive understanding of their services, successful features, and market impact.
Leveraging these insights, I strategically structured the Product roadmap for Tiny Treasures to position it for success in the market.
Main Takeaways
Consignment services which involve a third-party dealer and marketplace platforms that connect buyers and sellers directly.
Successful features include bundle shipping, seller privacy protection, and eco-conscious shopping with impact trackers.
Empathize and Define
Capturing User Perspectives to Inform Design Decisions
With a series of one-on-one interviews with young parents and users of marketplace apps, I gained a deeper understanding of their motivations, needs, challenges, and pain points regarding buying and selling pre-loved products online. The research findings not only validated my initial assumptions but also played a pivotal role in further refining the product roadmap
Drawing upon these, I created a primary persona to better understand and represent the target users. Throughout the process, this persona played a crucial role in ensuring that design decisions remained closely aligned with user needs.
Key Findings
Affordability: Pre-loved products are chosen primarily for their cost-effectiveness, with environmental impact being a secondary factor.
Marketplace: Four out of five participants preferred directly connecting with sellers rather than consignment services, as it is profitable to both.
Payouts: Sellers want to know the exact payout amount after commission before accepting an offer or listing their product.
Uncertainty: Concerns with pre-loved products include uncertainty about product quality, maintenance, and safety during delivery or pickup.
Constraints and Considerations
Compliance: Adhere to iOS visual design guidelines and also utilizing iOS specific gestures for interactions in the application.
Transparency: Establishing trust through verified sellers and a rating system for authenticity and transparency.
Segmentation: Implementing separate profiles for buyers and sellers with seamless switching and an integrated payment system.
The Design: From Ideas to Prototype
The structure and the flow
With this, I developed the site map to establish the app's structure and created user flows for purchasing and selling pre-loved items, which further enabled me to visualize the user's journey through the app. Using this, I developed the site map to establish the app's structure.
Designing Wireframes
I created user flows for purchasing and selling pre-loved items, which further enabled me to visualize the user's journey through the app. Based on these flows, I developed wireframes to design the app's structure and layout. I started with rough sketches and progressed to digital wireframes as I refined the design. I also created a component kit at this stage to make the transition to high-fidelity designs easier later.
The Look and Feel
The brand's visual identity is centered around its colors. Turquoise represents childhood innocence, orange embodies parental warmth, and black adds sophistication.
Additionally, the smooth and rounded elements bring a sense of gentleness and softness to the design, making the app both modern and approachable.
Testing Effectiveness
I conducted an unmoderated usability test using Maze with 6 participants, who are users of pre-loved products, to evaluate the design and find potential challenges in the flow. I had the participants perform two tasks, purchasing a pre-loved product and creating and publishing a listing to sell a product outgrown by their kids.
"I felt the process was completely intuitive and could quickly complete the tasks without any confusion."
"I use OfferUp and found this just as easy, if not easier.”
Embracing Feedback
Based on careful analysis of user feedback and utilizing the impact matrix for prioritization, I have implemented the following design iteration.
Reflection
The ultimate goal of this project was to design an app that promotes the use of pre-loved products while offering a seamless shopping and selling experience. I had to understand the functionalities of the pre-loved e-commerce market to identify a holistic business model profitable to buyers and sellers to ensure the app is sustainable in the long run. The challenge here was to think beyond the interactions within the app.
Next steps: Although I could only focus on the purchasing and selling flow due to time constraints, I would love to explore the feedback flow and add additional features for users who are both active buyers and sellers in future iterations