Designing a framework to give sellers feedback and actionable recommendations.

Client

1stDibs

Role

Lead Product Designer

Year

2022-2023

Context

At 1stDibs, many sellers are new to online selling and lack the knowledge to optimize their inventory for maximum visibility and sales. They often list their items and wait, unaware of missed opportunities to improve conversions. My challenge as the Lead Product Designer was to build a feedback framework that not only identified areas of improvement but also provided sellers with clear, actionable recommendations to drive sales.

Guidance for sellers are shown throughout the platform.

Problem Themes

Lack of Feedback

Sellers lacked visibility into how their inventory was performing. They didn’t know which listings needed improvement or how they compared to top sellers.

Unclear Guidance

Even when sellers recognized a problem, there was no structured system to guide them with concrete steps to optimize their listings.

Reactive over Proactive

Without proactive recommendations, sellers waited for buyers instead of actively improving their product pages.

Phase 1: Initial Recommendations

To build our first set of recommendations, we conducted interviews with account managers to identify the most common seller pitfalls. Additionally, we analyzed sales data to pinpoint high-impact optimizations. We then structured these recommendations with a clear rationale, compelling CTA, and estimated impact on conversions to encourage seller adoption

Where are sellers most likely to see these recommendations?

In thinking about ideal placement to show these initial recommendations we mapped out the user journey to identify key moments where the recommendation could be seen. After we decided on these touch points, I came up with concepts that adhered to the respective touch points stylistically and fit flow-wise.

Visual Evolutions

In an effort to continually improve engagement, we iterated on the style to be more usable and engaging.

Phase 2: Recommendations as Flagship Feature

After a successful initial launch, we received the green light to start designing a dedicated page for recommendations. Our goals for this next feature were:

Account Level Feedback & Gamification

Giving sellers feedback for how optimized their inventory is overall. Recommendations and listings would have an assigned score based on estimated conversion lift.

Focused Experience

Having a dedicated page for each recommendation would allow sellers to remain focused on one task at a time enabling faster user flow times.

Early Concepts

Initial concepts explored ways to show multiple recommendations at once with the ability to focus in on one recommendation type.

Usability Sessions to Validate

We conducted a series of usability sessions with sellers across different verticals (Vintage Furniture, Art, Jewelry) and geographies (NYC, London, Denmark). The goal of the study was to evaluate the usability of the new recommendation page as well as comprehension of an account level optimization score. We had participants apply recommendations across all new touch points.

The results of the study found that the most sellers were able to apply recommendations in this new flow. There was some confusion over the terminology (Optimization Score, View More CTA) but we believed this could be alleviated through repeated exposure and seller education.

Final Deliverable

Final deliverable included designs for 4 touch points including a seller app equivalent. Since launch, we've had 4,000+ sellers apply more than 10,000 recommendations to their inventory resulting in $4.5 million in attributable GMV.

With this new framework, we were able to add more and more recommendations per account manager needs resulting in better sales outcomes for our sellers.

Further exploration will involve modifying trigger logic to be more personalized, snooze and reminder logic, enhancing delight/gamification to boost engagement, and expanding AI-driven insights.