Improving Findability on Trade Me Marketplace
Helping connect Kiwi to the life they want
Following the impacts of Covid-19, Kiwi were struggling with the cost of living in Aotearoa New Zealand. With tough marketplace competition it can be a real challenge to get your inventory found & bought when Kiwi have been more cost conscious with spending. I led teams to focus on the right problems to solve & made several improvements to the customer experience which returned great return on investment for the business during tough economic times.
Through strong product discovery techniques I found detailed insights into how customers were buying during these times & what their needs were. This involved desk research, phone interviews, data analysis & learning through testing hypotheses. I would proactively share these what was learnt with stakeholders & teams to bring them along the journey (as well as getting them to participate in customer interactions).
I fostered a strong experimentation culture within the squad by encouraging them to set an ambitious OKR to improve purchase conversion for the segment we were targeting. We ran 16 experiments over a 6 month period of which half had a meaningful impact on our customers. This resulted in a growth of purchases over this period of time compared to what we would have if we hadn’t improved the experience.
I’ll walk you through a couple of my personal highlights
Improving search
In our customer journey, a pain point identified in the Trade Me experience is when a customer goes to find something. In our search experience we were frequently returning accessories such as “couch covers” for searches such as “couch”. We also know with the challenges in cost of living, Kiwi were returning more to in store shopping to save on shipping costs.
From these insights, I created a case to help buyers find items nearby to save on shipping costs for items that were often traded locally. I worked with the product trio to get this work prioritised for the squad & we worked together on ways to show items nearby when searching.
This work had a fantastic impact for our customers and Trade Me. Members were far more easily able to find what they were looking for which resulted in an increase of the amount of searches that resulted in a listing view & bought. Through further iteration on specific categories we were able to increase the impacts from the initial experiment.
Before: A buyer in Wellington sees mostly couch covers. They’re all in Auckland meaning they have to pay shipping costs for these items.
After: A buyer in Wellington can see what they can pick up more easily in search & save on shipping costs and there’s a reduction in accessories of “couch covers”.
Improving External Findability
I put together a case to improve our Findability experience by showcasing our great range of inventory on Google Shopping. We currently showcased our range from professional sellers however we missed the secondhand inventory which we know our customers love. With the cost of living being tough in Aotearoa, I had a strong hypothesis that if we could show affordable options to Kiwi they would go on to buy more from Trade Me.
I influenced a squad to take on board this work who completed the first experiment within a few weeks. I helped coordinate across teams working with Product, Marketing & Google to deliver. We ran several experiments with different factors & budgets to find the right mix for Trade Me.
The hypothesis was proven true. This led to the desired outcome of an increase of sessions & purchases of this inventory with a strong return on investment for the cost of advertising. A win for us and our customers who could find great options during these tough times.
