Commerce Network

Connecting channels and sellers to drive e-commerce

 
 

Project overview

Channeladvisor needed a better way to connect its channel partners with its sellers. The connections were important because they helped channels sell products to their target audiences and sellers to expand and grow their businesses. But the current process was very manual and time-consuming and oftentimes frustrating for channel partners, sellers, and ChannelAdvisor internals.

The solution was an internal portal that would give sellers and partners more autonomy and make direct connections with one another.

In this project, I was the primary UX researcher and UX/UI designer.

Watch the marketing video below about the final Commerce Network solution.

 
 
 

The Design Process

To begin, I met with the product manager to gain an understanding of the problem, the business objectives, and requirements. We also discussed the various stakeholders who were involved in the current process of making seller and channel partner connections happen.

Research

Next, I created a research plan to help me identify business objectives, research objectives, best methodologies, and users for the research.

After laying out these details, I conducted secondary and primary research, the latter of which included approximately 15 hours of interviews with internal stakeholders, sellers (users), and channel partners (users).

I synthesized my findings and presented a summary to a cross-functional team working on the Commerce Network project.

 
 
 

Ideation & Wireframes

The results of the research led me to brainstorm solutions that would help users quickly gather information about the other party and gain more autonomy in making direct connections.

Empower sellers and channel partners to promote their respective businesses. 

  • A profile builder would enable users to create structured profiles to help promote their respective businesses and appeal to their target audiences.

  • With profiles in place, users could save time not having to spend hours researching the other party.

Help sellers and channel partners discover one another based on the criteria that matter most. 

  • I designed an experience that would allow these users to search for one another based on detailed criteria. This would help sellers and channel partners find the connections that were the best fit for each other’s business and target audiences respectively.

Enable sellers and channel partners to mutually connect with one another. 

  • Users could send messages and connection requests to each other. If accepted, contact details for both parties would be revealed. 

  • Users from both parties could independently identify and manage requests in their queue.

  • Users had autonomy in the process, not having to rely on a middleman to make introductions.

Prototype & Usability Testing

After working on wireframes, I created a prototype and developed a script with a variety of tasks to help measure the usability of the designs.

Next, I reached out to potential participants to schedule time for testing. I ran each moderated test and recorded the results.

After analyzing the task completion results and feedback, I identified parts of the design that needed work, which I iterated on before engineering handoff.

Final User Interface

Below are a few key pages from the Commerce Network experience. Note: Some data has been redacted.

 
 
 
 
 

Engineering Handoff

Throughout my design process, I shared designs with Engineering to understand feasibility and identify issues early on.

After completing the designs and handing them off, I attended all grooming meetings and provided detailed walkthroughs. Throughout the development process, I provided clarification to engineers and quickly addressed any identified issues. Further, I participated in demos to review and provide feedback.

 

Go-to-Market Strategy

Towards the end of the development phase, I collaborated with a cross-functional team, which included Product, Customer Success, Business Development, Product Marketing, and Engineering, to develop a strategy that would grow the adoption of our new Commerce Network feature.

I was responsible for onboarding, messaging, and product demos for our customers, channel partners, and Sales and Customer Success teams.

Onboarding

I created onboarding flows to engage brands and retailers in the new experience.

The first onboarding came out pre-release and introduced users to a beta version. The goal was to announce the new feature, explain its benefits, and get users to create and save a Commerce Network profile. This flow resulted in 40% conversion within four weeks.

 
 
 
 

Product Demos

To give users a deep dive, I designed demos, which I presented at ChannelAdvisor’s annual user conference, product monthly updates, and webinars. Target audiences for these presentations included brands and retailers, channel partners, and ChannelAdvisor’s Sales and Customer Success teams.