Building a marketplace platform connecting shoppers to small businesses.
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Extensive user research, market research and deep analysis, concept development, user research design, User experience design, information architecture, interaction design, prototype development, usability testing, iterative design
defining the problem .
defining the problem .
Why is it so hard to find small businesses to support?
user research
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Talking to (a lot of) customers in addition to secondary research revealed these to be the biggest barriers
Inconvenience: The needle in a haystack feeling of trying to find exactly what you’re looking for from an unfamiliar small business on google looks like parsing through irrelevant search results, individually clicking into every website, navigating through, finally finding the product, only to start over with another business to compare. Shoppers end up with endless open tabs and hours wasted. This inconvenience is especially intolerable when that experience is compared to the ease of services like amazon prime, walmart +, or target pick up.
Price: Small businesses tend to cost more than products sold by major retailers. For goods producing businesses, this (very generally) comes down to the fact that the more a business produces, the lower the cost per unit and therefore the higher that companies margins. Things like available capital, labor, resources, network, and many other factors go into this as well.
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Why aren’t small businesses reaching thier customers?
market research
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The businesses are business-ing, and the customers looking. It seems like people want to support their communities but they’re lacking the channels to connect with them. Our marketing perspective jumped in here and wondered if maybe part of this was a lapse in marketing or advertising communication, but the more conversations had and research collected revealed that this problem is much bigger than a misaligned marketing strategy.
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Research revealed that small businesses are facing 3 massive barriers to reach their customers:
SEO: The way that the digital marketing landscape is currently set up makes it incredibly difficult for businesses to progress without being able to allocate thousands of dollars a month on Search Engine Optimization and Digital marketing efforts.
PPC Ads: the average social media marketing cost for small businesses in 2021 is $4,000-$7,000 per month. Without considering pay-per-click advertisements, which can cost almost 5x that for just one platform. A company might invest $5,000 a month on facebook ads alone and the average cost to advertise on amazon is $9,000-$60,000 per month
Tri-Opilization: Like a monopoly x3. As of 2020, Google, Facebook, and Amazon own 90% of the digital ad market. Together, they account for half of ALL ad spending in the U.S. (not just digital). The undeniably high return on investment is what keeps businesses coming back. The valuable data (like specific insights and demographics about the users on the other side of those ads) that these tech giants are able to deliver is the unmatched icing on the cake, and they know it. -
Small Businesses are trying their best. It’s no accident that they’re being drowned out and found only in the depths of the search results. Small businesses are told to allocate 10-20% of revenue to marketing but as small business spending falls and demand (and therefore price) of digital marketing skyrockets, huge companies have the resources to not only keep up but continue to drive up the price of digital ads and still fill every webpage, social media, and tv screen. Small businesses oftentimes lack the same resources and even though their customers are out there, they’re missing out on the chance to connect.
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Understanding the pain points and motivations that drive small businesses, especially ones shifting towards ecomm as a result of the pandemic (and well, evolution) opened the door to investigate ways to support them in order to make the shift easier and highlighted creative ways to stimulate demand and cash flow within the platform.
long story short…
Shoppers
There’s an ever-growing need for competent online tools and resources that bridge the gap between small businesses and their customers.
So, we designed one.
designing the solution.
designing the solution.
Designing the Feed
Visual Hierarchy
Card Organization
For Shoppers
Browse & Search
Browse or search with filters like product/service, category, price, rating, impact and more to easily find what you’re looking for.
Shop Community
Icons on a shops and products tell you if they are a sustainable, minority owned, local, social-justice driven, & more.
Create Lists
Lists make it easy to shop around for products and services and compare products or make (and share!) a wish lists.
Shop Local
Shop small in your community or wherever you’re visiting using the map feature to plan your trip or find what’s close.
For Shops
Storefront Control
Giving control back to the shop owners by empowering them to showcase their brand, their way.
Meaningful Insights
Track insights using clear, real-time visual data. Another way to help businesses better connect with their customers.
Marketing tools
In-app, fair marketing to amplify your business. Offering promo and outreach with visual insights plus a co-branded kit to grow your shop.
Inventory Control
Keep inventory up to date seamlessly connect systems and scheduled replenishment.
the big picture.
When confronted with the the disconnect between small businesses and their audiences, we used data and design thinking to bridge the gap between small businesses and small shoppers.
We engaged different types of research and asked (a lot of) questions to understand what everyone involved was experiencing, and it wasn’t great. Everyone was overwhelmed so our main priority became clarity. Getting to know our customers gave us insight into what to prioritize, what to evolve, and what to cut. An iterative design process allowed potential customers to weigh in on the conceptualization and design, building community and excitement and making things easier for everyone involved. we’re proud of this one.
made with love,
minotzka.
