Transforming B2B Commerce Query Management for Manufacturers
Product: Tradehub (eporta)
Role: Product Designer
User problem
As the pandemic closed in on our lives in early 2020, Eporta found an opportunity to bring suppliers' products online. Many of our suppliers, already using our marketplace, did not have an e-commerce solution. Standard self-managed commerce solutions didn't have the built-in requirements to manage the complexity of selling B2B products. Trade products have a longer lead time; before the product is ordered, there is often a quotation process to provide costs to the customer. Most of these are managed over email, which can be lost, or missed when handling multiple enquiries.
How might we design a shopping experience that is appealing to buyers and can be implemented on a supplier's website with minimal downtime?
The bet
How might we empower trade suppliers to consolidate their quotes and enquiries within a centralised platform?
eporta already had a successful B2B marketplace which solved part of this problem for the transactional side of FF&E procurement. It had a project management feature for interior designers and architects so they could plan what products they'd been quoted for or purchased by room. And we had already been working on improving the quotation process to remove unnecessary steps.
However, as mentioned in the User Problem, we were not giving suppliers a solution to the problem. It was now time to improve the experience for suppliers. Tradehub would be a white-label solution we could integrate into any existing supplier site, making their website transactional and enabling it to capture and manage incoming enquiries from new and existing clients.
Project Objectives
The users
Building Tradehub
Build a platform with an admin area to manage enquiries and potential leads.
Create a lead management process with visual indicators that helps our suppliers manage their leads and close more deals. Leading up to this project, we uncovered through our user research that this is a significant pain point.
Create an experience for trade shoppers that is easy to navigate and key information is readily available for listed products. A majority of quotes and enquiries are simple questions about basic options like colour. In the current state, these take up valuable time on both the customer and supplier side. The solution must solve this problem and ensure this information is clearly presented, reducing the effort on both sides and increasing purchases.
The Supplier (manufacturer)
Many of our suppliers are not large corporations. They are small, sometimes family-run businesses passionate about their craft and providing excellent customer service to their buyers. The main thing they find themselves short on is time. Many realised they weren't prepared with an e-commerce solution when the covid-19 pandemic hit. Showrooms and in-person visits slowed in popularity. They were losing out on an opportunity by not having an online presence.
We interviewed suppliers to gain data on their pain points with their existing solutions and how we could speed up inefficiencies in their tools and our platform. We used JTBD to determine the top jobs of our customers and help us to more deeply understand our customers and needs, which helped us to prioritise our work.
The Buyer (trade customer)
Interior trade buyers included interior designers and architects. Users who shopped on the eporta marketplace worked on projects ranging from private homes to offices and restaurant interiors. They all share similar requirements when looking for designer products to fit their budget.
Based on our interviews with designers (shoppers), most of them conducted their sourcing on a computer rather than on their phones, which contrasts with the typical mobile commerce statistics.
The user flows for interior design B2B commerce purchases aren't as straightforward as a standard commerce store. It is a process that can take days to months, and it can be challenging to keep track of each stage of the process. To improve the problems of managing these queries, we would need to look at both sides of the query process and remove pain points.
The hub: how it was different than typical commerce
The Query Manager
We designed a buyer-facing product catalogue that would include the information typically sought by interior designers. This product catalogue would be accessible from a link on the suppliers' site.
To enhance the user experience, we incorporated some components from the current marketplace while also identifying areas where improvements could be made. Our team conducted extensive interviews with interior designers and architects to gain a deeper understanding of their processes, determine the critical product information required at various stages, ascertain the factors that drove them to request a quote, and identify the point at which they would place an order.
eporta's current query management functionalities enable them to track product enquiries, order placements, and customer conversations. The Tradehub project aimed to enhance these capabilities and simplify the user experience, freeing up suppliers' time to concentrate on their products and promising leads.
To achieve this, Tradehub sought to improve the organization of queries, quotes, and orders by introducing a hierarchical structure. It also aimed to display a query's status, type, payment status, and completion, allowing for better tracking and management.
To enhance the customer management experience, we could empower suppliers to have a greater role in pursuing sales through our platform. Previously, the buyer had all the power, but we aim to change this by enabling suppliers to create customer profiles, keep a record of requests, and send quotes or samples as invitations to purchase, giving them more control over the sales process. Additionally, we recognized that not knowing when a lead has gone cold can be frustrating, so we are developing a system to help suppliers keep track of these leads.
User testing & validation
The Shopping Experience
Research Outcomes
Before testing the product page with buyers, we made several iterations to improve it. The enhancements we aimed to confirm were:
Enhanced product imagery, which included the addition of 360-degree and video options.
Highlighted product features, such as sustainability, local seller, customizability, and collection affiliation.
Indicated the lead time and whether the product is made-to-order or ready to ship.
Displayed the approximate trade price for users with a Tradehub account.
Included a Downloads section with all technical specifications, such as 3D drawings, assembly instructions, maintenance guidelines, and material details.
Improved CTAs for a smoother quote process, including the option to quote prices for multiple items simultaneously.
The new page layouts received positive feedback, although a few comments were raised that had not been considered before. One comment was that some users felt hesitant to jump straight to requesting a quote and would prefer the option to ask the supplier a question before making a commitment. Another piece of feedback was that while the improved imagery was helpful, users desired a better alignment between the visual options and their corresponding imagery to ensure a more precise representation for project planning. Lastly, there was a slight confusion regarding the account creation process.
Iterating on the Design
We have added an "ask a question" option to improve the CTAs for queries. Although we had considered a live chat module, we were unsure whether buyers would prefer this as they often look for an email.
All queries now lead to the same place, but they are clearly labeled to improve task prioritisation.
We have included a section to provide more information about the benefits of signing up for a Tradehub account.
Our team has started exploring possible solutions for integrating a product configurator using 3D rendering software. While this feature may not be included in the MVP, we are actively looking into it.
The Query Management Experience
The Supplier Admin
All queries would be manageable from a central location.The status of recent activity would be displayed, which included:
Recent notifications
Orders that have been dispatched
Orders that are awaiting payment or have recently received payment
New enquiries
Colour would be used as status indicators. Additionally, a more interactive table would allow suppliers to access customer profiles and recent documents, as well as manually change order statuses.
Customer Management
Incorporating Feedback
Conclusion
A new section for managing customers was created with the aim of simplifying the process of handling quotes, inquiries, purchases, and payments by consolidating them in a single location.
We subjected the new views to usability testing with Suppliers to determine whether they align with their workflow and enable them to easily locate required information. The following modifications were implemented based on the feedback received:
The views were refined to offer more effective filtering options, preventing Suppliers from feeling overloaded by the data presented in the table.
As payment status was not always pertinent, it was eliminated from the table.
The visual design was enhanced to facilitate quicker scanning.
The layout was optimized to assist Suppliers in identifying and addressing their top priorities.
A team consisting of two squads of two product designers, two product managers, and a group of engineers collaborated to create the MVP.
As a result of this effort, there was a 2x increase in quoting activity on the platform. Additionally, we partnered with a group of suppliers in an innovation lab to continuously develop solutions for further improvement.
Suppliers could now:
Have the ability to perform tasks within the same screen, which minimizes the need for back-and-forth communication and enables them to serve their customers with greater speed and efficiency.
The updated inquiry interface consolidates quotes, orders, and inquiry history into a single location for effortless access by suppliers to relevant documents with just one click. Furthermore, we have included additional customer information to enhance supplier comprehension of customer needs, which ultimately facilitates improved customer service.