ESM PLUS
What tools are needed to
What tools are
needed to
effectively manage sales activities?
effectively manage sales activities?
Sellers need to efficiently process orders and communicate with customers — key features of seller administration tools.
I led the ideation, strategy, and design for order and customer service menus in ESM PLUS.
My Role
1.Create a new UX flow from the Order & Shipping menu to Customer Management menu.
2.Organize and define design components.
3.Identify and prioritize user feedback from user research.
Type
Web design, Tablet design
Team (40)
Project Manager, Publishers
QA Team
Date
June 2023 - June 2024
1 year
Challenge
Normally, it is easy to understand people who buy products, because everyone is a consumer, too. However, it is difficult to find opportunities to understand the perspectives of people who sell products. Therefore, it was crucial to conduct iterative scenario testing and in-depth user research.
Furthermore, with ESM, eBay Korea’s seller administration tool, being over 10 years old, numerous technical hurdles arose due to its legacy systems during project implementation. Therefore, it was sometimes necessary to quickly adjust scenarios and redefine designs as needed.
Although this was a challenging project in terms of both user-centered design and communication, everyone involved across all teams made every effort to solve the problems.
Preview:
The day of sellers
1. Respond to customer inquiries
and check product reviews.
Play
Check the received inquiries
by main categories.
Press the shortcut button to insert
pre-written answers for similar inquiries.
Save and manage templates
for shortcuts in a modal.
2. Check the new orders.
Play
Check the list of new orders
received on the top dashboard.
Prioritize and process orders
that require urgent checking.
Confirmed orders are then moved to
the shipping management menu.
3. Quickly ship products
using the automated invoicing system.
Play
Register seller information for the automated invoicing system.
Select the orders to be shipped
and click the "Ship" button.
Monitor the shipping status and
track the delivery information.
4. Respond to refund & exchange.
Play
Check refund/exchange
equests
Check product condition
and approve request
If not approved, hold refund and
communicated reasons to buyer.
Customer service
Check new orders
Shipping orders
Manage claims
Customer service
Check new orders
Shipping orders
Manage claims
Customer service
Check new orders
Shipping orders
Manage claims
Customer service
Check new orders
Shipping orders
Manage claims
Backgrounds
What is the seller administration tool?
The seller administration tool is like a control center for sellers. It helps them manage everything related to their business, like keeping track of inventory, processing orders, talking to customers, and seeing how well their business is doing.
Our history
The seller administration system on eBay Korea was designed 10 years ago, and many problems have arisen as a result.Therefore, this project aims to completely redesign the ESM, making the service much more user-friendly for sellers with improved UX design and new design components.
The part I designed
During the complete redesign, I was in charge of the 'Sales Management' section, handling order processing, shipping, returns/exchanges, and managing customer inquiries and reviews.
User problem
Sellers perform key tasks in each menu. However, the usability of these menus was not effective for them.
Early research findings
Tracking a Seller's Daily Routine
To research seller activities, daily routines were gathered from around 20 sellers. Despite variations in routine order and details based on product type and business style, common usability issues were identified at each step of the process.
2023.02 - 2023.03, about 20 sellers
Support
Buyers
Check orders
Check cliams
Respond to customer
inquiries.
Write replies to reviews.
Handle
returns and
exchanges.
Sellers want to quickly reply to multiple inquiries
and easily manage their responses.
Customer inquiries often contain urgent issues, so they need the quickest response. It would be great if repetitive questions could be handled in bulk.
23%of sellers
Responses vary depending on the topic, such as shipping, products, or refunds. It would be helpful to categorize these inquiries.
34%of sellers
It would be great if I could quickly find the content I use frequently.During promotion periods or holidays, I need templates that fit the occasion.
16%of sellers
Sellers want to quickly identify rush orders and efficiently
ship multiple orders at once.
The first thing I check is orders with urgent shipping deadlines. If I don't ship on time, I get penalized.It would be great to easily spot rush orders.
37%of sellers
There are too many steps to ship a product. Other platforms automatically generate waybills and handle shipping, but ESM doesn't have this feature.
76%of sellers
Order confirmation, waybill generation, and shipping are repetitive tasks I do every day. Can these be streamlined?
28%of sellers
When customers are dissatisfied with a product,
sellers want to communicate with them directly.
When a customer requests a return but a refund isn’t possible, I must choose from pre-set reasons and can’t write a detailed explanation.
41%of sellers
There are many factors to check before deciding whether to approve or deny a refund. I want to review all these details conveniently in one place.
23%of sellers
I'm curious why the customer requested a return. This information is helpful for future improvements, but right now, I can't find it.
21%of sellers
Check Customers
Sellers want to quickly respond to multiple inquiries at once
or focus deeply on a single one, depending on customer.
