Chronicles of designing a Sell Journey:

Why design can't always solve everything

AREAS
UI, UX, Research, Prototyping

PROJECT DONE AT OLX AUTOS
JUNE 2020 - MAY 2021

TEAM
Akshitta Kohli
Ayushi Gupta
Nitin Shekhar
Shalab Vaishnav
Mrunal Dhaygude
Prerna Dubey
Ashoka Prem
Ankur Sardana

Illustrations imagined by MidJourney using LAION-5B dataset

INTRODUCTION

Our primary focus was on designing the Cars category, aiming to support sellers in closing transactions at the best price, with the lowest hassle, and in the shortest time possible.

Let me warn you that this is not a traditional case study with a happy ending celebrating impact metrics (You can find them here). This is a case study about learnings from our failures over two years. What started out with a simple A/B test ballooned into multiple flows where different teams were trying to solve the same problems in their own ways, nothing seemed to be working and there were sub-branches after sub-branches of design iterations, people came and went, seasons changed, there was, in a metaphorical sense – sweat, blood, and tears involved in this project. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, it all started with a well-intentioned strategy.

The Strategy

• Transition from OLX Classifieds (C2C) towards OLX Autos (C2B2C).
• Improve product and user trust for buyers on OLX by introducing verified ads

Chapter 1: A Simple A/B Test - The calm before the storm
To tackle the challenge at hand, we initiated a simple A/B test. 
Two variants emerged as contenders in this epic battle.

We wanted to understand the adoption by OLX sellers. 
What happens when they are given an option to sell instantly to OLX Autos instead of taking the classic route of posting an ad online on OLX Classifieds. From entry points to landing pages, valuation and booking flows, confirmation screens, and post-booking updates, every stage played a crucial role in shaping the user experience.

Variant A: Hard Sell

We pushed OLX Autos to the sellers right at the beginning of their sell journey, giving them the opportunity to sell their cars instantly, and hassle-free.

Entry Points

Sell Instantly 
landing page

Quote Page

1. Define Fair, good and excellent keywords for less ambiguity
2. Communicating the value proposition along with the 3 -4 key benefits upfront
3. Lay the next steps sequentially
4. Request call back for medium to low intent users.

Post Booking Nudges

1. Build more trust and reduce any ambiguity the user might have before appointment which could reduce chances of them not showing up.
2. Assign an OLX buddy who the user can call in case of any queries before the appointment. Gives an impression of seriousness and investment on our part after appointment booking.
3. Nudge the user to upload one document. Users are more likely to follow up with something when they have invested in the process or have shared something valuable in the initial stage.

Variant B: Soft Sell
We introduced OLX Autos to the sellers later in their sell journey, after their ad has been live on OLX Classified for a specific duration, without any success.

Entry Points

Sell Instantly 
landing page

Valuation Flow

Post Booking Nudges

The Sell Flow
The MVP version was launched with some features cut-down due to feasibility issues such as post-booking nudges. With the launch of Sell flow, OLX Autos listings were trending significantly higher vs. the Rest of India. Regular classifieds listings in the test market declined sharply as per expectations,

Entry Point

Sell Instantly Landing

Valuation Flow

Quote Screen

Booking Flow

Confirmation Screen

Chapter 2: My Experiments with Value Propositions
In our quest for perfection, we embarked on a series of experiments, 
each aimed at enhancing the value proposition for our sellers. We identified two points in the journey where the maximum drop-offs were occurring – Valuation Flow and Sell Instantly Landing Screen.

Challenge 1

Drop-offs on the quote page

Experiment: Reducing prominence of “Sell Instant” Widget

We reduced the prominence of the "sell instant" option on the value proposition and quote pages to ensure users perceived it as a helpful suggestion rather than a hard sell.

The weight of OLX Autos blue in "sell instant" was perceived as an ad for OLX Autos. We deftly avoided a hard sell approach, ensuring that users perceived it as a helpful suggestion. The result? A resounding success! Inspection appointment bookings surged, leaving us in awe of the power of subtle design updates.

Challenge 2

Reducing cognitive load on our users

Experiment: Removing value proposition screen

We witnessed a remarkable 20% increase in inspection appointment bookings removing the value proposition page allowing users to directly enter their car details and proceed to the quote page. The power of simplicity and clarity prevailed!

