Discovery marketplace:
Canada's Curated Marketplace
(POCs)
A curated B2C marketplace by Canada Post that prioritizes discovery of Canadian owned businesses, Canadian made and designed products and enables Canadians to shop with impact.
Role: Design Lead, UX Research, UI Design
Background
Canada Post planned to launch a marketplace, connecting smaller Canadian brands to consumers. Comparable competitors generate less than $5M annually. This aligns with Canada Post's core shipping business, providing a platform for Canadian merchants to thrive and connect with consumers who prioritize intentional shopping.
On the Marketplace, customers have the opportunity to purchase products from a diverse range of Canadian brands. The advantage lies in leveraging Canada Post's expansive scale, resulting in cost savings, improved distribution efficiency, and the cultivation of trust.
Empowering Businesses, Delighting Shoppers
Consumer :
A shop where consumers can easily support Canadian small business and feel good about their purchases.
-
Centralized platform to shop Canadian
-
Backed by Canada Post's Trusted & Legacy Brand
-
Free Shipping to any Canadian Address
-
Ability to Shop with Impact
Merchant :
A new, fair play distribution channel exclusively for Canadian Small business.
-
Centralized platform to shop Canadian
-
Backed by Canada Post's Trusted & Legacy Brand
Competitive Analysis
for drop shipping companies
Before starting the project, a thorough competitive analysis was conducted, exploring design patterns of e-commerce companies, particularly those employing drop shipping models. This not only provided insights into competitors but also significantly informed our content creation process. Examining user flows across various pages, a list of common and unique elements was compiled, guiding our strategy and defining a distinctive value proposition.
User Persona
I led a workshop with the Scrum team to explore eCommerce research and user personas, focusing on Patriotic Pams and Conscious Chantels. Emphasizing understanding Patriotic Pams' unique needs approaching retirement, residing in rural areas, and supporting the Canadian economy we discussed strategies to enhance their shopping experience, considering their preference for Amazon and interest in new sites.
Similarly, we examined Conscious Chantels' characteristics—frequent shopping, focus on quality, and sustainability—finding ways to align our eCommerce approach with their values, using channels like Google, in-store visits, and Instagram.
Key takeaway :
The workshop was the importance of tailoring our eCommerce strategy to meet the diverse needs of these personas. Whether it's fostering loyalty among Patriotic Pams through a focus on Canadian products or aligning with the conscious consumption values of Conscious Chantels, understanding and catering to these distinct preferences will be crucial for our success in the eCommerce space.
AB test for value proposition
When we conducted AB tests through our oursourcing agency, results revealed that a significant number of Canadian users willingly paid higher prices for items they perceived as more valuable. Additionally, there was a preference for locally produced goods in Canada, and a tendency to favour indigenous-owned or eco-friendly products. Based on this insight, we created relevant categories on the marketplace POC 3 website and added filters on the listing page, facilitating easier access for users to different value-based products.
-
Made in Canada
-
Ecofriendly & Sustainable
-
Small Businesses
-
Local businesses
-
Indigenous Owned
-
Woman Owned
-
LGBTQ+ Owned
Proof of Concept (POC)
Our team took a crucial step by implementing a Proof of Concept. This strategy involved measuring how well the site turns visitors into customers, refining user experience, and evaluating the effectiveness of acquisition channels. Streamlining operational processes and assessing scalability during the POC laid the groundwork for seamless growth. User feedback guided ongoing improvements, and a cost-benefit analysis helped allocate resources for sustainable development.
Multi-level POCs
We conducted multi-level POCs in marketplace website development to achieve iterative refinement, mitigate risks, and align with evolving project needs. Our approach facilitated efficient feature prioritization, technical validation, and stakeholder alignment, ultimately contributing to a cost-effective, adaptable, and well-managed development process.
Validating Strategies Through Progressive POCs
POC 1 Results:
-
Proved Email conversion rate for CPC brand is three times higher than non-branded.
