boxed // responsive web // seller portal

Company:

BOXED

Overview

The Challenge

Roles and
Responsibilities

The Process

Year:

2020

As Product Designer, I partnered with my product manager from the internal catalog team to define the critical requirements and collaborated with the lead designer.

After final mocks were completed, I worked closely with the engineering during the handoff, ensuring accurate implementation of UI components and flows. Lastly, a visual QA was conducted to validate design integrity and functionality of the portal before the official release.

Wireframes

I was responsible for wireframing user flows for both seller and tenant users, detailing product upload, order management and dashboard interactions. I aligned the wireframes with the catalog team, PM, engineering and QA teams for feasibility and scope. After alignment on the direction and scope of the work, I created polished screens for dashboards, forms and account management flows. This incorporated clear instructions and guidance for bulk uploads and draft product management. In addition, I helped to design alert systems and data visibility features for sellers to monitor their fulfillment issues.

Usability Study

Duration:

4 Months

Boxed is the better way to shop bulk. It is an online and mobile membership-free wholesale retailer that offers direct delivery of bulk-sized packages, ranging from groceries, household and paper goods, directly to your home or office.

At Boxed, there is around 3,800 products in the catalog. In an effort to expand the assortment and include new sellers the Seller Portal was developed. The platform helps retailers and individuals sell their goods on Boxed.com.

Sellers would be able to login and see their account snapshot, upload their catalog, fulfill orders and manage inventory. The Seller Portal would also empower small retailers to sell their products to a bigger audience, leading to a more expansive catalog and wider selection for Boxed customers.

Before the Seller Portal, Boxed only had 4 Marketplace Sellers on the platform and their accounts were managed by the Boxed merchandising team, which the team found to be not scalable and very time consuming.

Today there are 42 Marketplace Sellers and it is continuing to grow!

How might we expand Boxed.com’s product catalog while creating an intuitive seller platform that supports sales and fulfillment for external sellers — all without increasing the workload for the internal merchandising team?

The goal was to enable external sellers to manage their products efficiently, while giving internal Boxed employees (“tenant users”) the tools they need to oversee and support the marketplace.

Because we knew this was strictly an internal tool, it made for an easy deep dive on the needs and wants from the Merchandising Team and Sellers, taking note on what didn’t work as efficiently and what they wish was available to make their jobs easier. When the designs were completed, we conducted multiple moderated sessions with both user types. The usability test script was written to guide This allowed for us to collect and prioritize feedback collaboratively with PMs, in efforts to refine interactions, language and UI components. Designs were iterated upon to enhance clarity, efficiency and confidence in the portal’s actions.

Research & Insights

The Product Design Lead and I conducted user testing with external sellers and tenant users to uncover pain points in the current marketplace workflow.

The identified key insights include:

Seller Experience

  • Account management needed to be simple and intuitive.

  • A dashboard with real-time data would provide greater visibility into orders and performance.

  • Existing forms were confusing and required consolidation.

  • Sellers needed a way to flag shipping or delivery issues.

  • Bulk uploading of products was unintuitive, particularly for new sellers.

Tenant Experience

  • Language and copy needed to align with marketplace seller expectations.

  • Sellers required a direct way to contact their Boxed tenant user managing their account.

  • Sellers should submit “cancel order” requests rather than canceling independently.

  • Incorporating a draft mode for product uploads allowed products to be reviewed before going live.

Impact

The portal improved seller onboarding and product management, reducing friction and errors, empowered tenant users to manage marketplace products efficiently without extra manual work, and increased overall visibility and control for both external sellers and internal employees. It also established a scalable framework for future marketplace expansion.

Key Takeaways

  1. Balancing dual user types highlighted the importance of role-specific workflows and dashboards

  2. Early usability testing was crucial to uncover nuanced challenges in bulk uploads, draft mode, and communication flows.

  3. Future enhancements could include automated alerts for fulfillment issues and analytics dashboards for both sellers and tenant users.

Final Designs

After final mocks were completed, I worked closely with the engineering during the handoff, ensuring accurate implementation of UI components and flows. Lastly, a visual QA was conducted to validate design integrity and functionality of the portal before the official release.

Aside from providing the portal designs, additional screens were needed to compliment this initiative on the customer experience end. To help provide more background about the brand or seller, the seller’s bio was integrated on the Product Description Page. The team found that it increased the seller’s credibility and unlocked product discovery in their portfolio.