Our learnings from avoiding the hard sell approach helped us push another daring experiment with our stakeholders which involved removing the value proposition page altogether. We sought to reduce the cognitive load on sellers by simplifying their decision-making process. By landing users on the car attributes screen and allowing them to proceed directly to the quote page where they can decide whether they want to sell to OLX Autos based on the quote they get, we witnessed a remarkable 20% increase in inspection appointment bookings. The power of simplicity and clarity prevailed!

Challenge 3

Users believed they could obtain better value 
by selling through traditional listings or opting for competitors.

Experiment: Apples to apples comparison

To nudge the customers towards the OLX Autos, we experimented with showing the benefits of 'Sell at Store' over 'Ad posting flow'. We saw ~100% increase in initial quote to car procurement numbers.

We encountered a challenge where users believed they could obtain better value by selling through traditional listings or opting for competitors. To address this, we formulated a hypothesis centered around providing a direct comparison between C2C and C2B2C, adopting a customer-centric approach, and introducing value-based comparisons. Through rigorous testing, we implemented two variants: a comparison sheet in the second fold and a comparison table as a bottom sheet. These user-centric solutions empower informed decision-making and delve beyond mere price comparisons. Variant B performed the best in terms of Q2P conversion. It is ~100% higher than the other two variants where the comparison was more upfront strengthening our resolve in soft selling.

Chapter 3: 
Through the Foliage of Insights: 

The Expedition of Uncovering Conversion Dampeners
Our research team, armed with their wisdom and keen insight, 
helped us uncover the critical conversion dampeners obstructing our path to success.

Pricing was identified as the major factor in a potential customer’s selling decision. The intricacies of pricing discrepancies plagued us at every turn, creating hurdles in the user journey. Effective pricing requires keeping a pulse check on the shifts in consumer behaviour, effective inventory management and presents the need to approach pricing differently depending on geographical and market factors. Among the 43 identified reasons, pricing emerged as the formidable foe.

Key Pricing Challenges

1. Price Expectation vs. Offer Discrepancy: Many users listed their cars at prices 25% higher than the quote price from OLX Autos, leading to a higher drop-off rate.
   
   
2. Lack of Price Transparency: The existing quote page failed to address pricing discrepancies between user expectations set by other listings on classifieds platforms. We hypothesized that experimenting with how we present and explain prices would lead to better conversions.
   
   
3. Trust Issues: Users felt that OLX Autos charged a higher margin, and the offered price did not meet their expectations. Some users also believed that car evaluations undervalued their vehicles, and the post-auction price was not adequately communicated or negotiated. Clarity was lacking regarding the gap between price expectations and offered prices.

The Adventures of Sell Journey were fraught with challenges, failures, and a relentless pursuit of perfecting the selling journey. As my design manager at the time put it – design can’t always solve everything. We understood that it wasn't possible to see real success in the selling journey until we could give our users a competitive price for their cars.

The adventure continues
We relied on the machine learning models to improve over time but eventually understood that one price doesn’t fit all. We had to track competitor pricing, strategize prices along each stage of the pricing journey and adapt our pricing strategy as per geographical and market factors. At OLX Autos, I also had the chance to design the solution for our pricing problem, an automated data driven pricing dashboard to help the local pricing teams get better at knowing what, how many and what price to buy or sell the car at.

Armed with the knowledge gained from our missteps, we remained committed to enhancing the user experience on OLX Autos. Through experimentation, iteration, and a touch of audacity, the team eventually worked on the sell journey, improving it one step at a time to guide sellers seamlessly through their sell journey, unlocking a world of possibilities and revolutionising the way cars are bought and sold.

November ‘20

May ‘21

Epilogue: Unveiling the Path to Victory
Armed with newfound knowledge and fueled by determination, we proposed additional experiments to pave the way for an optimized user journey. Building on our learnings, we proposed further experiments and solutions to address the pricing challenges:

Progressive Posting Flow:
We envisioned a single, unified flow to replace the existing three distinct flows for classifieds ad posting, selling to OLX, and self-inspection. This progressive posting flow would tap into the potential of the Classifieds platform by utilizing all car sellers' traffic efficiently.