-
Confirmed that approximately 2/3 of our audience through social media ADs is female, validating our targeted persona.
POC 2 Insights:
-
Exposed users to actual merchant products on the page.
-
Observed user reactions to understand how they interact with showcased products.
-
Conducted tests to identify the most effective advertising channel
Strategic Impact:
-
Invaluable insights from POC 2 aided in dividing product categories and refining our value proposition.
-
Provided crucial guidance before creating POC 3, contributing to a more informed strategy.
Journey map for
overall website
As I developed a journey map for our POC 3 semi-transactional website, our process involved identifying crucial user touchpoints, interactions, and potential pain points. I specifically addressed key stages such as exploration, decision-making, and transaction completion, while also delving into user emotions and concerns. This meticulous approach informs ongoing improvements, ensuring a successful and engaging semi-transactional experience.
Journey map for
the last page
I created a detailed journey map with two main objectives. Firstly, to track and analyze user activity on the unfinished checkout page while ensuring clear communication to users. Secondly, to enhance user access to external merchant pages through hyperlinks, ensuring a user-friendly experience despite the ongoing development of the checkout page.
Low / Mid Fidelity Wireframes
Through the previous competitive analysis, I was able to identify essential and recommended elements for the marketplace website and tailor a list suitable for POC3. This comprehensive examination informed the creation of low-fidelity wireframes, ensuring that our design aligns with industry best practices while also incorporating unique features to set us apart in the market.
High Fidelity Wireframes with
ChatGPT
Creating a high-fidelity wireframe posed a challenge as only high-level requirements and goals were available from stakeholders. However, leveraging ChatGPT allowed us to efficiently propose placeholders and guidelines for content placement. This facilitated a relatively faster DEV handoff, ensuring a seamless transition in the design process.
Sync with rebranding team
I collaborated with our rebranding team through regular meetings and discussions to launch a new marketplace brand. During this process, we maintained the distinctive identity of Canada Post while establishing a fresh brand colour scheme and design system. Additionally, I created new components not present in the existing design system, incorporating them into POC site to provide customers with a seamless experience.
Support accessibility
To ensure accessibility compliance, I considered proper colour contrast, ARIA labels, and other relevant accessibility elements, including Keyboard Navigation, Alt Text, Headings and Document Structure. This comprehensive approach was implemented in collaboration with ongoing meetings to address and enhance various facets of accessibility.
The primary KPI
In POC3, our primary KPI of focus was the conversion rate. Since POC3 doesn't include actual payment methods, we needed a workaround to gauge results beyond user browsing or adding items to the shopping cart. I proposed a solution that involved having a virtual process for calculating taxes on the first step of the checkout page (requiring only province and city), interpreting a click on the "Continue" button as the user's intent to proceed with the calculation, thus considering it in the conversion rate. The last page was designed not as a simple thank-you page but as a user-friendly link to easily access the same products in the shopping cart through hyperlinks.
Mock Checkout page
The checkout page utilizes the most minimal version of the header and eliminates the footer. The rationale behind this decision is to allow users to concentrate solely on the payment process by minimizing external elements as much as possible. The last page is designed to have hyperlinks integrated into the fold area, ensuring easy access to the same products in the shopping cart through a user-friendly link rather than a conventional thank-you page.
The key takeaway
Our POC journey, encompassing POC 1, 2, and 3, may have experienced a temporary delay due to budgetary constraints. Nevertheless, it has substantiated that our various hypotheses were accurate. Despite a planned duration of 6 weeks for POC3, we surpassed our target traffic in 10 days. Additionally, the conversion rate was higher than the market average, and beyond the 15 participated merchants for POC 3, numerous large business clients have initiated contact with us during testing period.
This success underscores that our chosen POC method was indeed effective. Research supports the notion that well-executed Proof of Concepts not only validate hypotheses but also provide tangible evidence of a concept's viability and potential market acceptance. The rapid achievement of target metrics and the positive response from both trial merchants and larger business clients further affirm the robustness of our approach.