Defining Goals

Users faced challenges in discovering products that matched their preferences, navigating the mixed buying and bidding marketplace, and listing their items due to a complicated verification process. Additionally, the lack of community engagement impacted user retention, making the platform less interactive and appealing.

1. Improve Product Discovery and Personalization

• Implement a recommendation system that tailors product suggestions based on user preferences, past purchases, and browsing behavior.
• Introduce filtering and sorting options that allow users to refine their search by style, size, and availability.
• Enhance the visual display of product listings to highlight key details, improving the browsing experience.

2. Streamline the Buying and Bidding Experience

• Clearly differentiate between buy-now and bid-based products through intuitive UI elements.
• Provide a seamless toggle feature that allows users to easily switch between the two options.
• Implement educational tool tips to guide users unfamiliar with the bidding process, reducing confusion.

3. Simplify the Seller Onboarding and Verification Process

• Redesign the product listing flow with a step-by-step guided experience to minimize complexity.
• Automate verification for common product categories to speed up approvals.
• Offer real-time status updates and support for sellers during the listing process to encourage more participation.

4. Enhance Community Engagement and Retention

• Introduce a social component, such as user profiles, reviews, and forums, to foster interaction.
• Launch gamification elements like loyalty points, exclusive deals, and challenges to keep users engaged.
• Provide personalized notifications based on user activity and preferences to encourage repeat visits.

Problem statement

Users struggled with product discovery, an unclear buying vs. bidding process, a complex seller verification system, and a lack of community engagement, all of which impacted platform usability and retention.

Solesearch UI

Our Approach to designing

To enhance user experience, we focused on four key areas: improving product discovery through personalized recommendations, simplifying the transition between buying and bidding, streamlining the seller verification process, and boosting community engagement. We implemented machine learning-driven profiling, a dual-mode interface for seamless navigation, an optimized seller onboarding experience, and gamification elements to foster engagement and retention.

1. Enhanced Product Discovery with Personalization

• Conducted user research to understand preferences and shopping behaviors.
• Developed an interactive profiling system using quizzes, style sliders, and image-based selections.
• Integrated machine learning to refine recommendations based on user interactions and feedback.
• Created an engaging onboarding flow that encourages users to share their style preferences for more tailored product suggestions.

2. Seamless Transition Between Buying and Bidding

• Identified user pain points in navigating between purchase modes.
• Designed an intuitive toggle button allowing users to switch effortlessly between buying and bidding.
• Implemented dynamic UI changes, with a light mode for purchasing and a dark mode for bidding, providing clear visual cues for mode identification.
• Ensured a smooth user experience by minimizing confusion in marketplace interactions.

3. Streamlined Seller Onboarding and Verification

• Recognized the complexities sellers faced in product listing and verification.
• Designed a user-friendly interface that allows sellers to upload products with ease.
• Implemented a swift verification process to ensure product authenticity and quality control.
• Increased transparency in the selling process, boosting buyer confidence and encouraging seller participation.

4. Gamification and Community Engagement

• Identified key drop-off points in user engagement and mapped out strategies to enhance community interaction.
• Introduced weekly challenges and competitions to encourage participation.
• Launched "SoleCoins" as a rewards system, allowing users to unlock exclusive benefits like early access to limited-edition drops and premium discounts.
• Fostered a sense of community and knowledge-sharing through interactive features, improving user retention and platform engagement.

Dev Approach & System

We focused on ensuring a scalable and high-performing marketplace by leveraging modern technologies and optimizing backend workflows.

1. Frontend & Admin Panel Development

• Built using Next.js to ensure a fast, responsive experience for buyers and sellers.
• Developed a dynamic admin panel to allow easy content management and order tracking.

2. Backend & API Infrastructure

• Powered by Node.js, ensuring robust performance for handling bids, orders, and user interactions.
• Integrated a seamless order flow:
• 1. Create a bid (optional)
  2. Accept the bid (optional)
  3. Place the order
  4. Seller ships the product to SoleSearch
  5. SoleSearch authenticates the product
  6. If authenticated, it is shipped to the customer; otherwise, it is returned to the seller
  7. Once delivered, the payment is cleared to the seller

3. Email & Notification System

• Implemented dynamic email templates for clear communication with buyers and sellers.
• Used Sendinblue & Netcore for automated transactional emails.

4. Image & Content Delivery Optimization

• Integrated Cloudinary for image hosting and compression.
• Leveraged Cloudflare & Netcore for a reliable CDN setup to improve load times.