23%of sellers
Customer inquiries often contain urgent issues, so they need the quickest response. It would be great if repetitive questions could be handled in bulk.
34%of sellers
Responses vary depending on the topic, such as shipping, products, or refunds. It would be helpful to categorize these inquiries.
16%of sellers
Reviews are valuable feedback, so I prefer to reply to each one individually. It's inconvenient because the information is scattered.
Check Orders
Sellers want to quickly identify rush orders and efficiently
ship multiple orders at once.
37%of sellers
The first thing I check is orders with urgent shipping deadlines. If I don't ship on time, I get penalized.It would be great to easily spot rush orders.
76%of sellers
There are too many steps to ship a product. Other platforms automatically generate waybills and handle shipping, but ESM doesn't have this feature.
28%of sellers
Order confirmation, waybill generation, and shipping are repetitive tasks I do every day. Can these be streamlined?
Check Claims
When customers are dissatisfied with a product,
sellers want to communicate with them directly.
41%of sellers
When a customer requests a return but a refund isn’t possible, I must choose from pre-set reasons and can’t write a detailed explanation.
23%of sellers
There are many factors to check before deciding whether to approve or deny a refund. I want to review all these details conveniently in one place.
21%of sellers
I'm curious why the customer requested a return. This information is helpful for future improvements, but right now, I can't find it.
Vision
1. Visualize dashboard
Enhancing the dashboard to filter and display key information, such as urgent orders, high-priority orders, and customer inquiries by category.
2. Implement new shipping features
Designing an efficient flow to meet diverse user needs
3. Enhance communication between sellers and buyers
Launching additional services aligned with the changing trends in the airline industry, we design a new business model and simultaneously raise consumer awareness.
Design process1 :
Inquiry/review management
Current problem
For individual responses
To answer individual inquiries, sellers needed to select the question and then type a response at the bottom of the screen.
For bulk responses
To bulk reply to messages, select the items and click the 'Send Reply' button at the top. Compose response within the modal window. At this point, the detailed content of the inquiry is located on the parent page, making it difficult to view.
Unorganized templetes
Templates previously created by sellers were sorted chronologically, making it difficult to quickly locate important older templates.
UX criteria
Combine message review and reply in one interface.
Viewing buyer messages and composing responses should occur in the same area, with key information clearly visible.
Ensure consistent usability for reply submission.
The workflows for bulk and individual responses should have a similar user experience.
Make reply templates easily accessible.
Position templates near the reply area for convenience and provide them in a user-friendly format.
Testing & Iteration
1. Response writing usability
More than 60% sellers in ESM frequently use predefined response types, usually consisting of three parts: greeting, main content, and closing. Within the main content, there are often recurring expressions like delivery delay notifications or restocking notices. Currently, many sellers resort to copying and pasting from a notepad since they can't combine templates. It would be more convenient if templates could be combined like building blocks through a button.
For important announcements, sometimes sellers need to check the content and apply it to all. It would be helpful to have a way to see template content for confirmation.
2. Template usage usability
To enable sellers to easily manage and respond to inquiries and reviews by key categories, we have unified and reorganized the previously site-specific categories. This allows sellers to use the same categories across all sites where they sell their products. Additionally, we have selected the top six categories with the highest data volume and made them available for filtering on the dashboard.
Refined Solutions
From Dashboard to Template Usage
Sellers can not only prioritize bulk inquiries based on important categories but also write appropriate responses.
Manage Templates by Categories
The dashboard allows sellers to manage their templates according to important categories. They can create new templates within specific categories and customize the order of shortcuts. These shortcuts are displayed as numbered buttons right after the input field, enhancing ease of use.
Final design
Write and Send Responses:
Manage and Edit Templates:
Design process2 :
Sales management
Current problem
It's difficult to identify urgent orders.
All new orders are sorted by the most recent, and urgent orders with imminent shipping deadlines can only be viewed by applying a filter in the search area.
The process for bulk order shipping is complicated.
To ship a large number of orders at once, a complex process must be followed. This is because the legacy system lacks automation capabilities.
UX Stratgies
Allows quick identification of orders that need fast processing.
Allows sellers to easily identify key orders on the dashboard. Through the dashboard, sellers can quickly see their sales status and immediate tasks.
Ensures that sellers can effortlessly adopt new automation features.
Designs a UX that ensures the successful integration of the newly introduced automated shipping and invoicing features with the existing ESM system.
Testing & Iteration
1. Dashboard usability
Design C displays a complete overview of all new orders and urgent orders in one place. The numbers for each category are prominently shown, making it easier for sellers to quickly assess the situation.
The information hierarchy between orders isn’t important. Presenting them as separate types of orders could slow down the seller’s processing time. A simple display using titles and numbers would be the most effective.
