Merge orders
Amazon (Veeqo)
Veeqo is a multichannel shipping software that allows sellers to connect various channels. One of the biggest challenges that Veeqo face is keeping operations costs low. One way to achieve this goal is by combining the many orders from the same customer into one.
1 designer, 1 PM and 4 developers
As mentioned above, Veeqo is a multichannel shipping software that allows sellers to connect all their e-commerce channels. Bringing all their orders from channels like Amazon, Shopify, eBay, WooCommerce, and others to a single location. Having a presence on various channels helps the seller to reach a wider audience, but also raises a few challenges:
With this competitive landscape, sellers have to offer incentives/benefits to the end-consumer to buy more and easily. This generates a common issue that sellers experience daily, which is consecutive many orders for the same client. As a seller trying to keep your operation cost low, an easy win would be combining various orders for the same end-customer into one. This results in a single shipping label being purchased and a package being used.
Update shipping status across all orders/channels.
When combining orders from many channels, we need to consider the following:
Different touch-points
There are several touch-points that will need to be updated across the app. From inventory to channels, emails and printed docs. This involves having several teams and PMs to be looped in as we implement a solution.
Option 1. Merge order A into order B
There were a few cons to consider with this approach. It would be a large tech lift. Un-combining orders could be challenging, and if combining orders would need to be limited to orders from the same channel.
Option 2. Create order C with information from Order A and B
Sellers could combine orders from various channels, but more complex from a tech perspective to keep all the information updated.
Option 3. Link shipment to Order A and B
Requires new a pattern that allows the user to create a shipment without being attached to an order at first. It would be a mid tech effort.
Automatically refund labels
Having a system that allows the seller to refund automatically the unused shipping cost of one or multiple combined orders.
Partial shipment
Not allowing the seller to split a combined order into various packages. Since we're allowing combined orders from different channels, this could bring issues to the order status and management.
Product roadmap feedback
Q1'23 Survey - Inactive and partially active sellers
Q1'23 Survey - Active sellers
Here is a quick preview of what that experience was like before we implemented our new solution. The simplified prototype will have notes along the way to explain what is happening. For a better experience, change the prototype to full screen with the top right button.
Building on the insights gained from surveys, I conducted in-depth interviews with our active and partially active sellers to delve into their experiences and pain points. The objective of these conversations was to gain a comprehensive understanding of their needs and aspirations for an enhanced experience.
Here are the 3 big points that stand out during the calls:
With the insights collected, we were ready to define the problem we were trying to fix. Here's what we came up with:
After going through some potential ideas to solve the problem (illustration above), I end up the first iteration that is presented on the prototype below.
A more extended version in terms of interactions was used to test with sellers on moderated calls. For this user testing, I reached out to 6 sellers that had mention on the Q1 Surveys that mergeable orders is a "must have" or "critical" feature to have. For a better experience, change the prototype to full screen with the top right button.
The tests revealed several recurring patterns, which were then incorporated into the subsequent iteration of the solution. Here are some of the issues that sellers mention:
After this first round of tests, I worked on an improved version and tested with usertesting.com. Here is the final version. Taking into account all the feedback collected. For a better experience, change the prototype to full screen with the top right button.
Although the solution appears straightforward, it necessitated close collaboration across various teams. The solution required coordinating allocated stock across different channels, seamlessly updating order status, and updating all the communicating with end consumers.