2. Introducing Automated Invoicing System
A new automated shipping label system will streamline sellers' shipping processes from 7 steps to 2, enhancing convenience. As this feature is from a different company's product, designing it to integrate seamlessly with ESM's internal UX requires careful consideration.
Refined Solutions
Operation of Each Dashboard Area
Flow A : The user want to check urgent orders from each sites of Gmerket, Auction.
The dashboard represents the highest level in the hierarchy. Information selected on the dashboard is directly applied to the search area below.
Flow B: Users who wish to conduct a detailed search by adding additional condition values to their selections on the dashboard.
When performing a detailed search using the search area, the dashboard deactivates as it no longer aligns with the added criteria, seamlessly integrating the search area with the bottom search results section into a unified set.
Design service usage guidelines
Designed a service guide page to help sellers understand and use new features.
Feature Request
Conducted discussions to add features seamlessly into the existing workflow.and and use new features.
Define UX Writing
Gathered and rewrote all UX writing for the dial interface to ensure users can track shipping status and address errors.
Final design
Check orders and use auto-invoicing
to ship products quickly and easily :
Design process3 :
Refund management
Current problem
The return process is not user-friendly.
Due to the backend logic designed for handling returns, users may receive feedback that doesn’t align with the context. For example, based on the data processing results, a return may be marked as 'collection completed' instead of 'return processed,' even if that’s not what the user intended.
There is no way to communicate with customers.
Clicking the "Process Return" button displays the customer's order details, product information, and shipping costs. The return reason is available only in the selected multiple-choice format, and any custom reason written by the customer is not accessible.
UX Stratgies
Design a return process that considers the seller’s situation.
The UX allows for user-friendly decision-making, enabling sellers to make different choices based on the condition of the returned item.
Create a communication methods between sellers and customers.
Sellers can view not only the existing return reasons but also the customer's custom-written reasons, which can provide valuable insights for improving sales. Customers can send direct messages to sellers, which can help reduce the number of inquiries received by customer service.
Testing & Iteration
Return/Exchange Process
Since return-related information is interrelated, it should be consolidated into a single area rather than scattered. Additionally, items being returned can have varying statuses, so they need to be checked simultaneously within a pop-up before proceeding to the next action. Each item in the data table should be individually accessible, but their connection points should be unified.
The return reason can vary in length depending on the buyer, so a separate area is necessary. Within the pop-up, there can be a 'View Return Reason' button to navigate to this section, while in the data table, a text button can be used to direct users to the respective path.
Refined Solutions
Creating UX Reflecting the Seller's Actual Workflow
It's crucial for sellers to verify the condition of returned or exchanged items and identify the reasons for return. Therefore, within a popup, we guide sellers through the necessary procedures based on their specific situation and prompt detailed explanations in a separate window, minimizing distraction.
Make new features
Seller’s perspective : Sellers can view not only the existing return reasons but also the customer's custom-written reasons, which can provide valuable insights for improving sales. Customers can send direct messages to sellers, which can help reduce the number of inquiries received by customer service.
Buyer’s perspective : Sellers can view not only the existing return reasons but also the customer's custom-written reasons, which can provide valuable insights for improving sales. Customers can send direct messages to sellers, which can help reduce the number of inquiries received by customer service.
Final design
Check return requests and decide
whether to approve or put them on hold :
And,
There is a totally new design system
The Challenge
The old ESM system was very outdated and had no consistent design rules, making it hard to read and use for tasks like data analysis or order processing. We needed a new design system for the complete overhaul. This meant rebuilding all design elements from scratch. Each menu had different stakeholders and development environments, so we had to communicate continuously from the prototyping stage to create cohesive components. Even the same elements could work differently in each menu, so we had to discuss and collaborate in real-time to find the best solutions.
The Benefits
Implementing a design system greatly reduced our work time, making project management more efficient. Designers could focus on creating better scenarios instead of reworking design elements. Developers used common code, ensuring consistent and efficient development. Sellers appreciated the new design for its improved look and functionality.
The style guide consisted of:
Scalability
Allow easy updates and new features without disrupting the system.
Clarity
Use simple language, icons, and visuals for quick seller understanding.
Performance
Ensure the tool runs smoothly and handles large data efficiently.
Result
We launched the new menu on June 26th and will conduct a user satisfaction survey and usability testing afterward. Based on these results, we will continually incorporate seller feedback into our products.
Reflection
Designing the seller experience was one of the most interesting and challenging tasks I handled at the open market. Understanding how key data is processed and used differently depending on the menu was crucial for admin design. This wasn't a quick process; it took a long time to master. Learning to be patient and persistent will be very helpful in my future career.
Copyright © 2022 Dawoon Kang. All rights reserved.
